McLaughlin dominates in Portland as Power heads to finale with points lead

His 1.1-second margin of victory didn’t show it, but Scott McLaughlin drove a dominant race to win the IndyCar Grand Prix of Portland from pole position.

The only time McLaughlin ceded the top spot during the 110-lap race was during green flag pit stops. Otherwise, he led a total of 104 laps on the day, benefitting from prime track position around the tight and technical Portland International Raceway – as well as the quick work of his Penske pit crew.

McLaughlin’s third win of his breakthrough sophomore season ensures he retains an outside chance of winning the IndyCar championship next weekend at Laguna Seca.

While McLaughlin did what he needed to do to keep his championship hopes alive, they remain remote because points leader Will Power also did what he needed to do in order to move closer to the title. Power converted second on the grid to second at the flag and extended his lead in the standings to 20 points.

Power just needs to finish on the podium next Sunday at Laguna Seca Raceway to guarantee his second IndyCar title, his first since 2014.

Starting on the primary compound tyres, Scott Dixon clawed his way from 16th on the grid after a lacklustre qualifying effort to stand on the podium. He finished the race on a fresh set of alternate compound tyres, and after the race’s lone full-course caution, made a fantastic restart that put him in the window for a strong result.

Pato O’Ward converted a similar strategy into fourth place, but the McLaren SP driver’s championship pursuit is over. Also eliminated from contention is the 2021 champion, Álex Palou, who finished 12th and had difficulty moving up the order – especially after finishing the race on the harder, primary compound tyres.

Graham Rahal finished fifth, recording his best result since Toronto. Amid a new, strong wave of speculation about a future in Formula 1, Colton Herta finished in sixth place, bringing him up to eighth in the championship. F1’s most recent American racer, Alexander Rossi, finished in seventh in his penultimate race for Andretti Autosport.

If Josef Newgarden cannot overcome his 20-point deficit to Power at Laguna Seca, he may well regret the decision to finish the race on the primary tyres on his final pit stop. Newgarden was running a comfortable fourth place even after his pit stop. But after the late-race caution caused when Rinus VeeKay pushed Jimmie Johnson into the wall at turn one, Newgarden – already at a tyre disadvantage to those around him – sank through the order on the ensuing restart, eventually consolidating eighth place.

Newgarden and Dixon are level on 503 points each, 20 behind Power, with Newgarden ahead by way of his five wins this season.

Callum Ilott recorded his second career top-ten finish in ninth, while Felix Rosenqvist completed the top ten, ahead of Marcus Ericsson – who moved up from 18th to 11th. Ericsson is now 39 points behind points leader Power, and McLaughlin is 41 points back.

There was also a dramatic late-race development in the Rookie of the Year battle between Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas. Lundgaard ran inside the top ten all afternoon, but after an ill-fated lunge up the inside of Rossi at turn one, he collected a trackside advertising hoarding and had to pit so his RLL team could remove it.

That dropped Lundgaard to 21st, with Malukas in 14th. The two drivers are now separated by just five points headed into the finale at Laguna Seca Raceway next weekend.

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Grand Prix of Portland results

Position	Car	Driver	Team	Engine
1	3	Scott McLaughlin	Penske	Chevrolet
2	12	Will Power	Penske	Chevrolet
3	9	Scott Dixon	Ganassi	Honda
4	5	Pato O’Ward	McLaren SP	Chevrolet
5	15	Graham Rahal	RLL	Honda
6	26	Colton Herta	Andretti	Honda
7	27	Alexander Rossi	Andretti	Honda
8	2	Josef Newgarden	Penske	Chevrolet
9	77	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger	Chevrolet
10	7	Felix Rosenqvist	McLaren SP	Chevrolet
11	8	Marcus Ericsson	Ganassi	Honda
12	10	Alex Palou	Ganassi	Honda
13	14	Kyle Kirkwood	Foyt	Chevrolet
14	18	David Malukas	Coyne/HMD	Honda
15	45	Jack Harvey	RLL	Honda
16	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Steinbrenner	Honda
17	6	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank	Honda
18	51	Takuma Sato	Coyne/RWR	Honda
19	28	Romain Grosjean	Andretti	Honda
20	21	Rinus VeeKay	Carpenter	Chevrolet
21	30	Christian Lundgaard	RLL	Honda
22	4	Dalton Kellett	Foyt	Chevrolet
23	60	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank	Honda
24	48	Jimmie Johnson	Ganassi	Honda
25	20	Conor Daly	Carpenter	Chevrolet

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IndyCar

• Andretti confirms he’s stepping down in charge of racing team
• Ilott gets first seat in Prema’s new IndyCar team
• Palou clinches third IndyCar title as Herta passes O’Ward to win finale
• Kirkwood takes pole for finale, Palou only 24th after penalty
• Ferrucci secures second Foyt IndyCar seat for 2025 alongside Malukas

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