PORTLAND, Ore. – Alex Palou was lucky to be unlucky during his victory in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland at Portland Int’l Raceway.
The 24-year-old driver from Spain started on the pole but didn’t make it through the first turn without calamity. Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon passed Alexander Rossi heading down the long front straight after the green flag waved and was alongside Palou.
Dixon was attempting to take the lead from the third starting position in the first turn of the first lap.
RESULTS: Grand Prix of Portland
Felix Rosenqvist ran into the back of Dixon’s No. 9 Honda, triggering a multi-car crash also involved Romain Grosjean, Oliver Askew, Helio Castroneves and Will Power. Dixon and Palou drove into the runoff area after missing turn one and were able to return to the race course after losing four or five positions.
IndyCar officials reviewed the incident and did not enforce any penalties, but they sent all cars that ran off course to the back of the field.
Palou and Dixon were both outraged and wanted an explanation from IndyCar Race Control.
“I didn’t see any replays, so I don’t really know what happened there,” Palou said of the incident. “I know Scott was on the inside. I got hit at some point on the inside, so I couldn’t really go there, so I knew I had to go through the chicane. I made it through the chicane, and I said, ‘Okay, I only lost like five positions, which is a lot, but I said, at least I’m not out.”
“And then IndyCar decided that that was not penalizing enough, and they put me in the back, which I don’t know what they want me to do at that point. Do they prefer me to like completely stop the car and make that corner, making the race unsafe?
“I think it was not right. It’s true that they gave us the option of doing that strategy that gave us the win today, but still, I think it didn’t really make sense.
“It was IndyCar doing IndyCar things.”
As more laps were completed under the yellow flag, it improved both drivers’ chances to save fuel. Five of the top eight pitted on lap nine, which meant they could go the rest of the race with two more green flag pit stops. By getting out of sequence and making the extra stop, those two drivers, along with Alexander Rossi ,could run faster race laps while many others in the field attempt to make it on two stops.
It took 10 laps to sort out the order and return to racing. When the green flag waved on lap 11, Pato O’Ward was in the lead with Palou and Dixon mired in the back of the field.
O’Ward entered the race weekend 10 points ahead of Palou in the standings. Palou earned a bonus point by winning the pole on Saturday.
The race ran green from laps 11 to 52. With three caution periods in the final 54 laps, the advantage fell perfectly in favor of Palou, Rossi and Dixon. By contrast, it worked against Graham Rahal, who led the most laps in the race with 36 and O’Ward, who led 28 laps.
Palou led 29 laps in the 110-lap contest and scored his third victory of the season. He defeated Rossi by 1.2895 seconds. Dixon was third in a race that featured 12 lead changes among eight drivers and was slowed four times for 20 laps of caution.
Palou flipped the points, going from 10 points out of championship lead to 25 points ahead of O’Ward with just two races remaining. The 35-point flip came when O’Ward finished 14th after dominating the early portion of the race.
“Today worked out but some other days it didn’t work out,” Palou said. “But it worked out today. You always want to be on the same strategy as your competitors because you don’t want like big things to happen. I prefer to win or lose on the same strategy.
“I knew that Josef Newgarden and Dixon were on the same kind of strategy, so I was happy with that, and I knew that Pato was P1 at the moment.
“Yeah, we were a bit lucky today being unlucky.”
By making it to the finish, it now puts Palou in control of the championship. O’Ward acknowledged luck just wasn’t on his side Sunday.
“Today was obviously very tough,” O’Ward said. “It just wasn’t our day. We got unlucky with some of the yellows and this race favored the alternate strategy, which you can see when you look at the results. It just goes to show how exciting of a sport IndyCar is at every race. We gave it everything we had all weekend.
“We are up against some great competitors for the championship, but we will come back the next two races and fight down to the last lap in Long Beach.”
Josef Newgarden finished fifth and he remains third in the standings, but is 34 points out of the lead. Dixon is 49 points out of the lead.
“I think we are in the fight,” Palou said. “Clearly, we are in the fight. But I think until Long Beach we are not going to know really who’s what. I think that many people today after the first lap thought that Pato was going to win and that we were going to lose 40 points, and it was the opposite.
“That’s why IndyCar is IndyCar. Which is really good. I think that makes the racing super exciting and the championship super exciting until the end.”
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September 13, 2021 at 07:06AM
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Palou Back On Top After Portland Triumph - SPEED SPORT - SPEED SPORT
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