Friday Morning Report From Portland International Raceway

Points are the story

It is a cloudy morning here in Portland, Oregon. Temperatures are expected to be in the low 80s today with no rain predicted. That is good for a location known for their precipitation. There was a lineup of cars coming into the track this morning at 8 am which is great for a Friday.

The story this weekend is the championship. Josef Newgarden, the Team Penske driver who is the points leader, has really been disappointed the last few races about not obtaining a larger points lead. Newgarden, the 2017 series Champion, has won four races this season. But this teammate, Simon Pagenaud, has quietly slid into the 2nd place spot after winning only three races this season. Newgarden is feeling the pressure to maintain his lead for the last two races of the season. Pagenaud, who won the Indy 500 this May, is only 38 points behind Newgarden.

IndyCar returned to PIR last season after an eleven year absence. The only two drivers in the race this weekend to win at this track are Takuma Sato, who won in 2018, and Sebastien Bourdais, who won here in 2004 and 2007.

Will Ferrucci stay at DCR?

Santino Ferrucci, the Dale Coyne Racing rookie who had a great run last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway (former Gateway), competed here last season for the first time in his career. “I'm really looking forward to returning to Portland this weekend for the Grand Prix. I enjoyed racing there last year," expressed Ferrucci. “We had a solid race car and we had a good race going but unfortunately, we had an issue that cost us a strong finish. I'm confident we'll have a good car again this time around and hopefully things will go our way. It's nice to be riding this momentum of back-to-back top five finishes to a track that I've been to before. We'll try to keep it going."

There are two practice sessions today, 10:50 – 11:35 am and 2:40 – 3:25 pm, with a 30 minute warmup/pit stop practice session at 3:40 – 4:10 pm.

AR1 will keep you updated during the weekend.

Lucille Dust reporting live from Portland