IndyCar News: Will Power holds off Alex Palou to win in Portland

Team Penske Chevy veteran Will Power took the lead from the outside front-row starting position from polesitter Santino Ferrucci and, except for pitstops, led all the way to win the Bitnile.com IndyCar race at Portland International Raceway.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Championship point leader Alex Palou stayed within striking distance the entire way, but was never able to make a pass because the IndyCar hybrid system has made the racing worse. Power led 101 of 110 laps of the snooze fest that had zero passes for the lead on track.

2nd place finisher and still points leader Alex Palou – BITNILE_com Grand Prix of Portland – Photo By Matt Fraver

On the final stop, Power took on the faster soft Firestone tires and he stretched his lead out to 9.8s at the finish. It was Power’s 3rd win of the 2024 season and 44th of his career. Power reduced Palou’s point lead to 54 — 484 to 430 — with three oval races to go.

Power’s Penske teammate Josef Newgarden was third, over 23s behind Power at the finish.

Andretti Honda driver Colton Herta came home 4th, 37s behind Power. “It was a pretty straightforward day. The Gainbridge Honda was fast and we moved up positions, mostly through strategy and overcutting. Our car was really fast, so we were able to go longer and make the most out of that. It was an interesting race. I can’t remember the last time that we’ve had guys run two sets of used reds other than the Indy GP in the last few years. So, it’s a little bit different for everyone today, but it was a lot of fun. We had a little bit of a moment in pit lane where I must’ve just slipped the clutch a little too quick and the car just died right there. Then, I wasn’t aware that you couldn’t start the car on pit lane, so we picked up a little bit of a time penalty and had to drop back. Besides that, it was still a pretty great day.”

Ganassi Honda driver Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top-5, 38s behind Power.

“Very rewarding,” Power said. “I came here determined, so did the whole team. We wanted to get qualifying right and then execute in the race. It’s not a last-ditch effort, but really if Palou finished ahead of us today, it was going to be very difficult.

“We’re going to keep fighting ahead here. A couple of bad races before this, but let’s see if we can get a championship.”

“We’ve been very, very good on ovals – very solid,” Power said. “Obviously, they’re two ovals that we haven’t raced at in a long time, so it’s anyone’s game. I hope we get it right. We’ll do our best and take the fight to Alex.”

“Maybe we were a bit wrong with the strategy there,” Palou said. “Went too aggressive in qualifying yesterday and really didn’t have any good used alternates. It was tough work there on primaries having to catch Will, but the 12 deserved it today. They were very, very fast. Happy with the P2 today.”

Scott Dixon probably crashed the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the guardrail on Lap 1 after contact from Pietro Fittipaldi. Dixon was forced into the dirt earlier in the lap amid tight traffic by the No. 27 AutoNation Honda of Andretti Global’s Kirkwood, and Dixon was hip-checked by Fittipaldi’s car shortly after returning to the racing surface.

2024 Bitnile.com Portland IndyCar Race Result

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Behind	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	12	Will Power	110	0.000s	0.000s	101	2	Chevy	430	Team Penske
2	10	Alex Palou	110	9.8267	9.8267	3	3	Honda	484	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	2	Josef Newgarden	110	23.2046	13.3779	1	5	Chevy	353	Team Penske
4	26	Colton Herta	110	37.1039	13.8993	4	8	Honda	417	Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian
5	11	Marcus Armstrong	110	38.0334	0.9295	1	7	Honda	258	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	28	Marcus Ericsson	110	40.7687	2.7353	0	10	Honda	257	Andretti Global
7	3	Scott McLaughlin	110	42.3498	1.5811	0	20	Chevy	396	Team Penske
8	14	Santino Ferrucci	110	44.8556	2.5058	0	1	Chevy	274	AJ Foyt Enterprises
9	15	Graham Rahal	110	49.5811	4.7255	0	12	Honda	227	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	27	Kyle Kirkwood	110	50.9987	1.4176	0	11	Honda	342	Andretti Global
11	21	Rinus VeeKay	110	52.1760	1.1773	0	14	Chevy	240	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	7	Alexander Rossi	110	52.4979	0.3219	0	17	Chevy	295	Arrow McLaren
13	45	Christian Lundgaard	110	55.4967	2.9988	0	4	Honda	261	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14	60	Felix Rosenqvist	110	56.7606	1.2639	0	18	Honda	265	Meyer Shank Racing
15	5	Pato O’Ward	110	58.3930	1.6324	0	22	Chevy	360	Arrow McLaren
16	4	Kyffin Simpson	110	59.4851	1.0921	0	28	Honda	152	Chip Ganassi Racing
17	51	Toby Sowery	109	1 LAPS	9.2283	0	19	Honda	45	Dale Coyne Racing
18	41	Sting Ray Robb	109	1 LAPS	8.5670	0	24	Chevy	156	AJ Foyt Enterprises
19	75	Juri Vips	109	1 LAPS	1.2028	0	15	Honda	11	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	66	David Malukas	109	1 LAPS	4.6830	0	25	Honda	102	Meyer Shank Racing
21	6	Nolan Siegel	109	1 LAPS	8.9823	0	23	Chevy	114	Arrow McLaren
22	78	Conor Daly	109	1 LAPS	0.6704	0	26	Chevy	51	Juncos Hollinger Racing
23	8	Linus Lundqvist	109	1 LAPS	0.0764	0	21	Honda	216	Chip Ganassi Racing
24	18	Jack Harvey	109	1 LAPS	2.9690	0	27	Honda	96	Dale Coyne Racing
25	30	Pietro Fittipaldi	109	1 LAPS	1.6999	0	13	Honda	156	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
26	20	Christian Rasmussen	108	2 LAPS	38.5850	0	16	Chevy	114	Ed Carpenter Racing
27	77	Romain Grosjean	107	3 LAPS	59.7499	0	6	Chevy	218	Juncos Hollinger Racing
28	9	Scott Dixon	‑‑‑	Contact	85 LAPS	0	9	Honda	383	Chip Ganassi Racing

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 112.161 mph
Time of race: 01:55:34.1948
Margin of victory: 9.8267 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 4 laps
Lead changes: 8 among 5 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Power, Will 1 – 31
Palou, Alex 32
Newgarden, Josef 33
Power, Will 34 – 56
Herta, Colton 57 – 60
Armstrong, Marcus 61
Power, Will 62 – 85
Palou, Alex 86 – 87
Power, Will 88 – 110

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Palou 484, Power 430, Herta 417, McLaughlin 396, Dixon 383, O’Ward 360, Newgarden 353, Kirkwood 342, Rossi 295, Ferrucci 274, Rosenqvist 265, Lundgaard 261, Armstrong 258, Ericsson 257, VeeKay 240, Rahal 227, Grosjean 218, Lundqvist 216, Robb 156, Fittipaldi 156, Simpson 152, Siegel 124, Rasmussen 114, Agustin Canapino 109, Malukas 102, Harvey 96, Theo Pourchaire 91, Daly 51, Tom Blomqvist 46, Ed Carpenter 45, Sowery 45, Callum Ilott 39, Katherine Legge 29, Luca Ghiotto 27, Helio Castroneves 26, Kyle Larson 21, Takuma Sato 19, Tristan Vautier 12, Vips 11, Colin Braun 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay 6, Hunter McElrea 6, Marco Andretti 5