IndyCar at Portland: Review in Moments

An unusually clean race at Portland resulted in domination for Scott McLaughlin, who started from pole, led 104 of 110 laps, and held off 2019 winner Will Power to win his third race, all from pole, this year. McLaughlin never surrendered the effective lead of the race, only letting the lead go during pit cycles. Only five drivers remain in the title hunt, Ericsson, Dixon, and the three Penske drivers. So let’s take a slightly deeper look at the race that eliminated two title contenders, by following its big moments.

POWER LOSES 2ND ON LAP 1

Will Power put himself in a great position on Saturday, qualifying 3rd and then starting 2nd thanks to Newgarden’s 6-place engine penalty. Power seemed to be one of the only drivers matching McLaughlin on the red alternate tire, and the only driver quicker than McLaughlin on the primaries, but was hamstrung by Christian Lundgaard and his quick lunge at Turn 1. Lundgaard was unable to keep pace with McLaughlin, and fell back almost 3.5 seconds, trapping Power 4 seconds behind McLaughlin when he pitted on lap 17. Power spent the rest of the race playing catch-up to McLaughlin, and when the restart finally came on lap 88, Power was forced to defend against a hard charging Pato O’Ward, and then ended up managing the gap to Dixon for the rest of the race. While ultimately Power probably saved his race and title by conceding to Lundgaard in Turn 1, he had the speed to go after McLaughlin and beat him. Lundgaard threw a serious wrench in that. 

TEAM ORDERS

While Scott McLaughlin was clearly the dominant car at Portland, that didn’t stop Will Power from asking for a team favor. Under the last caution, Power came onto the radio and asked for McLaughlin to be moved between him and Scott Dixon, since Dixon remains one of the drivers who can take the title from him. Speaking after the race, Dixon himself was surprised that Penske didn’t swap the two drivers, as Dixon said, “I called it with 10 laps to go, ‘I’m surprised they haven’t swapped yet.’” While driver swaps are common in F1 during title battles, there hasn’t been any examples of that in IndyCar this year, especially as both Penske and Ganassi have each had three drivers in the title hunt. However, as they head to Laguna Seca, the title hunt has realistically narrowed to just Power, Dixon, and Newgarden. McLaughlin and Ericsson are still mathematically eligible, but would need a huge amount of help. There is every chance that while in the middle of green flag stops, one of those drivers will be asked to go long and hold a rival driver up. Both Dixon and McLaughlin after the race reiterated that they were team players and would do what was asked of them if they were in a situation where their own title bid was by the wayside. 

NEWGARDEN TRAPPED ON PRIMARIES

Speaking of championship contenders, Josef Newgarden had a fairly good race going, restarting 4th on lap 88, but Tim Cindric’s call of going to a new set of the black primary tire on lap 78 under green flag pit stops backfired, as the caution allowed the gap to close to the other cars that were on the red alternate tires. After the restart, Newgarden lost 4th to Scott Dixon almost immediately on red tires, and then backslid all the way down to 9th position, as his primary tires proved difficult to warm up and he got stuck on the wrong side of the train of cars. Newgarden gained one spot, moving up to 8th after Christian Lundgaard had to make an unscheduled stop, but only finishing in 8th caused serious damage to his title fight. Newgarden lost 4 positions from the restart, and only scored 24 points, 17 less than title rival Will Power. Instead of heading into the final race 10 points behind, he heads in 20 points behind, needing to win at Laguna Seca and have Will Power finish no better than 4th, assuming he collects all 4 bonus points. Had the race stayed green, Newgarden was in position to stay in 4th, but the caution brought out by Rinus Veekay’s slide job on Jimmie Johnson set him up for failure. He heads to Laguna Seca 20 points out from his third championship.