The IndyCar Afterburn: Portland 2025

Today’s theme music: “She Would” by Kenzy Peach

With a grueling July behind us, the IndyCar season entered its three-part August finale this weekend, starting with our final road course race of the year. From the chaos of its first turn to the absurdly close finishes on the final straight, Portland International Raceway has earned a reputation as a place where anything can happen anywhere on track, and this year’s Grand Prix of Portland promised to be no different.

Of course, this Rose City rumble took on extra importance, given where we were in the National Championship fight, and after Fox took their sweet time getting us to Oregon, we witnessed a solid split-strategy thriller with a tense three-way fight to the finish. So let’s do the opposite of the network and quickly get to the ups, downs, and all-arounds from what might be the most consequential race of the season.

Power saves Penske’s season

All year long, Will Power’s contract at Team Penske has been the pin in silly season’s grenade. With the Australian legend on the final year of his deal, nobody’s willing to move until they see whether he stays or goes. But even with the team having a shockingly bad season, Power has been the best of the trio, and with a local crown to defend, he took things to another gear. After starting from the second row, the Queenslander put on a dominant display, leading 78 laps, posting the fastest lap of the day, getting great pit stops from his crew, and playing expert defense down the final stretch. The dice didn’t 100% roll his way, as Power had to deal with slight tire disadvantages and traffic that didn’t want to be lapped, but he made his own luck anyway, and when he took the checkered flag, he saved Team Penske from its first winless season since 1999.

Of course, there’s plenty of glory here for Power himself. Not only is it his 45th career win in American open-wheel racing, it’s his third at Portland, tying a record that Michael Andretti and “Little Al” Unser had shared exclusively for 30 years. If Power stays at Penske next year, this race will almost certainly be why, and if he doesn’t, it’s still a fine exclamation point on one of the most illustrious partnerships between driver and team in the history of this sport.

Lundgaard on a silver streak

In case it somehow still wasn’t clear that Christian Lundgaard deserved his spot at a top team, the Dane lit up the leaderboards Saturday to take his first pole position as a McLaren man. However, due to an engine swap penalty, Lundgaard had to start from 7th. That didn’t slow him down, as he and his team navigated the strategic points well to keep him in the fight for the win all day, and he even won a ferocious late battle to keep Álex Palou behind him. However, Power’s defense was simply too hard to crack, and the Dane had to settle for his third road course silver of the season. With nothing but ovals left on the schedule, this may have been Lundgaard’s last real shot to win a race this year, and if he goes without a victory, it’ll put a damper on what has otherwise been a massively vindicating season.

Hello, Dario Palou

After a rare mistake in the Fast 6 phase of qualifying, Álex Palou was right back to his usual self come race day. Clean, clinical, and workmanlike, the Spaniard wasn’t necessarily the fastest man on track—in fact, he fell as many as 20 seconds behind Will Power—but he made up that ground late and genuinely threatened for the win right to the very end, earning his 11th podium of the year in the process.

Add in Pato O’Ward losing all his early pace to a power unit failure that, while not race-ending, still put the Mexican ten laps down, and for the second time in three years, Palou claimed his National Championship ahead of schedule in Portland. Just like Dario Franchitti did by the end of 2011, Palou has now taken the Chip Ganassi #10 to a threepeat to make it four titles in five years, and this time, there’s no new chassis and engine formula to level the playing field for next year. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Underdogs best of the rest

Normally, the spots just off the podium go to the big guns of the series, but this time around, the smaller teams helped themselves to those spots. In sixth, Callum Ilott climbed 18 spots to match his team-best finish from two weeks prior at Laguna Seca. In fifth, Alexander Rossi achieved his best finish with Ed Carpenter Racing, as well as his first top-five in over a year. But the most surprising of this group, by far, is Graham Rahal, who gambled successfully on a pit stop under the first yellow of the day and managed to pull off an 18-spot coup of his own, leading ten laps and finishing 4th for his best result in years.

