Further proof that Alex Palou is doing something special at Chip Ganassi Racing comes in the form of his points lead being the fourth-highest total at this stage of an NTT INDYCAR SERIES season since 2008.

The average lead entering the 14th race since the sport unified is 38.75. Palou’s margin this year is 59 points over Colton Herta of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian, and last year the Spaniard led Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden by 84 points. Other notable leads at this stage: Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon led Newgarden by 76 points in 2020. Like Palou last year, Dixon went on to win the season title, his sixth.

History suggests Palou will go on to win a third series title in the past four years. Since 2008, the largest deficit erased by the champion in the final four races was Dario Franchitti in 2010. That comeback at the expense of Team Penske’s Will Power was 59 points. Dixon came back to tie Juan Pablo Montoya – and win on a tiebreaker – in 2015 after trailing by 54 points.

Palou can’t wrap up the title in this weekend’s BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland, but a strong run at Portland International Raceway can sure make it difficult on those chasing him. Fourteen drivers remain mathematically in the championship hunt, but Palou is in the driver’s seat and won this race last year from the fifth starting position.

Driving the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Palou posted the second-fastest lap in Friday’s practice, trailing Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 Freightliner Team Penske Chevrolet) by less than a tenth of a second. Herta was eighth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.

Said Palou after Friday’s practice: “(The track) felt good. Honestly, quite a lot of grip, more than I expected. I think we ran almost the same lap times as last year without the hybrid (technology). So, pretty cool. Car feels good, so, yeah, looking forward to tweaking it a little bit for tomorrow and fighting in qualifying.”

Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award is Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET (Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network). There is a pre-qualifying practice at noon ET and the final session at 8:15 p.m. ET.

Power, who is in fourth place and 66 points out of the lead in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet, said Palou is going to need at least one “very bad race” for others to catch him. But here’s the deal: Palou has only two finishes outside the top 10 in the past 35 races dating to the Iowa Speedway doubleheader in 2022.

Palou said he is sad this is the last road course race of the season – the final three races are on oval tracks – but the events at the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway give him “an opportunity to win finally on one of the oval races – that’s what we’re aiming for – yeah, I’ll win (an oval) someday.” He has finished second in such a race on two occasions (the 2021 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and this year’s second race at Iowa Speedway).

While Palou is a two-time race winner of this event, Herta has scored five of his eight series wins on natural terrain road courses. Before a crash in qualifying last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway, he had started in the top four in seven consecutive races.

The leader’s advantage is even larger in INDY NXT by Firestone. Andretti Global’s Louis Foster has a 91-point lead on Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports, and unlike Palou, Foster can clinch the series title with the right circumstances in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland (1:10 p.m. ET, Peacock, INDYCAR LIVE, INDYCAR Radio Network). Because only two series races remain after Sunday, Foster’s lead leaving this event needs to be 108 points to clinch. Foster led Friday’s practice. Abel was sixth.

Vips Returns amid ‘Curve Ball’ Situation

Estonia’s Juri Vips is back in this series for the first time in nearly a year, but he shadowed the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team all season.

The driver with three career Formula 2 victories made his series debut in this event last year and used the experience to qualify well in the season-ending Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. There, he earned the seventh starting position, just missing the Firestone Fast Six round by .05 of a second. But the car was faced with a six-grid spot penalty for an unapproved engine change, and Vips, who started 13th, was collected in a first-lap accident.

Vips’ best lap in Friday’s practice was good for a solid 20th on the speed chart in RLL’s No. 75 AMADA Honda, and he acknowledged this is a different challenge than he faced in 2023.

“I think we have had a pretty good road course package all year, but the addition of the hybrid (technology) was a bit of a curve ball for us this season,” he said. “We have only done one road course race with it, which was Mid-Ohio (on July 7), so we have a baseline setup. But it’s not the typical weekend where we have had the same cars for years and years like last year.

“It is only the second road course race with the hybrid, so there are still a lot of things to try and a lot of development going on. In that sense, it’s a little bit of a different type of weekend from last year.”

Christian Lundgaard had RLL’s top-finishing car in The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2025 Civic Hybrid in seventh. Lundgaard’s best lap Friday in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda was 13th quickest. Pietro Fittipaldi was 12th in the No. 30 Localiza Rent a Car Honda while Graham Rahal, who won the NTT P1 Award for last year’s race, was 24th in the No. 15 Hendrickson Honda.

Robb Gaining Momentum at Foyt

By his admission, Sting Ray Robb’s second NTT INDYCAR SERIES season was a struggle early in the season, but he has had some of his best runs of late.

Robb scored his first top-10 finish in the series last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway when he finished ninth. He said that was a huge confidence boost.

“(I’m) really happy,” he said. “I think last week really helped my confidence a lot. I’ve got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder now.”

Robb was 22nd in Friday’s practice in the No. 41 Goodheart Vet/Pray.com Chevrolet.

Odds and Ends

• Rahal’s car is one of three this weekend serving a six-grid starting penalty for an unapproved engine change following last weekend’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline. The others are Andretti Global’s No. 27 AutoNation Honda driven by Kyle Kirkwood and Meyer Shank Racing’s No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda driven by David Malukas. The penalty, which is nine grid spots on an oval track, comes when an engine beyond the fifth is installed in a full-season entry.

• Kirkwood had one of the wildest rides of Friday’s practice, bouncing over the curbs at the end of the front straightaway (Turn 1). Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi had a hard spin without contact at the apex of Turn 1. Rahal and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean had wheel-to-wheel contact exiting that corner. Power went off course at Turn 6.

• Rinus VeeKay is riding four consecutive top-10 finishes in the No. 21 askROI Chevrolet. Portland is the track where he had his initial NTT INDYCAR SERIES test in 2019 that earned a job with Ed Carpenter Racing for the next season.

• Portland International Raceway is one of the few tracks where Dixon has not won in this series, but the driver of the PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda has finished third each of the past three years.

• Palou’s engineer, Julian Robertson, celebrated the 31-year anniversary of his tenure with Chip Ganassi Racing on Friday. Robertson was the engineer on the team’s first NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory, with Michael Andretti in 1994 in Australia.

• PNC Bank and Chip Ganassi Racing will host 20 STEM-focused students from Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering (BASE) for Girls Day at the Track on Saturday. Women engineers and mechanics from the team will brief the students about careers in motorsports. Some of the students who are pursuing medical careers also will tour INDYCAR’s portable, on-site medical facilities where doctors and nurses treat injuries and illnesses at the track.

• HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet will be dealt a six-grid starting penalty for Sunday’s INDY NXT by Firestone race for blocking and avoidable contact on Andretti Global’s Jamie Chadwick in last week’s OUTFRONT Showdown at World Wide Technology Raceway. They crashed together on the front straightaway.

• The USF Pro Championships, which includes USF Juniors, USF2000 and USF Pro 2000, culminate this weekend. The highest rung on the ladder – USF Pro 2000 – features Australia’s Lochie Hughes and Indiana’s Jace Denmark in a battle for a scholarship of $681,500 to ensure advancement to INDY NXT by Firestone in 2025. Hughes entered the doubleheader weekend leading by 35 points, with 66 points available this weekend.