Eighth place certainly wasn’t the win pole sitter Santino Ferrucci was looking for Sunday in the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland, but it was a winning weekend, nonetheless.

The pole not only was the driver’s first in 74 career NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, it was the first top qualifying position for AJ Foyt Racing in more than a decade (Takuma Sato in June 2014 at Detroit).

Ferrucci conceded he hit the brakes too early heading to the first corner of Sunday’s 110-lap race, allowing Team Penske’s Will Power to get the lead. (They also had light contact in Turn 2.) After Power scooted away in a winning drive, Ferrucci ran in the top five until the final pit sequence, when he lost a couple of positions.

Still, it was a great weekend.

“The weekend was incredible,” Ferrucci said after the race. “To start on pole (alongside) Will, obviously he got me on the inside of Turn 1. I broke a little early – (there’s) a first time for everything, but we’ll learn.

“The team did a phenomenal job. We just didn’t quite have the pace that we thought we would today. Obviously, with the heat coming up, we were all over the track, and it was super greasy. It’s unfortunate, but I had fun. It’s a long race to go green as long as it (did).”

Ferrucci noted that winning the pole earned him the best pit box for the first race of next weekend’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s doubleheader. The race is at 6 p.m. ET Saturday (Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Dixon’s Day Ends Early

Here’s the amazing stat of the season: For only the second time in 399 career races, Scott Dixon didn’t finish the opening lap of an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race.

The first time that happened was in 2005 at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit in Japan when Dixon had contact with Jeff Bucknum. This time, it was contact from Pietro Fittipaldi that knocked the driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the backstretch barrier.

Interestingly, Dixon didn’t blame Fittipaldi, whose No. 30 Localiza Rent a Car Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing hopped the right-side curb and hit Dixon’s car. Instead, Dixon said the drive-through penalty that went to Fittipaldi should have gone to Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, who had pushed him wide in Turn 6.

“(Kirkwood), I think, caused all of that mayhem, to be honest,” Dixon said. “Just a lunge and then gave me zero room on the exit (of Turn 6), which knocked me off, and then you’re trying to recover.

“Obviously, with Fittipaldi honestly getting the penalty there, kind of no real fault on him. (The track) just funnels there. The penalty should have been on (Kirkwood).”

Finishing last in the 28-car field all but knocked Dixon out of contention for a record-tying seventh series championship. He fell to fifth in the standings, 101 points behind Palou. He entered the Portland weekend in third, 65 points out of the lead.

Dixon is scheduled to make his 400th start in next weekend’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s doubleheader. Only Mario Andretti (407) has made that many starts in history. Helio Castroneves is third in the category with 394. Tony Kanaan has 390.

McLaughlin Does What He Can

Championship contender Scott McLaughlin was dealt a bad hand entering Sunday’s race as his No. 3 Freightliner Team Penske Chevrolet had to serve a six-grid starting position penalty for an unapproved engine change since the most recent race at World Wide Technology Raceway.

With Palou finishing second, McLaughlin lost ground to the series leader – he fell 88 points behind – but it was still a productive day for the Team Penske driver. He finished seventh.

“I said to my wife … a top seven today would be like a podium (finish),” he said. “Yeah, I’m proud of that one.”

McLaughlin won the first of two races at Iowa Speedway this season – that was his first career oval victory – and he has frequently run well on oval tracks, which bodes well for his title hopes as there are three oval races remaining in the season.

“I can’t wait to get home and head to the final three races on ovals where we’ve been pretty good this year,” he said. “We’ll see how we go.”

Sowery Has Strong Run

If Sunday was the last race of Toby Sowery’s rookie season, he ended with a good impression.

The 28-year-old Englishman driving the No. 51 Global Karting League/Vuzix Honda came out on the winning end of battles with Kirkwood and rookie Nolan Siegel (No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet), and if not for missing the apex of Turn 1 late in the race, he might have finished much higher than 17th at the checkered flag. He was in eighth place coming to his final pit stop.

Sowery had three drives during the season. He finished 13th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and 15th at Exhibition Place in Toronto. That’s an average finish of 15.0. He finished Sunday’s race as the first car a lap down to the leaders.

Odds and Ends

• Colton Herta, who finished fourth, was penalized for restarting his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian on pit road with the use of INDYCAR’s new hybrid system. He said he “wasn’t aware” that it was against the rules. He was effectively dealt a time penalty by being forced to let a lapped car pass him.

• Marcus Armstrong (No. 11 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished fifth, his second such finish in the past three races. He has finished in the top 10 in four of the past five races.

• Fittipaldi had a rough day. In addition to the penalty that Dixon didn’t think he deserved, he also was penalized for hitting Conor Daly in Turn 1 and then improperly navigating the run-off area in that part of the track.

• Romain Grosjean (No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet) drew a penalty for “unsafe behavior” after spinning by himself exiting Turn 1. In Turn 2, he drove into the path of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen’s No. 20 Guy Care Chevrolet. Rasmussen finished 26th, Grosjean 27th.

• Jacob Abel of Abel Motorsports kept his hopes alive for an INDY NXT by Firestone championship by winning Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland, his third win of the season. Andretti Global’s Louis Foster finished second and will take a 79-point lead over Abel into this Saturday’s INDY NXT by Firestone Milwaukee 100 at the Milwaukee Mile.