IndyCar Portland Race Wrap-Up: How McLaughlin's Win Sets Title Table for Team Penske

• Scott McLaughlin kept his IndyCar championship hopes alive heading into the season-ending and championship-deciding race on Sept. 11 at Laguna Seca.

• McLaughlin has also been the hottest driver in the last five races.

• Will Power leads the championship by 20 points over Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden and Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon.

Scott Dixon is still in contention for a record-tying seventh IndyCar championship, but it’s looking more and more like another New Zealand driver is in contention to eventually become Dixon’s heir apparent in the series.

Scott McLaughlin, who until two years ago had never driven an IndyCar open-wheeler, won his third race of the 2022 season—all from the pole—in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway.

In so doing, McLaughlin kept his IndyCar championship hopes alive heading into the season-ending and championship-deciding race on Sept. 11 at Laguna Seca.

Still Alive in the IndyCar Title Chase

1 Race to go

1. Will Power, Team Penkse, 523 points

2. Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 503

3. Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 503

4. Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 484

5. Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 482

Seeking his second career IndyCar crown, Will Power remains atop the standings, holding a 20-point edge over Dixon and Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden (who has won a series-high and career-high five races thus far this season), followed by Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson (39 points behind Power) and McLaughlin (41 points back).

Last year’s champion, Alex Palou, and Pato O’Ward were both officially eliminated from championship contention Sunday, with Palou finishing 12th and O’Ward fourth.

“We did exactly what we needed to do this weekend, and that was to win and get max points and keep ourselves in the fight,” McLaughlin said of his dominating performance, leading 104 of the event’s 110 laps. “Yeah, we’re a longshot, I don’t care, but we’ve still got a shot.”

An interesting stat about McLaughlin: While Newgarden has led the most laps thus far this season (522), McLaughlin has led the second-most laps (433), more than Palou, Power, Dixon and every other rival.

McLaughlin has also been the hottest driver in the last five races, finishing 3rd in the second race of the Iowa doubleheader weekend, fourth in the second Indianapolis Grand Prix, runner-up at Nashville, third at Gateway (after having the win stolen from him by teammate Newgarden in the closing laps) and Sunday’s win at Portland.

How Power Wins the Championship

Sunday was yet another example of Team Penske domination, as the legendary organization has now won nine of the first 16 races, with three wins each on ovals, temporary street courses and permanent road courses.

Power is in the best place of all five drivers still in contention for the championship. While every other title-eligible driver—Newgarden, Dixon, Ericsson and McLaughlin—is essentially in a must-win situation at Laguna Seca (and even that may not be enough), Power has a bit more latitude.

While a win at Laguna would ice the title for Power, he just needs to finish in the top three positions – basically earning a podium finish – to capture his second career IndyCar crown (his other was in 2014).

“It’s another day, we just did everything we could,” said Power, who finished runner-up to McLaughlin on Sunday. “I just want to win the championship for the guys that have been with me for more than a decade. It’s a lot less selfish for me this time around because they deserve it. I feel their pain over the years for losing so many, so I would love to win it for them.

“We’re in the best position and have the best shot so we’re going to do the best we can.”

Newgarden struggled to an eighth-place showing Sunday. Even though he leads the series with five wins in the first 16 races, he knows nothing is promised heading to Laguna Seca.

“(Things) just did not play into our favor today, unfortunately,” Newgarden said. “We’ll just go to Laguna and try to be fast. At this point, it just is what it is. We’re going to try and win that race and go for broke. I don’t know how Laguna is going to play out, but we’re going to play to win and see what happens. It’ll just be business as usual. Nothing is going to change from our perspective.”

Scott Dixon 'Kisses His Sister' Once again

Scott Dixon kind of knows what it feels like to kiss his sister, so to speak.

Once again, Dixon earned “most improved” status in a race this season, but still fell short of victory lane, going from a mediocre 16th qualifying position to his eventual third-place podium finish.

“We’ve got to stop getting these ‘most improved’ through races,” quipped Dixon, who has two wins and two other podium finishes this season. “It’s really frustrating. Starting 16th and with no real cautions, we had to drive through the field. We’re still in the fight. We tried as hard as possible.”

Like Newgarden, Dixon is 20 points behind Power heading to Laguna Seca. But there’s a bit more incentive for Dixon, in a sense: if he overtakes Power and the other three title contenders and wins both the season-ending race and championship, it would give Dixon his seventh IndyCar title, tying him for first on the all-time titles list with legendary A.J. Foyt.

“Anything is possible,” Dixon said. “We’re in it and as a team, we’re never going to give up until it’s over. It’s going to be an interesting one. It’ll be tight between three or four cars so we’ll try everything we can do.”

In a sense, four-time IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti, who serves as a consultant to Chip Ganassi Racing, believes the championship isn’t as much Power’s to win, but rather Dixon’s to lose.

