The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the weekend at Portland International Raceway on Sunday afternoon for the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland. A.J. Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci started the race on the pole with Team Penske driver Will Power starting second.
On the opening lap, Kyle Kirkwood forced Scott Dixon off the track. Dixon went back into the racing lane where Pietro Fittipaldi went up on the curbs and hit Dixon sideways sending him straight into the guardrail at Turn 8 for the first and only caution of the race. Fittipaldi was issued a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact but Fittipaldi should not have been penalized.
Before the caution, Will Power passed Santino Ferrucci for the lead. He led the opening 32 laps before making his first stop. During the pit stop, Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden led a lap each before Power took the lead again on lap 34.
Moving ahead into the action, Romain Grosjean lost control at Turn 2 and spun. He carelessly spun the car right in the direction of Christian Rasmussen and Rasmussen hit him cutting Grosjean’s left rear tire and spinning him again.
No caution came out during this situation. Then, Grosjean got the car going again and nearly hit Toby Sowery. Grosjean limped the car to pit lane and was issued a drive-through penalty for unsafe behavior.
Up front, Will Power led an additional 23 laps before making his second pit stop. Colton Herta and Marcus Armstrong led a lap each before Power went back to the lead on lap 62. After making his final pit stop on lap 86, Power led the final 22 laps to beat Alex Palou by 9.8267 seconds for his third win of the season. Will Power led a total of 101 laps. He now trails Palou by 54 points in the championship standings with three races left of the 2024 season.
The rest of the top five finishers were Josef Newgarden third, Colton Herta fourth, and Marcus Armstrong fifth. The driver who most improved in this race was Scott McLaughlin starting in 20th place and finished in 7th place. There were 169 passes, of which 124 were for position.
The NTT IndyCar Series heads to the Milwaukee Mile next weekend for a doubleheader starting Saturday at 6 pm on Peacock and Sunday at 2:30 pm on the USA Network. Subscribe to Fubo to watch all of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season. Purchase tickets for all IndyCar races today on StubHub and Viagogo.
Finishing Order:
Position | Driver | Interval |
1. | Will Power | – |
2. | Alex Palou | 9.8267 |
3. | Josef Newgarden | 23.2046 |
4. | Colton Herta | 37.1039 |
5. | Marcus Armstrong | 38.0334 |
6. | Marcus Ericsson | 40.7687 |
7. | Scott McLaughlin | 42.3498 |
8. | Santino Ferrucci | 44.8556 |
9. | Graham Rahal | 49.5811 |
10. | Kyle Kirkwood | 50.9987 |
11. | Rinus VeeKay | 52.1760 |
12. | Alexander Rossi | 52.4979 |
13. | Christian Lundgaard | 55.4967 |
14. | Felix Rosenqvist | 56.7606 |
15. | Pato O’Ward | 58.3930 |
16. | Kyffin Simpson | 59.4851 |
17. | Toby Sowery | -1 |
18. | Sting Ray Robb | -1 |
19. | Juri Vips | -1 |
20. | David Malukas | -1 |
21. | Nolan Siegel | -1 |
22. | Conor Daly | -1 |
23. | Linus Lundqvist | -1 |
24. | Jack Harvey | -1 |
25. | Pietro Fittipaldi | -1 |
26. | Christian Rasmussen | -2 |
27. | Romain Grosjean | -3 |
28. | Scott Dixon | -110 |