By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
Alex Palou moved one step closer to a fifth IndyCar title on Sunday afternoon (Aug 9), winning for the third time at Portland International Raceway, his sixth of 2026.
Starting from second position, Palou did not have full control of the race until Lap 32 after he exited pit road ahead of a charging Felix Rosenqvist, who was on an out-lap after his taking service a lap prior, executing the overcut on Rosenqvist. Palou never looked back and led 60 laps en-route to his 25th career IndyCar win.
The No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing crew kept Palou out long during his stint on the red, alternate tire, which had not shown speed all weekend, until race day.
“The race in general was incredible for us,” Palou said. “I think pretty much nobody expected those reds and soft tires to be that fast and to be that good, especially so many laps. That’s why we went a bit let’s say in that moment as well, also because Barry and Julian said we’re going to hit some traffic. It was time to try and open the gap. It worked incredible. But that was like, ‘Man, those tires are the best.’ I wanted to have them more towards the end to avoid Felix [Rosenqvist] or Power or whoever we were going to be fighting with.”
Rosenqvist was the car to beat for the first third of the 110-lap race, leading the first 31 laps. The Swede earned another podium for Meyer Shank Racing and the No.60 team and moves up to sixth in the championship, but just like Long Beach in April, comes short of beating Palou again.
“He just drove better, to be honest,” Rosenqvist said. “Not a lot quicker, but he was a little bit quicker, especially on the blacks. That first stint he outsmarted us, did one lap longer. I didn’t know he did that, so maybe we need to work on communication. I don’t think I could have kept up with that pace he did anyways, if I saved that much fuel. He got us in a sequence. I got kind of twisted up leaving my box because I was so close to the Schumacher crew. I think between the overcut and that, we kind of lost the position. From there on we just sat in second.”
Lapped traffic became a nuisance for the Indianapolis 500 champion after losing time to Palou throughout the race and even called for a rule change in regards to lapped cars. Unlike most racing series, in IndyCar, lapped cars are not required to move out of the way of the leaders.
“Sometimes you’re getting three seconds because of a lap car, the next time you lose three seconds. I think without sounding salty, I don’t think I would have won the race anyway, but I think it’s kind of time for us as a series to grow up and not have the lapped car situation. I think it makes us all look stupid. When you work hard and all of a sudden you lose five seconds behind a lapped car, I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think anyone wants to see that. Again, I don’t think I would have won anyways. I think all drivers probably agree with me.”
Andretti Global’s Will Power completed another Honda podium sweep, earning his third podium of the season. Power saved his stint on the red, alternate tire, for the end of the race, but ultimately could not catch Rosenqvist for second after a miscommunication from strategist Ron Ruzewski before pitting on Lap 88. On the in-lap (Lap 87), Power was held up by the cars of Scott Dixon and Sting Ray Robb, losing even more time to Rosenqvist.
“I heard something, I just didn’t hear it clear enough,” Power said. “Normally the strategists will repeat it multiple times. I never heard it again. Heard it in Turn 10. I was waiting, waiting. ‘Was that a call or not?’ ‘I think I missed a pit call there.’ ‘Hey, are we pitting?’ ‘Yes.’ I believe I missed it, which cost us quite a bit of time.
“That probably lost me three seconds behind the back marker I would say in the sequence. Probably a good shot of coming out. I can’t remember the gap as I came out behind Felix. It certainly would have made things interesting.”
In what was arguably the story of the weekend, Rinus Veekay brought home the No.76 Chevrolet in fourth position, something the Dutchman has done three times in the last five races. After testing at PIR last week, Veekay believes the JHR crew has finally got a read on the road course car, with the team seeing upward momentum.
“I think we just figured out our road course car,” Veekay said. “My testing in Mid-Ohio, I think that really just made a huge difference for our program, and we found some things that really needed to change, especially after a really tough weekend in Road America. I think we are starting to figure things out, this far into the season. We have a double header coming up in Milwaukee, so we’re really, really, excited for that.”
Kyle Kirkwood gave Andretti Global its second car in the top five, finishing fifth, his eighth of the season. Marcus Ericsson would finish sixth and looked to be a podium contender, but would miss the entrance to Turn One on Lap 31, sending the 2022 Indy 500 champion down the order.
Leaving Portland, Palou now has a two-race lead in the championship, leading Kirkwood by 110 points, with just five races to go.
“I mean, yeah, more comfortable than when we came here,” Palou said regarding his points lead. “This was one of those weekends where we wanted to do good. I mean, we want to do good every single weekend. But we don’t know what’s going to happen at Markham. New track for everyone, new track for me. We don’t know what’s going to happen at DC.
“There’s still a lot of points to play. It was important to maximize. If we had an opportunity to win, to win, instead of finishing second or anything like that. A win gives you a big, big amount of points. The same way that in the last two weekends we got a huge gap, someone else can do the exact same thing. So we need to keep on pushing.”