Portland may be “the city where young people go to retire,” but Portland International Raceway, built on the wreckage of the town of Vanport on the banks of the Columbia River, will be the site of the penultimate round of the NTT IndyCar Series’ closest seven-way championship fight in decades.
The Grand Prix of Portland has been a part of American open-wheel history on and off since 1984, with the current IndyCar race around the current 1.967-mile purpose-built road course dating only to 2018.
After taking 2020 off due to the Covid-19 pandemic, IndyCar returned to the Pacific Northwest in September of last year, with eventual champion Alex Palou recovering from a first-lap collision to score his third and final win of the season to retake the championship lead which he would hold for the rest of the year.
No experience at the @Portland_GP? No problem, says @AlexPalou.#INDYCAR // #PortlandGP // @CGRTeams pic.twitter.com/QTDwik6LwC
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) September 12, 2021
Who to Watch:
Uncommon in IndyCar, Team Penske does not enter the Portland weekend as the easy favorites. Will Power’s 2019 victory is the only podium the team has scored at PIR since the track’s return to the schedule. His 2022 championship rival Josef Newgarden, just three points back of the lead, has a best finish of only fifth. Scott McLaughlin in the third Penske car, himself a wild-card threat for the Astor Cup, finished ninth in his only Portland race for the team.
Instead, look to IndyCar’s other powerhouse, Chip Ganassi Racing, for whom title challengers Palou and Scott Dixon both finished on the podium last year.
Dixon’s championship hopes took a hit last time out in St. Louis as his margin to the points leader grew from eight to 14 points, but the six-time champion might just have an ace in the hole. Both of the New Zealander’s victories this year have come in street races, and PIR’s mixed concrete-and-asphalt surface and propensity for chaos make it the most street-like permanent course on the schedule.
Will history repeat itself in turn 1 this weekend?#INDYCAR // #PortlandGP pic.twitter.com/6TlbBip549
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 31, 2022
Marcus Ericsson’s lone Portland result was seventh last year from 10th on the grid, but given his maturation into an IndyCar front-runner over the course of this season and Ganassi’s favorability heading into the Rose City, the ‘sneaky Swede’ should be one to watch. Fourth…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…