IndyCar: Palou Storms to GP of Portland Pole

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou edged Alexander Rossi for pole position in tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Portland. The Spaniard, who sits 9 points behind NTT INDYCAR Series championship leader Pato O’Ward hopes to hopes to parlay his strong qualifying effort into a renewed title charge.

“I’m super happy with my first pole in INDYCAR,” Palou said. “We’re starting on the best position tomorrow, and we know we have a really fast car. I cannot wait for tomorrow’s race.”

Scott Dixon made it two CGR Hondas in the top-3, while Felix Rosenqvist was the fastest Chevy in fourth. Graham Rahal and Colton Herta rounded out the top-6. In his best qualifying performance of the season, Rossi will start 2nd, and missed pole by just 0.08s

The PNC Ganassi Hondas of Palou and Dixon were fast

The pole was the first for Palou in his second season of INDYCAR competition, and the fifth for Honda in 2021. Since winning the season-opening Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Palou has either led or run second in the championship points standings, and is currently second, nine points out of first, with three races remaining.

Palou will earn one point for the pole, valuable as he entered this event 10 points behind championship leader Pato O’Ward. Palou started on pole for the Genesys 300 in early May at Texas Motor Speedway, but qualifying for that event was canceled due to weather delays, with the starting lineup set by entrant points.

The strong performance at Portland was a powerful rebound from Palou’s two worst finishes of the season in the last two races, 27th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with a mechanical problem and 20th at World Wide Technology Raceway after being taken out in a crash.

“This motivates us, but we were already fully motivated,” Palou said. “We all know that the last two race weekends we had, it was out of our control. So, we’re fully laser-focused on these three races we have to get that championship home, and we’ll try to get that.”

Of particular interest is the fact Team Penske failed to get any 4 of its cars out of Round 1 qualifying. Josef Newgarden, who sits third in the standings following his recent win at Gateway, will start 18th tomorrow.

Championship leader O’Ward qualified seventh in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet after being eliminated by teammate Rosenqvist by .0103 of a second on the last lap of the second qualifying session. Marcus Ericsson, 60 points behind O’Ward in fifth, qualified 10th in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Two-time series champion Josef Newgarden, 22 points behind O’Ward in third, will start 18th in the 27-car field in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.

Newgarden’s qualifying troubles were a symptom of larger woes for Team Penske. All four Penske drivers – Newgarden, 2019 Portland winner Will Power, Simon Pagenaud and rookie Scott McLaughlin – were eliminated in the first round of road or street course qualifying for the first time this season.

British driver Callum Ilott qualified 19th for his NTT INDYCAR SERIES debut in the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet. Ferrari Formula One test driver Ilott was the second-quickest of the four series rookies in the field, behind only McLaughlin, who qualified 15th in the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet.

Dale Coyne Racing with RWR driver Romain Grosjean had the speed during Saturday’s qualifying for the Grand Prix of Portland, but a qualifying penalty for interference sent him down the time charts and 21st on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.

Grosjean went out in Group 1 of qualifying and maintained a position in the top six throughout most of the session but after getting caught in some traffic and while trying to build a gap from the other cars ahead of him it was judged he had impeded the lap of another competitor.

Coverage for tomorrow’s race begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.

Starting Lineup

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team	Round
1	10	Alex Palou	58.7701	58.7701	0.000	120.306	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing	Firestone Fast Six
2	27	Alexander Rossi	58.8573	0.0872	0.0872	120.128	Honda	Andretti Autosport	Firestone Fast Six
3	9	Scott Dixon	58.8673	0.0972	0.0100	120.107	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing	Firestone Fast Six
4	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.9505	0.1804	0.0832	119.938	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP	Firestone Fast Six
5	15	Graham Rahal	59.0067	0.2366	0.0562	119.824	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Firestone Fast Six
6	26	Colton Herta	59.2796	0.5095	0.2729	119.272	Honda	Andretti Autosport	Firestone Fast Six
7	5	Pato O’Ward	58.9732	0.2041	0.0103	119.892	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP	Round 2
8	18	Ed Jones	59.0247	0.2556	0.0515	119.787	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	Round 2
9	45	Oliver Askew	59.0837	0.3146	0.0590	119.668	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Round 2
10	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.0901	0.3210	0.0064	119.655	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing	Round 2
11	59	Max Chilton	59.2346	0.4655	0.1445	119.363	Chevy	Carlin	Round 2
12	14	Sebastien Bourdais	59.2419	0.4728	0.0073	119.348	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
13	51	Romain Grosjean	59.2231	0.4137	0.0089	119.386	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR	Round 1, Group 1
14	12	Will Power	59.0032	0.3120	0.0642	119.831	Chevy	Team Penske	Round 1, Group 2
15	29	James Hinchcliffe	59.2537	0.4443	0.0306	119.324	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	Round 1, Group 1
16	20	Conor Daly	59.0974	0.4062	0.0942	119.640	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing	Round 1, Group 2
17	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.3563	0.5469	0.1026	119.118	Chevy	Team Penske	Round 1, Group 1
18	2	Josef Newgarden	59.1371	0.4459	0.0397	119.559	Chevy	Team Penske	Round 1, Group 2
19	06	Helio Castroneves	59.4190	0.6096	0.0627	118.992	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing	Round 1, Group 1
20	60	Jack Harvey	59.1463	0.4551	0.0092	119.541	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing	Round 1, Group 2
21	77	Callum Ilott	59.5008	0.6914	0.0818	118.829	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing	Round 1, Group 1
22	21	Rinus VeeKay	59.1885	0.4973	0.0422	119.456	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing	Round 1, Group 2
23	48	Jimmie Johnson	59.7120	0.9026	0.2112	118.408	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing	Round 1, Group 1
24	30	Takuma Sato	59.1953	0.5041	0.0068	119.442	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Round 1, Group 2
25	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	No Time	—	—	—	Honda	Andretti Autosport	Round 1, Group 1
26	22	Simon Pagenaud	59.6591	0.9679	0.4638	118.513	Chevy	Team Penske	Round 1, Group 2
27	4	Dalton Kellett	59.7438	1.0526	0.0847	118.345	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Round 1, Group 2

