Palou Wins in Portland: Results and the Current Standings

Alex Palou scored his sixth win of the season at the Grand Prix of Portland and extended his lead in the NTT IndyCar Series championship to 110 points over Kyle Kirkwood, a margin equivalent to more than two races with only five rounds remaining. The race featured just one caution for two laps and was decided on tire strategy, where Palou and his team executed an overcut that left Felix Rosenqvist, the pole winner, with no answer as he finished second, four seconds behind.

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Rosenqvist started from pole on the primary compound, the harder and more durable tire, and led the first 30 laps. Palou and Will Power, who completed the top three on the grid, started on the same compound. When Rosenqvist and Power pitted on lap 31 for another set of primaries, Palou stayed out one more lap, pushed hard with a clean track, and emerged from the pits on alternate tires ahead of both. The overcut worked once again for the Spaniard, who had used the same strategy earlier in the season.

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Rosenqvist explained that the overcut was decisive and that he himself had issues exiting his pit box. From there, Palou focused on managing the gap. He only lost the lead during pit cycles and when Josef Newgarden tried an alternate strategy. In the second half of the race, the Swede closed the gap to within one second on lap 80 thanks to the alternate tires he had taken on his second stop. Palou responded by letting Louis Foster get between them, and a lap later the gap was back over a second and a half.

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Power could have fought for second with Rosenqvist and even put pressure on Palou, as he had a set of alternate tires waiting for him on his final stop. But the Australian didn't hear his team's call to pit on lap 86, stayed out one more lap, and got stuck behind Scott Dixon and Sting Ray Robb. When he finally pitted, it was too late. He finished third, eight seconds behind the winner, and admitted that the communication error cost him any chance of fighting for higher positions.

Rinus VeeKay finished fourth for Juncos Hollinger Racing, rounding out a solid weekend as the fastest Chevrolet in qualifying. Kirkwood finished fifth for Andretti, and Marcus Ericsson, who had renewed with the team earlier in the week, was sixth. Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, Christian Lundgaard, and Kyffin Simpson completed the top ten.

David Malukas, who arrived at Portland as second in the championship, carried a six-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change at Nashville. He started ninth and finished 12th, a result that drops him out of title contention. Pato O'Ward, fifth in the standings before this round, finished 11th for Arrow McLaren and is now more than 150 points behind the leader. Both drivers, who had appeared as the closest pursuers to Palou before the summer swing, saw any realistic championship hopes end at Portland.

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Palou secured his 25th IndyCar victory at Portland, his sixth of a season in which he has already won at St. Petersburg, Barber, Long Beach, Detroit, and Nashville. The next round will be the series' debut on the streets of Markham, Ontario, on August 16, where the Spaniard can take another step toward his fourth consecutive title.

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OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland

Pos	#	driver	team	laps	time
1	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	110	115:03.423
2	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	110	+4.117s
3	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	110	+8.063s
4	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	110	+16.577s
5	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	110	+19.378s
6	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	110	+20.032s
7	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	110	+21.424s
8	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	110	+22.102s
9	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	110	+25.750s
10	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	110	+29.278s
11	5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	110	+33.090s
12	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	110	+34.024s
13	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	110	+42.550s
14	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	110	+43.450s
15	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	110	+48.933s
16	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	110	+59.007s
17	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	110	+59.104s
18	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	110	+59.473s
19	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	110	+1:00.706
20	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	109	+2.382s
21	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	109	+15.904s
22	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	109	+17.184s
23	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	109	+38.860s
24	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	106	+31.943s
25	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	33	-