Saturday Morning Report from Portland (Update)

Herta Fastest again

UPDATE The last practice session for the Indycars is now over. Colton Herta, who has been quick all weekend, was the fastest of the 45 minute session. Matheus Leist and Santino Ferrucci both caused a red flag during the practice and were penalized with a 5 minute time penalty. The temperatures were similar to yesterday afternoon's session.

A moment of silence was given to the young F2 driver, Anthonie Hubert, that was killed during a race today at Spa in Belgium.

Afterwards, AR1 spoke with Michael Shank of Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM about the plans for next year in IndyCar. "We are getting very, very close. We are not quite all the way there, in a couple of ways. In the funding and the sponsor side and on the technical side. We are deciding how we are going to do it. We are going to have an announcement very soon. It is not something we are taking very lightly, we are fully investigating where we need to be. And I also have to get the partners on board to do this. It is like a big zig saw puzzle."

"We are still looking good. It's gonna take me a bit more time before we can talk about it. Jack Harvey, the current driver who drove a part season this year, would still be a part of the puzzle. The goal is to make it a full season. We are so close."

08/31/19 Good morning from Portland International Raceway. The sun is shinning with temperatures in the low 60s right now. It will get into the low 80s this afternoon. Yesterday's afternoon practice was a mix of clouds and sun, which created a challenge for the drivers. It looks like today the sun will be out all day.

The Firestone tires seem to be causing some issues for the drivers, Cara Adams, Chief Engineer for Bridgestone Americas Motorsports, explained the reasoning for the tire choice here at Portland. "For this year’s race, the Race Tire Engineering team has moved away from last year’s split alternate compound strategy, where different compounds were used on the left-side alternate tire and right-side alternate tire. Instead, we’re bringing the same tire design used at Mid-Ohio earlier this season. We expect this change to provide improved durability and balance in performance between the primary and alternate tires."

In the press conference yesterday, Colton Herta, the rookie driving the number 88 for Harding Steinbrenner Racing, was asked about his setup and he commented on the tires. "I think a lot of people are kind of scratching their heads at the red tires and how they're not really producing the grip that we're kind of used to. They feel a lot harder to me than what they normally do when you put on new tires. It usually grips up within the first five or six corners and then you can get going and do it on lap one or lap two here."

"It was a struggle for me to even get it by lap three, and it just felt like the overall complexion of the tire, the stiffness of the sidewall was completely different to even Mid-Ohio. Obviously the tarmac is a little different here, the corners are a little different, the G loads and stuff. There is a little bit of a difference, so we'll have to look at all that stuff tonight and hopefully come back better tomorrow."

Bourdais Recovered from Off Track Excursion

Sebastien Bourdais, the 2004 and 2007 winner here at Portland, also showed some frustration with the tires for this weekend. "The grain of the track here is a completely different than Mid-Ohio. The issue is we do not have the time as a smaller team to figure out the setup on each different track. A five car team can send all their cars out with a different setup and then decide which setup is best. DCR cannot do not."

"I would be happy if we just had one tire for the road and street courses and one for the ovals. Then we would know coming into the weekend what we are working with. We talk about cost savings and this would be one way to achieve that."

The teams have one more practice today at 11 am to get the details worked out before the Firestone Fast Six Qualifying at 3 pm local time today.

Lucille Dust reporting live from Portland