Power Wins For Penske, Palou Clinches IndyCar Title

PORTLAND, Ore. — As expected, Alex Palou clinched his third-straight NTT IndyCar Series Championship in Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland in a race won by Team Penske’s Will Power.

What wasn’t expected, was how Pato O’Ward was eliminated.

A failed Electronic Control Unit (ECU) on Lap 22 doomed the Arrow McLaren driver, who had to pit for a replacement ECU. By the time he returned to the race course, he was nine laps down.

O’Ward would finish the race 25th, 10 laps down.

Power went on to win the race, his third at Portland including 2024 and 2025 as the two-time champion attempts to save his job on the iconic racing team.

But it was Palou that got to celebrate his fourth NTT IndyCar Series Championship, all within the past five seasons.

Palou clinched the championship with a full two races remaining in the season. In 2023, he clinched the title with one race left in that season.

In the “Era of Alex” there seems to be little that he can do wrong.

He is the perfect driver on the perfect time at the perfect time and that has created history for IndyCar.

As for the outcome of the race, it was an incredible battle between Power, Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard and Palou for final three-quarters of the race, showcasing IndyCar racing at its best.

Palou attempted to pass Lundgaard for second place, but Lundgaard closed the gap, knocking Palou off course, but able to return to the track without losing third place with just three laps to go.

That battle, however, gave Power the distance he needed to score his 45^th career IndyCar Series win.

It was Team Penske’s first victory of the season.

Power defeated Lundgaard by 1.5388 seconds. Palou was third and celebrated his championship in a nod to former Chip Ganassi Racing champion Alex Zanardi by doing “doughnuts” on the track.

“Thank you so much,” Palou radioed to his crew.

After climbing out of the No. 10 Honda, the 28-year-old Palou hugged every member of his championship crew.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s crazy,” Palou said. “I couldn’t be happier right now. It’s been an amazing season, an incredible five years right now.

“Welcome to the ride. This has been an amazing year. I cannot wait for more.

“The team I have behind me, my partners, my team and the car has been unbelievable. It’s a shame we couldn’t have ended with another win, but I tried to take it to Lundgaard and couldn’t make it happen today.”

Chip Ganassi Racing has now won 17 championships, tying Team Penske for the most in history.

Power finally got to celebrate a win for the first time since Portland in 2024.

“It’s a big win for the whole team,” Power said. “It’s been a rough year. It’s a good, hard-fought win. We split the strategy at the beginning to run hard. It got a bit dicey.

“I had a great career with Verizon and Team Penske and it’s great to get this one for the guys.”

This is the final year of Power’s contract with Team Penske. His fate for next season has not been determined or announced by the team.

Lundgaard’s second-place finish was impressive for Arrow McLaren.

“All weekend, everybody was recharged from the weekend off and to get two P-2’s in a row is nice, but it’s annoying, too,” Lundgaard said.

Palou got a good start down the front straight, but the field made it through Turn 1 and the carousel without incident.

At the beginning of Lap 2, Christian Rasmussen made an aggressive move to the outside of Devlin De Francesco for 12th place heading into Turn 1.

Santino Ferrucci had a massive crash coming out of Turn 12 at high speed at the end of Lap 2, destroying the No. 14 Chevrolet. The A.J. Foyt Racing driver climbed out of this car without assistance.

Ferrucci came out of the corner too hard on the throttle coming out of Turn 12, spun, and backed into the pit wall.

The caution light came on and slowed the field until the green flag waved on Lap 8. O’Ward once again had another great start, and the field appeared to make it through the carousel until Louis Foster was tagged and spun.

Back to yellow and O’Ward led the field on another caution. Race Control issued a penalty to Kyffin Simpson for avoidable contact in the incident and was ordered to the back of the field.

The green flag waved on Lap 11 and O’Ward once again made it cleanly through Turn 1.

On Lap 12, Rasmussen and Conor Daly made contact and both drove through the grass before returning to the track. Daly tagged Rasmussen through Turn 2.

But it ended in a serious crash with Daly getting sent through the grass by Rasmussen before a very hard impact into the tire barrier in Turn 8, sending the car into the tire barrier on Lap 15.

