Will Power Goes From Furious to Fury with Dominating IndyCar Win at Portland

After a late-race bumpup at World Wide Technology Raceway last week left Power fuming at teammate Josef Newgarden, Power returned to form Sunday at Portland International Raceway, zapping the rest of the field on the way to winning the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland.

Power was in a class by himself over the Portland road course. He led 101 of the race’s 110 laps and was almost 10 seconds in front of second-place Alex Palou at the finish. Third-place Newgarden was 23 seconds behind the winner. Power became the first three-time winner of the IndyCar season.

The win kept Power in position to challenge for another series title, but point leader Palou also had a fine day, finishing only one spot off the lead pace and now owning a 54-point lead (over Power) with three races remaining.

“Going to keep fighting ahead,” Power said. “A couple of bad races before this, but, yeah, I really, really love this series. I feel lucky to be a part of it and race all these great drivers and see if we can get a championship.”

Grosjean Slides, Sits, Crashes

Romain Grosjean had quite the adventure near the race’s halfway point.

Grosjean slid out of control on the exit of turn 1 and came to a stop facing traffic. A few seconds later, he refired and drove into the main racing lane directly in front of Christian Rasmussen, who hit Grosjean. Both cars were damaged.

Grosjean was penalized for “unsportsmanlike conduct and unsafe behavior.” He finished next-to-last.

Dixon’s Day Is a Very Short One

Scott Dixon’s realistic hopes of winning yet another IndyCar championship went up in smoke – or, perhaps more accurately, up in dust – Sunday. And the damage came early, very early.

In the tight traffic of the race’s first lap, Dixon was crowded by Kyle Kirkwood, causing Dixon to slow. Pietro Fittipaldi then tried to pass Dixon, and contact between their cars sent Dixon careening into a barrier and out of the race.

Fittipaldi was penalized for avoidable contact, but Dixon blamed the incident on Kirkwood.

Dixon, a six-time series champion and twice a race winner this year, finished last in the race.

Milwaukee, Nashville Will Decide Title

The IndyCar championship will be decided on a pair of oval tracks – with two races at the Milwaukee Mile and the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway,

Milwaukee, returning to the series, will host a doubleheader Aug. 31-Sept. 1. After a week off, the series will take its final green flag of 2024 Sept. 15 at Nashville.

The Results

Results Sunday of the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland NTT IndyCar Series event on the 1.964-mile Portland International Raceway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (2) Will Power, Chevrolet, 110, Running
2. (3) Alex Palou, Honda, 110, Running
3. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 110, Running
4. (8) Colton Herta, Honda, 110, Running
5. (7) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 110, Running
6. (10) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 110, Running
7. (20) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 110, Running
8. (1) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 110, Running
9. (12) Graham Rahal, Honda, 110, Running
10. (11) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 110, Running
11. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 110, Running
12. (17) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 110, Running
13. (4) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 110, Running
14. (18) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 110, Running
15. (22) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 110, Running
16. (28) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 110, Running
17. (19) Toby Sowery, Honda, 109, Running
18. (24) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 109, Running
19. (15) Juri Vips, Honda, 109, Running
20. (25) David Malukas, Honda, 109, Running
21. (23) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 109, Running
22. (26) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 109, Running
23. (21) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 109, Running
24. (27) Jack Harvey, Honda, 109, Running
25. (13) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 109, Running
26. (16) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 108, Running
27. (6) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 107, Running
28. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 0, Contact

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