Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) – Australian Will Power of Team Penske dominated Sunday’s IndyCar race at Portland International Raceway, beating current championship leader Alex Palou by over nine seconds. Power’s win keeps him in the chase for the title with leader Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Spanish driver, with three races to go. It was a positive day for Penske, with the team’s Josef Newgarden finishing third.
Power grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Santino Ferrucci in the first turn and he was in front for 101 of the race’s 110 laps. The win was the 44th of Power’s career in IndyCar and his third of this campaign. “I came here determined so did the whole team…very determined to get qualifying right and then executing the race,” said Power, who said there had been little room for error if he was to stay in the overall race. “It’s not the last effort but really if Palou finished ahead of us today it’s going to be very difficult so absolute team effort and I am very lucky to drive for this team,” said the Australian, twice winner of the series.
Two-time and defending series champion Palou still leads Power by 54 points, which is the most a driver can take from a single race. The three remaining races are all on ovals – the Milwaukee double-header and the final race at Nashville Superspeedway on September 15. “We’ve been very good on ovals, very solid obviously they’re two ovals that we haven’t raced at for a long time, so you know it’s anyone’s game,” said Power.
Palou suggested that a mistaken tire strategy had impacted his performance. “Maybe we were a bit wrong with the strategy there, went too aggressive in qualifying yesterday and really didn’t have any good use alternate,” he said. “It was tough work there on primaries having to catch Will but (he) deserved it today. They were very fast,” added the Spaniard. Colton Herta was fourth in the Honda of Andretti Global and Marcus Armstrong fifth in the Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
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