Daly was ahead at the apex and Rasmussen did not back off leading to the contact.

“I don’t know what he was thinking there,” Rasmussen radioed to his crew.

Daly and Ferrucci (from the earlier crash) were both seen and released from the IndyCar Medical Unit.

“I’m not really sure what he was doing,” Daly said of Rasmussen. “It just seemed like a lot of desperation for no reason. He drove me off in Turn 7. Also drove himself off. I understand going to the outside is tough, but when you also drive yourself off, that’s pretty intentional. So, I don’t know, I don’t understand that.

“Our standard of racing, I thought, was a little bit higher than that, but not for him, I guess. So that was a shame.”

The front group of drivers pitted with the exception of Team Penske’s Will Power, who stayed on track to take the lead. Palou was in second place.

Race control assessed DeFrancesco with a blocking penalty and had to give up three positions. He was fifth.

Power led the field on the restart in Turn 1 ahead of Palou, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden, putting all three Team Penske drivers in the top four.

O’Ward’s car died on Lap 22 with an apparent electric issue dropping him to the end of the line as the No. 5 Chevrolet limped back into pit lane. Arrow McLaren and Chevrolet engineers changed the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) on O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevy.

At Lap 25, Power led Palou, McLaughlin, Newgarden and Rahal.

O’Ward returned to the track on Lap 30, nine laps down.

Power led Palou by 10.5122 seconds ahead of Palou, who was followed by McLaughlin and Newgarden.

McLaughlin made it 35 laps on the Firestone Reds before pitting and his Team Penske crew put another set of Reds on the No. 3.

Race leader Power pitted on Lap 35, and the team put a used set of Red tires on the No. 12 Chevrolet. Palou pitted on the same lap, putting both on the same sequence.

Power was able to make it out ahead of front row started Felix Rosenqvist, giving the Team Penske driver a major advantage. While that was happening, Newgarden pitted after assuming the lead. That put Rahal in front ahead of Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman and Rinus VeeKay.

Rahal continued to lead but once the sequence began to play out, Power was second ahead of Christian Lundgaard.

When Rahal pitted on Lap 40, Power was in front of the field leading Lundgaard by 3.5115 seconds. Lundgaard pitted on Lap 49 giving Power a 16.7139-second lead over Alexander Rossi.

Power pitted on Lap 62 to get off the Firestone Reds and put on the harder Firestone Blacks. That put Palou in the lead and increased his lead as the race ran to 166 over 25th place O’Ward.

Palou led Newgarden by 5.60 seconds.

Palou pitted on Lap 64 and Newgarden was the leader with Rahal, second, Power third and Ilott fourth. When Newgarden pitted, that put Rahal in the lead ahead of Power.

When Rahal pitted on Lap 70, Power was back in the lead but led Lundgaard by just 1.9043. Palou was third, 14.2518 seconds back.

Lundgaard was third when he pitted for the final time on Lap 80. Power made his last pit stop on Lap 81 with used Firestone Reds and that put Palou in the lead over Rahal.

Palou made his final stop on Lap 83, in and out on Firestone Reds.

Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet came to a stop in Turn 2 for a local yellow. He was able to refire the Chevrolet and attempt to go through the chicane.

Newgarden came out on cold tires and Scott Dixon’s No. 9 Honda ran into the back of Newgarden’s Chevrolet, sending it into a spin. Dixon was issued an avoidable contact penalty.

With 25 laps to go, Palou had cut the lead down to 3.217.

By Lap 92, the gap between the top three was just 1.4337-seconds.

Four laps later, the top three were separated by less than one second.

Palou dove to the inside of Lundgaard in an attempt to pass the Arrow McLaren driver, but Lundgaard was able to race wheel to wheel and maintain position with 13 laps to go.

On Lap 100, the top three drove past Marcus Ericsson in the Carousel to continue this fantastic fight to the finish.

With Power on used Reds, he was trying to make the rubber last to the finish. His two pursuers had new Reds, which had more grip, adding to the intrigue of this battle.