It was perfect that Will Power wasted no time after Sunday’s victory in the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland saying things “got a little more interesting” in pursuit of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. Because they have.
Power cut into his deficit to series leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing heading to the final three races of the year. This is where we again note: Those three races will be contested on oval tracks.
There have been four oval races this season, and Team Penske, which employs Power, has won all of them. Power won the second race of last month’s Iowa Speedway doubleheader, with teammate Scott McLaughlin winning the other. Josef Newgarden won the other two, the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and at World Wide Technology Raceway. Over the past two years, Team Penske has won eight of the nine oval races.
Power has 10 career oval victories, Palou none. Power won the 2014 race at the Milwaukee Mile, the site of this weekend’s doubleheader. Palou has never raced at the track.
The season ends Sunday, Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway. Power has raced there, Palou hasn’t.
Overall, Power has won two of the past four races this season and a series-leading three in all.
Of course, Palou is still the most likely of the two to score a third series title. But Power is still in the hunt and has a lot going for him the rest of the way.
Palou Does Palou Things
Palou conceded he didn’t have much for Power on Sunday at Portland International Raceway, and that bore out with their 9.8267-second separation at the finish line. But Palou still collected 41 points for a second-place finish and only lost 12 to Power.
The podium finish was Palou’s 16th in the past 30 races. Only twice in the past 36 races has he failed to finish in the top 10. He’s Mr. Consistent, and a continuation of that in the final three races will earn him his third series title in the past four years.
Dario Franchitti was the last driver to win two INDYCAR SERIES consecutive titles. The Scot, now an advisor for Chip Ganassi Racing, won three in a row from 2009-11 for CGR.
Dixon’s Finishing Record Is Amazing
It certainly was unfortunate that Scott Dixon’s car was knocked into the backstretch guardrail on the opening lap of Sunday’s race, but it was remarkable in its infrequency.
That was only the second time in 399 career starts that the six-time series champion has failed to complete the first lap. The other was in 2005 at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan. Remarkably, Dixon has at least reached the halfway point of a series race 96.2 percent of the time in his career (384 times).
One race that doesn’t figure into this category is the 2004 race at the Milwaukee Mile when Dixon did not start the race due to crashes in practice and qualifying.
Power, Palou, Newgarden on Podium
Power certainly posted a convincing victory Sunday, but it’s worth noting that he accomplished that with some of the best drivers of this era in his wake.
Finishing second and third were Palou and Team Penske’s Newgarden, who like Power are two-time series champions. The three have combined for a staggering 86 series race wins. Power won for the 44th time, and he ranks fourth on the sport’s all-time list.
Palou has 11 career wins – he’s tied for 38th all-time – while Newgarden has 31 career wins. The latter is tied for 10th with Paul Tracy, Franchitti and Helio Castroneves.
Others To Highlight
All of the top-10 finishers had reasons to celebrate, as well.
Colton Herta of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian stayed in the title hunt by finishing fourth, and he did so despite a penalty for starting his Honda engine on pit road with the hybrid system. He dropped to third in the standings, 67 points behind Palou.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong finished fifth, his second such finish in the past three races. He has four top-five finishes this season. The sixth-place finish of Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson ended a string of three races where he didn’t finish on the lead lap.
McLaughlin drove from 20th on the starting grid (due to a six-spot penalty for an unapproved engine change) to seventh to stay within striking distance of Palou in the standings. Fourth in the standings, he trails Palou by 88 points.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci netted another top-10 finish – his eighth of the season – by finishing eighth. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal was ninth despite a six-grid starting position penalty for an unapproved engine change, and Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finished 10th despite the controversial moment with Dixon on the opening lap and a blocking penalty later.