Turn 1 at Grand Prix of Portland Could Decide IndyCar Championship

• The layout at Portland International Raceway has arguably the most treacherous—and potentially championship-altering—turn in IndyCar.

• Someone who isn’t even in the championship battle could suddenly take out one, two or even more of the title contenders Sunday by making a wrong move heading into Turn 1.

• Whoever successfully navigates that first right-hander following the opening green flag could go on to become this year’s IndyCar champion.

Sure, there are still two full-length races to go, but don’t be surprised if the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series championship quite possibly is decided on the first lap of Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland.

Heck, forget the first lap, let’s talk only about the first turn! (Well, to be precise, Turns 1, 2 and through the chicane into Turn 3, all a short burnout from each other). But for all intents and purposes, the three turns are essentially just one turn—Turn 1—morphed out on steroids.

The layout at Portland International Raceway has arguably the most treacherous—and potentially championship-altering—turn not just in IndyCar, but in virtually any form of motorsports. Sure, you can say what you want about F1’s crazy turns, or NASCAR’s curves at places like Sonoma or Watkins Glen.

Don’t believe me? I’ll give you an example.

No wait, scratch that, I’ll give you not one, not two, but THREE examples.

Let’s first look back at the 2018 race at Portland. Again, it was the second-to-last race of the season. Will Power was on the pole and Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden was right next to him.

Sound familiar? That’s where we’re at today, heading into this weekend, as Power is at the top of the points standings and Newgarden just three points behind.

And then there’s Chip Ganassi Racing, which has a lock on the third, fourth and fifth positions heading into Sunday’s race, occupied by Scott Dixon, seeking a record-tying seventh IndyCar championship this season (just 14 points behind Power), Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson (17 points behind Power) and defending series champ Alex Palou (a distant 43 points behind Power).

Example No. 1: Now, I want you to look at the following YouTube video from the 2018 race at Portland, and fast-forward to 30:45. That’s all I have to say—let your eyes tell the rest of the story.

That’s not the first time we’ve seen calamity at a place known as calamity corner.

Example No. 2: Let’s move on to one year later in 2019—same bat-time and place, same bat-channel (for those of you old enough to remember one of the top slogans in the old Batman TV series)—heading into Turn 1 on the green flag lap. Once again, check out the YouTube video and fast-forward to 33:50.

There was no race at Portland in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but when the series returned to the Rose City in 2021, care to guess what happened on the first turn of the first lap?

Example No. 3: Click on yet another YouTube video and fast-forward to 26 seconds in:

Now, come on, are you going to try and tell me that there’s not going to be chaos again this year, particularly with as tight as the points are?

At the same time, all five drivers—well maybe not so much Palou, as he still has a lot of ground to make up to try and defend last year’s title—will have to protect not only their place on the racetrack, but also their place in the standings.

One bad mistake heading into Turn 1 and, why heck, even the two guys still mathematically in the championship hunt—sixth-ranked Scott McLaughlin (54 points behind his teammate Power) and seventh-ranked Pato O’Ward (58 points back)—could suddenly vault past the five guys ahead of them and remain contenders heading into next week’s season-ending and championship-deciding race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

First things first: Sunday’s race

Regardless of how qualifying plays out Saturday, Power, Newgarden, Dixon, Ericsson and Palou don’t have to worry so much about each other—well, yes, they do, to a degree—but what they’re going to have to worry even more about are the other guys who aren’t chasing a championship, but who may qualify well and then get a bit too anxious heading into Turn 1 once the green flag falls.

Just look back at the three video examples above, and you and see how many backmarkers or out-of-contention guys that were part-and-parcel of some of those opening lap/first turn wrecks.

Someone who isn’t even in the championship battle could suddenly take out one, two or even more of the title contenders Sunday by making a wrong move heading into Turn 1.

While Newgarden has never been afraid to speak his mind, he said something after winning the last race two weeks ago at Gateway, overtaking teammate McLaughlin to capture the checkered flag, that likely all five (okay, seven) remaining championship contenders might say about their strategy heading into Sunday’s race.

And more precisely, Turn 1.

When asked how he plans to race going forward, particularly battling not just the CGR boys (who theoretically could say the same thing about their own team vs. Team Penske as Newgarden states), but also his own teammate, Newgarden was both coy and strategic at the same time with his response:

“Hard to say. I think we're just going to race like we always do. It's kind of as simple as that. We race all year, we race hard. It's not going to be the first time Will and I have raced together. We've had many, many races that have been in lockstep, 1-2, pit strategy, the whole thing. We'll just fight it out as normal.

“Clearly we don't want to do something that jeopardizes the whole group because it is bigger than us. At the end of the day we've got three cars in the fight still. There's nothing that matters more than putting a Team Penske car in victory lane.

“As much as I want that to be (me), believe me I do, I will work to be that person, we also have to just make sure we remember that it's about all of us and it's about all the effort we put in. We have to make sure one car secures the championship.

“It's just a balance. We're just going to race like we always do. Hopefully it doesn't turn ugly at some point.”

And “ugly” best describes Turn 1 at PIR.

Whoever successfully navigates that first right-hander following the opening green flag—without being caught up in someone’s over-exuberance at trying to get to the front too early—will potentially go on to become this year’s IndyCar champion.

Follow Autoweek contributor Jerry Bonkowski on Twitter @JerryBonkowski