Miscellaneous Misfortunes: I hate golf

The year’s road course slate ended the way it began, with the network taking the day’s biggest L. Arguably, it was even worse than the technical issues that plagued Thermal’s broadcast, as this time the issue was LIV Golf going over its allotted time. Those who tuned in at noon Pacific and didn’t have the means to either switch to FS1 or bum a Fox Sports preview stream off the app spent an agonizing 45 minutes watching rich Boers on blood-soaked Saudi salaries lumber through two playoff rounds as slowly as they possibly could. IndyCar did finally get its rightful time slot back around lap 6, but for God’s sake, if we’re going to get temporarily booted to cable, it should at least be for a sport worth watching.

As for the race itself, Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon were both headed for likely top-10 finishes, but as the two battled for position late in the race, Dixon punted Newgarden and spun the #2 around. Newgarden then ducked into the emergency chicanes, only to briefly stall. Both drivers finished the race, but Dixon took a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact and had to squeeze 11th out of the remaining time, while Newgarden went a lap down and came home 24th.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: Daly stirs the Hate Cauldron

This year, A.J. Foyt Racing has effectively hosted a civil war, with its two drivers fighting to make themselves next in line for the next open seat at Team Penske. David Malukas effectively announced he’d won that fight by running a livery from traditional Penske sponsors Gallagher Insurance, while Santino Ferrucci demonstrated his own defeat by losing the rear end and crashing at the end of lap 3.

However, those who stuck with Big Fox the whole way didn’t get to see that crash, so Conor Daly offered himself up as tribute. After a sketchy outside pass attempt on Christian Rasmussen that sent both men into the dirt, Daly saw red and tried furiously to get past. The second touch between the two also ended with both cars still going, but the third time was the harm. With Daly ahead at an apex, Rasmussen took a sketchy swing at it and punted the Irish-American, who slid spinning through the grass and hit the tire barrier to bring out what turned out to be the final yellow of the day. Daly, naturally, was unhappy with how it all turned out, and his angry tweet at Rasmussen before the race was even done, combined with both men’s rep for daring passes on ovals, suggests that the beef between these two could spiral out into an end-of-season saga.

Championship Collage: two champions crowned

As mentioned earlier, Álex Palou’s podium and Pato O’Ward’s P25 combined to hand Palou the National Championship two races early. By IndyCar standards, this is a shockingly early victory, but given the season Palou has had, it’s well-earned.

Our two viable Rookie of the Year contenders, Louis Foster and Robert Shwartzman, ran solid midpack races today, and with Foster coming out two places ahead, he extends his lead by two points. However, with just six points separating the two, the ultimate result is still completely up in the air.

In the Manufacturers’ Cup, Chevrolet desperately needed a lifeline to keep up at least a pretense of a fight, and with their usual flagship team finally bringing a win, they got one. However, it was too little, too late, as Honda put up a 3-4 to put it out of reach and officially claim their eleventh championship in American open-wheel racing. As long as they’re here and Palou’s using their engines, they have a very good chance to rattle off a streak much like the Chevrolet one they just broke.

Finally, in our official unofficial Nations’ Cup, Callum Ilott pulled the United Kingdom ahead of the Cayman Islands and into ninth, but Spain extended its championship lead over the United States to 45 points. If Palou wins in Milwaukee, this imaginary championship will be over a race early.

Future Flames: stylin’ at the Mile

The National Championship fight may be over, but the season is far from done. We’ll figure out the year’s other champions and settle all remaining scores at the final two oval races of the year, starting in two weeks at the Milwaukee Mile 250.

This storied venue is the only oval on the modern IndyCar schedule that can even remotely challenge the history and prestige of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and if last year’s grand return was any indication, the place is as good as ever. Pato O’Ward and Scott McLaughlin are the reigning co-champions, but with the doubleheader reduced to just one race and no more need to worry about playing for points, expect them—and anyone else with a good car under them—to go absolutely ballistic in pursuit of the win. But don’t forget, that includes Álex Palou, who now has nothing to do but chase the first 10-win season in over fifty years.