Firestone Fast Six

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	58.7701	58.7701	0.000	4	4	120.306	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	27	Alexander Rossi	58.8573	0.0872	0.0872	3	3	120.128	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	9	Scott Dixon	58.8673	0.0972	0.0100	3	4	120.107	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.9505	0.1804	0.0832	3	3	119.938	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
5	15	Graham Rahal	59.0067	0.2366	0.0562	4	4	119.824	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	26	Colton Herta	59.2796	0.5095	0.2729	4	4	119.272	Honda	Andretti Autosport

Round 2

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	58.7691	58.7691	0.000	8	8	120.308	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	9	Scott Dixon	58.8200	0.0509	0.0509	8	8	120.204	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	15	Graham Rahal	58.9338	0.1647	0.1138	8	8	119.972	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
4	26	Colton Herta	58.9459	0.1768	0.0121	6	7	119.947	Honda	Andretti Autosport
5	27	Alexander Rossi	58.9571	0.1880	0.0112	8	8	119.924	Honda	Andretti Autosport
6	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.9629	0.1938	0.0058	8	8	119.913	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
7	5	Pato O’Ward	58.9732	0.2041	0.0103	7	8	119.892	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
8	18	Ed Jones	59.0247	0.2556	0.0515	8	8	119.787	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
9	45	Oliver Askew	59.0837	0.3146	0.0590	7	8	119.668	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	8	Marcus Ericsson	59.0901	0.3210	0.0064	8	8	119.655	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	59	Max Chilton	59.2346	0.4655	0.1445	5	8	119.363	Chevy	Carlin
12	14	Sebastien Bourdais	59.2419	0.4728	0.0073	7	8	119.348	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Round 1, Group 2

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	7	Felix Rosenqvist	58.6912	58.6912	0.000	8	8	120.468	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
2	10	Alex Palou	58.7971	0.1059	0.1059	8	8	120.251	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	26	Colton Herta	58.8450	0.1538	0.0479	7	8	120.153	Honda	Andretti Autosport
4	9	Scott Dixon	58.8684	0.1772	0.0234	8	8	120.105	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	18	Ed Jones	58.9330	0.2418	0.0646	7	8	119.974	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
6	14	Sebastien Bourdais	58.9390	0.2478	0.0060	8	8	119.961	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
7	12	Will Power	59.0032	0.3120	0.0642	8	8	119.831	Chevy	Team Penske
8	20	Conor Daly	59.0974	0.4062	0.0942	7	8	119.640	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
9	2	Josef Newgarden	59.1371	0.4459	0.0397	9	9	119.559	Chevy	Team Penske
10	60	Jack Harvey	59.1463	0.4551	0.0092	6	8	119.541	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
11	21	Rinus VeeKay	59.1885	0.4973	0.0422	7	8	119.456	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	30	Takuma Sato	59.1953	0.5041	0.0068	8	8	119.442	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13	22	Simon Pagenaud	59.6591	0.9679	0.4638	8	8	118.513	Chevy	Team Penske
14	4	Dalton Kellett	59.7438	1.0526	0.0847	8	8	118.345	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises

Round 1, Group 1

P	No.	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	8	Marcus Ericsson	58.8094	58.8094	0.000	7	8	120.226	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	15	Graham Rahal	58.9369	0.1275	0.1275	8	8	119.966	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	27	Alexander Rossi	59.0177	0.2083	0.0808	8	8	119.801	Honda	Andretti Autosport
4	59	Max Chilton	59.0735	0.2641	0.0558	5	8	119.688	Chevy	Carlin
5	45	Oliver Askew	59.1960	0.3866	0.1225	8	8	119.441	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	5	Pato O’Ward	59.2142	0.4048	0.0182	8	8	119.404	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
7	51	Romain Grosjean	59.2231	0.4137	0.0089	8	8	119.386	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
8	29	James Hinchcliffe	59.2537	0.4443	0.0306	4	8	119.324	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
9	3	Scott McLaughlin	59.3563	0.5469	0.1026	7	8	119.118	Chevy	Team Penske
10	06	Helio Castroneves	59.4190	0.6096	0.0627	8	8	118.992	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
11	77	Callum Ilott	59.5008	0.6914	0.0818	7	7	118.829	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
12	48	Jimmie Johnson	59.7120	0.9026	0.2112	8	8	118.408	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	No Time	—	—	—	—	—	Honda	Andretti Autosport