Photo: The Canadian Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Will Power remained in the IndyCar championship hunt with a dominating victory Sunday at Portland International Raceway.
Power started second alongside polesitter Santino Ferrucci — the first A.J. Foyt Racing driver to lead the field to green in a decade — but an alliance between Team Penske and the Foyt organization allowed Power and Ferrucci to make a plan for the start.
Sixty-six points behind championship leader Alex Palou at the start of the race, Power vowed to be aggressive at the start and drive like three-time Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen. The 43-year-old Australian was serious about it, too, as he slid ahead of Ferrucci entering the first turn.
“Santino and I talked about the start, he was a very good teammate,” Power said.
Palou, who started third, finished just under 10 seconds back in second as Power led 101 of the 110 laps to win for the third time this season. Palou wondered if his Chip Ganassi Racing team was too conservative with its strategy.
“It was tough work there trying to catch Will,” Palou said. “I'm not uncomfortable. I think we've got a lot of work to do, but I love adversity and the opportunity we have in front of us.”
Power now trails Palou, who was the defending Portland winner and is seeking a third championship in four seasons, by 54 points with three races remaining.
“If he had finished ahead of us, it would be over. This just kept it alive,” Power later added of the importance of the victory. “It's going to be the same for the rest of the year. You've got no choice but to be ahead of him.”
Power teammate Josef Newgarden finished third and was followed by Colton Herta of Andretti Global, Marcus Armstrong of Chip Ganassi Racing and Marcus Ericsson of Andretti. Scott McLaughlin of Penske was seventh and Ferrucci, seeking his first career victory, faded to eighth.
“It's unfortunate, but man, I had fun," Ferrucci said. “To get the pole for us was a huge deal. It's huge to qualify on pole, we've just been so consistent.”
Ferrucci has eight top-10 finishes this season and, ranked a career-high 10th in the standings, is on track for a breakthrough season in a contract year with Foyt.
Power won in a Chevrolet but the three Penske drivers and Ferrucci were outnumbered in the final standings by six Hondas in the top 10.
Power has raced Nashville Superspeedway, site of the season finale, once before and has one victory in six previous starts at the Milwaukee Mile. He'll seek to chip into Palou's lead even more in IndyCar's return to the Wisconsin State Fair Park for next weekend's doubleheader.
Unlike Palou, who has never won on an oval or even raced at the two remaining venues on the schedule, Power has 10 career victories on ovals.
“I really, really love this series, feel lucky to be part of it and see if we can get a championship,” Power said. “We've been very, very good on ovals. Very solid. Obviously, it is two ovals we haven't raced for a long time, so it's anyone's game. We'll do our best and take the fight to Alex.”
Power has 44 career victories, fourth in IndyCar history, and Sunday's win likely cut the championship race down to two drivers. Herta and McLaughlin remain mathematically eligible, but Power is probably Palou's only true challenger.
Dixon done early
Scott Dixon's outside chance for an IndyCar record-tying seventh championship likely ended when he was knocked out of the race on the first lap. Pietro Fittipaldi was squeezed to the curb and bounced back onto the racing line to hit Dixon hard, sending Dixon off course and into the barrier.
It ended his race — and title chances — on the first lap. It's only the second time in 399 races Dixon crashed out on the first lap — a streak dating back to a 2005 race in Japan.
Although Fittipaldi was given an avoidable contact penalty, Dixon felt that Kyle Kirkwood was the perpetrator and Fittipaldi in a helpless position.
“(Kirkwood), I think, caused all that, to be honest,” Dixon said. “Just did a lunge and gave me zero room, shoved me off, and then you're trying to recover. Fittipaldi getting a penalty there? No fault on him. Penalty should have been on (Kirkwood).”
Dixon finished last and remained winless in eight career starts at Portland. He fell to fifth in the standings and trails teammate Palou by 101 points.
Up next
IndyCar returns to the Milwaukee Mile next weekend for a doubleheader following an eight-year hiatus from the Wisconsin oval. IndyCar raced at Milwaukee from 2004 to 2009, then again from 2011 to 2015.
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
