By INDYCAR
PORTLAND, Ore. – Will Power and Team Penske made their point Sunday by winning the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland: The race for the Astor Challenge Cup is far from over.
Power earned his series-leading third victory of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet and gained ground on championship leader Alex Palou with three races remaining. He drove to a 9.8267-second victory over the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda of Palou on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course at Portland International Raceway.
SEE: Race Results
Two-time series champion Power, who started second, earned the 44th win of his Hall of Fame career on the heels of disappointing consecutive finishes of 12th in July at Toronto and 18th last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway.
“Very rewarding,” Power said. “I came here determined, so did the whole team. We wanted to get qualifying right and then execute in the race. It’s not a last-ditch effort, but really if Palou finished ahead of us today, it was going to be very difficult.
“We’re going to keep fighting ahead here. A couple of bad races before this, but let’s see if we can get a championship.”
Josef Newgarden completed the podium by finishing third in the No. 2 TireRack.com Team Penske Chevrolet, with Colton Herta fourth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian. Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top five in the No. 11 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Two-time and defending series champion Palou leads Power by 54 points – the maximum number a driver can earn in one race. Herta slipped from second to third, 67 points behind Palou, after finishing fourth in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian.
The three remaining races are all on ovals – the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s doubleheader Aug. 31-Sept. 1 at the Milwaukee Mile and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway. The INDYCAR SERIES hasn’t raced at the Milwaukee Mile since 2015 or Nashville Superspeedway since 2008.
Power has 10 career victories on ovals, including in 2014 at Milwaukee and last month at Iowa Speedway; Palou has none among his 11 career wins.
“We’ve been very, very good on ovals – very solid,” Power said. “Obviously, they’re two ovals that we haven’t raced at in a long time, so it’s anyone’s game. I hope we get it right. We’ll…
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