A race-long duel between season-long championship contenders ended with Will Power capturing his third NTT IndyCar Series win of the year at Portland International Raceway.
From lap 8 until the checkered, Power only saw one thing in his rearview mirror during the Bitnile.com Portland Grand Prix, and it was championship leader Alex Palou. But the IndyCar veteran drove a perfect race, held off multiple charges by the Spaniard and kept his championship hopes alive.
“I came here very determined, to get qualifying right, then execute in the race,” Power said. “It was about a last ditch effort, but very difficult. Absolute team effort. Very lucky to drive for this team, very lucky to have a sponsor like Verizon and Chevrolet, so going to keep fighting ahead here. Had a couple of bad races before this but really love this series.”
It was a massive bounce back weekend for the No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet team after a crash on a late restart at World Wide Technology Raceway derailed his championship efforts. But this was a new weekend, and his temper and unfriendly gestures of a week ago were in the past. With the win, Power carries momentum to two venues he might have an edge on Palou, the Milwaukee Mile where he won in 2014 and Nashville Superspeedway, where in his lone attempt in 2008 he finished 11th.
“We’ve been very good on ovals,” Power Said. “Very solid. Obviously there are two ovals we haven’t raced on in a long time. It’s anyone’s game. I hope we get it right. We will do our best and take the fight to Alex.”
While Power dominated, it wasn’t easy. Defending IndyCar champion and current points leader Palou never let up. On two different occasions as Power was stuck in traffic, Palou cut the gap into the lead, put his nose on the rear wing of the No. 12 and looked for a way around. But it never worked out to complete the pass. Instead, Palou leaves Portland with a reasonably comfortable 54 point lead.
“The team behind me, they did a good job,” Palou said. “We maybe did wrong with the strategy there, and then really didn’t have any good used alternates. It was tough work there with primaries, having to catch Will, but the 12 deserved it today. They were very, very fast. ”
Last week’s winner Josef Newgarden fast pit stops to jump up to third. Colton Herta kept his career best season rolling, finishing fourth and Marcus Armstrong in fifth, his fifth top five of the…
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