Alex Palou made a rare mistake on Saturday during his near-perfect drive to another NTT INDYCAR SERIES title this season, but he made up for it.
Palou’s No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda hit the tire barrier during the second round of qualifying at Portland International Raceway, but was able to recover and advance, earning the third starting spot in the Firestone Fast Six round for Sunday’s BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland.
Meanwhile, there were near misses from nearly all of Palou’s challengers. Only Team Penske’s Will Power, who put his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet on the front row alongside first-time NTT P1 Award winner Santino Ferrucci of AJ Foyt Racing, passed Palou.
Power hopes that will give him a big enough lead over the reigning series champion in the 110-lap race (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network).
“I just have to finish ahead of Palou – he’s very close,” said Power. “Of course I can be more aggressive than him at the start. I have a lot to lose, but less than him.”
“We are just focused on winning the race.”
Power is fourth in the overall standings, 66 points behind Palou.
The other drivers chasing Palou will have their work cut out for them in this race, especially with the field of 28 cars so tightly packed.
Colton Herta, driver of the No. 26 Andretti Global Gainbridge Honda with Curb-Agajanian, is second in the standings and 59 points behind the leader. He will start eighth after Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood (No. 27 AutoNation Honda) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal (No. 15 Hendrickson Honda) serve their six-place grid penalties for unauthorized engine changes. Each team is allowed to use four engines before a penalty is assessed.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who is third in the standings, 65 points behind, will also move up from his 11th qualifying spot to ninth on the grid, but he knows how close the field is in what will be an exciting race on the 12-turn, 3.166-kilometer natural terrain course.
“It’s tough when you miss the next round by less than a tenth of a second,” he said.
Dixon, like Herta and Power, needs Palou to make a mistake in the race. But Palou has already had one this weekend, and he doesn’t make many mistakes. In his last 35 starts over two seasons, the two-time series champion has finished in the top 10 33 times.
Super tight field
Almost every driver complained about how tight the times are at PIR. It’s really unbelievable.
Just look at how close the times were in round 2 of qualifying, even though only the top six advanced:
- 2.: Kyle Kirkwood, 58.3491 seconds
- 3.: Alex Palou, 58.3491
- 4th place: Christian Lundgaard, 58.3917
- 5th place: Santino Ferrucci, 58.3982
- 6.: Graham Rahal, 58.4066
- 7.: Joseph Newgarden, 58.4163
- 8th: Romain Grosjean, 58.4494
- 9.: Marcus Armstrong, 58.4518
- 10.: Colton Herta, 58.4593
- 11.: Scott Dixon, 58.4772
Thus, the gap at the cut line was only 0.0097 seconds, and the difference between second and eleventh place was only 0.1281 seconds.
“It’s crazy,” Newgarden said. “I don’t know how to describe it anymore. We basically have a new car that we’re all working with (because of the hybrid technology). It’s five races old, 45 kilograms heavier, it’s hybridized, so it’s a totally different (challenge). And somehow everyone is within a tenth or two of a second.”
“It’s unbelievable how close it is. You can’t afford to make a small mistake, whether it’s the driver driving the car, the team with the setup, or some small detail. I don’t think there’s anything more competitive in the world. INDYCAR has always been like that, and somehow it gets more exciting every year.”
Rosenqvist hit the inside barrier in turn 1
Sometimes closeness is too close.
Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist learned this the hard way during practice on Saturday morning when his right front wheel struck the inside guardrail in Turn 1. The contact sent the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda spinning through the rumble strips on the exit of the corner.
The car was a good meter above the ground when it shot over the second curb. Fortunately, no other car arrived at the scene of the accident at the same time.
“There was more air on the second curb than I expected,” Rosenqvist said of the start. “I hit the wall and the first curb wasn’t that bad and I braked quite a bit. The second one was like (Wow!).”
“I was just too greedy and flirted too much with the wall.”
All drivers in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES try to cut the corner in Turn 1, but Rosenqvist had his car so far to the right that his left tires were completely to the right of the shake bar and he had no angle to avoid the barrier.
“I didn’t feel like I was that close,” he said. “I think I’ve been closer before.”
“It’s a difficult corner. Everyone talks about Turn 1 and I think every millimetre you find there, you’re faster. I definitely went too far.”
The team made repairs before qualifying, but Rosenqvist did not manage the desired lap and will start from 19th place.
The sides of McLaughlin’s shoes have to take a lot
Have you ever noticed Scott McLaughlin’s driving shoes? Yeah, us neither.
When the driver of the No. 3 Freightliner Team Penske Chevrolet was asked how much side wear was present, McLaughlin offered an explanation.
“I’m a little different than some guys,” he said. “I have washers under my pedals. (They) keep my ankles in place.”
“Someone like Josef (Newgarden) doesn’t use anything like that and his shoes are pristine when he gets out of the car. Mine are all dented because you’re doing four or five Gs and your ankles are going back and forth.
“Everything in the cockpit is tailored to me. Nobody fits in there as well as I do. But that’s what you want, and that’s how you drive fast.”
McLaughlin is indeed driving fast. He has won four NTT P1 Awards as the fastest driver in qualifying, leading the series. He felt his car was capable of winning pole – he set the fastest laps in both practice sessions – but he said he was unable to get a clear gap in traffic and did not make it to the second qualifying round. He qualified 14th and will start Sunday’s race 20th after receiving a six-place grid penalty following today’s qualifying for an unapproved engine change.
Odds and ends
- Drivers talk about such narrow lines in these sessions. Power missed pole in part because he slid a wheel slightly into the dirt at Turn 12 on his final qualifying lap. Herta slid to the outside at Turn 7 and had a wheel spin on the exit of the same corner on another lap.
- Palou believed he may have damaged his front wing when his car crashed into the tyre wall on the second lap of qualifying, but the team said he “left no trace”.
- All of these sessions at PIR seem to involve some sort of adventure, and in addition to Rosenqvist’s contact with the inside barrier at Turn 1, Saturday morning’s session also featured Sting Ray Robb sliding into the tyre barrier at Turn 12, Grosjean bouncing through Turn 1 and a long, non-contact slide by Will Power at the final corner.
- Australian Lochie Hughes, 22, of Turn 3 Motorsport won the USF Pro 2000 championship at PIR on Friday night, securing a scholarship to advance to the INDY NXT by Firestone in 2025. Hughes is only in his third year as a racer in the USA