In other words, don’t give up on Dixie, as Franchitti likes to call Dixon.

“He’s still alive,” Franchitti said. “It was a phenomenal job by him. Let’s be honest, it was a pretty crappy qualifying position. And they did it and Scott passed those guys on-track, some really good moves.

“That last restart was vintage Dixon there. It all came together and to still see him alive, I’ve fought Will (Power) for a few championships and Scott for a few championships and they’re two really good competitors. But there’s a reason why Dixie has six championships. He doesn’t make many mistakes.”

Graham Rahal Is Outta Here, and for Good Reason

If Graham Rahal seemed to be in a hurry to leave Portland after Sunday’s IndyCar race, it wasn’t a personal affront to the Rose City.

Rather, Rahal caught a quick flight home to Indianapolis to be with wife Courtney, who is due to deliver the couple’s second child in the next few days.

Courtney gave birth to their first child, daughter Harlan Ann Rahal, on Nov. 2, 2020. It’s unknown whether the couple will have a second daughter or first son this time.

“We’ve got a lot going this week,” Rahal told NBC’s Kevin Lee. “It’s pretty exciting. Hopefully, the next time I see you, I’ll be the dad of two healthy babies.

“That’s the plan, to go into action here shortly. I’m excited to add another one to the family. It’ll be pretty special.”

But Wait, There's More

• For the first time in the last four races at Portland, there was not a multi-car pileup and resulting caution heading into Turns 1 through 3 on the opening lap. In fact, there was just one caution in the entire race, when Rinus Veekay ran into Jimmie Johnson with 28 laps remaining, knocking Johnson out of the race, leaving him with a 24th-place finish. Johnson is normally cool with his emotions, but got frustrated at the incident, telling his team over the radio, “Yeah, the (expletive) turned into me. It’s tore up.” Veekay was assessed a pass-through penalty, finishing 20th.

•Conor Daly suffered minor burns after his car caught fire while leaving the pits 43 laps into the race. Fuel apparently caught fire and roared into the cockpit of Daly’s car. But the Ed Carpenter Racing driver shrugged off the incident, although the fire also burned out the clutch in his car, ending his day. “If you’ve followed my career a long time, you know I’ve been on fire a few times,” Daly quipped. “But this one for whatever reason was weird, it felt like it was in the cockpit and it was nerve-wracking. I felt like my shoulder was burning. I could see the fire going out so I kept on going and hoped science and wind would take care of it (extinguish the fire, which it ultimately did). That was not fun, but hopefully we can finish strong in the next one.”

The Results

Grand Prix of Portland

1. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 110, Running
2. (2) Will Power, Chevrolet, 110, Running
3. (16) Scott Dixon, Honda, 110, Running
4. (5) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 110, Running
5. (11) Graham Rahal, Honda, 110, Running
6. (7) Colton Herta, Honda, 110, Running
7. (9) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 110, Running
8. (8) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 110, Running
9. (14) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 110, Running
10. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 110, Running
11. (18) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 110, Running
12. (4) Alex Palou, Honda, 110, Running
13. (13) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 110, Running
14. (10) David Malukas, Honda, 110, Running
15. (17) Jack Harvey, Honda, 110, Running
16. (24) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 110, Running
17. (21) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 110, Running
18. (22) Takuma Sato, Honda, 110, Running
19. (15) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 110, Running
20. (12) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 110, Running
21. (3) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 110, Running
22. (25) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 109, Running
23. (19) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
24. (23) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 82, Contact
25. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 67, Mechanical

Race Statistics
Winner's average speed: 111.493 mph
Time of Race: 01:56:15.6892
Margin of victory: 1.1792 seconds
Cautions: 1 for 4 laps
Lead changes: 9 among 4 drivers

Lap Leaders:
McLaughlin, Scott 1 - 20
Lundgaard, Christian 21
Rahal, Graham 22
Ilott, Callum 23
McLaughlin, Scott 24 - 47
Power, Will 48
Rahal, Graham 49
McLaughlin, Scott 50 - 78
Power, Will 79
McLaughlin, Scott 80 - 110

Updated Point Standings: Power 523, Newgarden 503, Dixon 503, Ericsson 484, McLaughlin 482, Palou 457, O'Ward 456, Herta 362, Rossi 361, Rosenqvist 360, Rahal 333, VeeKay 315, Grosjean 302, Pagenaud 301, Lundgaard 293, Malukas 288, Daly 261, Castroneves 252, Sato 251, Ilott 213, Johnson 200, Harvey 199, DeFrancesco 191, Kirkwood 174, Kellett 128, Tony Kanaan 78, Ed Carpenter 75, Santino Ferrucci 71, Tatiana Calderon 58, JR Hildebrand 53, Juan Pablo Montoya 44, Simona De Silvestro 26, Marco Andretti 17, Sage Karam 14, Stefan Wilson 10

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski