Palou Continues Championship Quest in Portland - Speedway Digest

NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship points leader Alex Palou led the way for Honda in Sunday’s Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland, with a second-place finish giving the Chip Ganassi Racing Honda driver a solid 54-point lead going into the final three races of the 2024 season.

Continuing his strong late-season run, Colton Herta finished fourth in his Andretti Global Racing Honda, and leaves Portland still in championship contention, trailing fellow Honda driver Palou by 67 points. Marcus Armstong continued his impressive first full year of INDYCAR competition, finishing fifth, also his fifth top-five result of 2024.

The Portland race was the fourth weekend and fifth race with the new INDYCAR SERIES hybrid system—known as the Energy Recovery System or ERS—as well as second road course featuring the system. Introduced at Mid-Ohio in July, the ERS has run on road courses, ovals and a street circuit—marking each of the three circuit types the NTT INDYCAR SERIES competes on.

Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland Honda Race Results

2^nd Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
4^th Colton Herta Andretti Global Honda
5^th Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
6^th Marcus Ericsson Andretti Global Honda
9^th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
10^th Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Global Honda
13^th Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
14^th Felix Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing Honda
16^th Kyffin Simpson-R Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
17^th Toby Sowery-R Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
19^th Juri Vips-R Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
20^th David Malukas Meyer Shank Racing Honda
23^rd Linus Lundqvist-R Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
24^th Jack Harvey Dale Coyne Racing Honda
25^th Pietro Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
28^th Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda [Did not finish – contact]

R – Rookie

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Drivers’ Championship Standings (unofficial, after 14 of 17 rounds)

1. Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing 484 points (2 wins)

2. Will Power, Team Penske -54 (3 wins)

3. Colton Herta, Andretti Global -67 (1 win)

4. Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske -88 (2 wins)

5. Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing -101 (2 wins)

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished 2^nd, INDYCAR championship points leader: “The team did a great job today, but maybe we were a bit wrong with our strategy. We went too aggressive in qualifying yesterday and did not have any really good alternate [tires] to use in the race. I thought the primary and the alternates [tires] were going to be closer [in performance], but they were not. It was tough work there on the primaries. Hopefully we can pick up more points in Milwaukee. I like where we’re sitting. I like the opportunity in front of us.”

Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Global Honda) finished 4^th: “Overall, besides the problem on the final pit stop – when I must’ve hit the clutch a little too quick and stalled – a pretty great day. I think we had a fourth-place car, and that’s what we achieved today. The guys did a great job in the pits and the car was fast. I’m happy.”

Marcus Armstrong (#11 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished 5^th:“INDYCAR is just so competitive. To be inside the top three at an INDYCAR race, you need to have a lot of things go right. You need to have the pace. You need to have some amount of luck, and just everything has to go right for you on the day. To have a string of positive results of late, just shows that we’re making progress. I’m also building a lot of chemistry with my race engineer, Angela Ashmore, who’s doing a great job as well. I just want to thank her because she’s doing an amazing job.”

David Salters (President, Honda Racing Corporation USA) on today’s race in Portland: “A mixed day at the office. As always, a huge thanks to the people at HRC, and the people at our partner teams. Particularly in this case Chip Ganassi Racing, Alex Palou, and Andretti Global with Colton Herta. A good run for Marcus Armstrong as well. We were in there fighting for the race win. We came up slightly short, but I guess it’s a good sign when you’re disappointed with second place. Lots of focus now towards the end of the season, and let’s see what we can accomplish.”

Next

INDYCAR’s late-season run of consecutive races continues next weekend as the series returns to the historic Milwaukee Mile for the August 30-September 1 Hy-Vee Milwaukee 250s on Saturday night and Sunday. The event will be the second double-header oval race weekend of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

Honda Racing PR