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PORTLAND, Ore. – (AP) – Alex Palou grabbed the first pole of his IndyCar career and positioned himself to reclaim the championship lead on Sunday at Portland International Raceway.
Palou clocked 58.7701 seconds on Saturday, qualifying on the 1960’s permanent, 1,964-mile, 12-turn road course. The Spaniard had only been to the Portland track once – the race was canceled last season when rescheduling the pandemic – for a testing session last month.
But he said he immediately liked the track and spent the two weeks of IndyCar heading to Portland on the simulator to prepare for that crucial title race.
“We worked hard to try to get there,” Palou told The Associated Press after his qualifying round. pole and got it here and I’m just super happy to check that box.
More importantly, Palou’s best competition for the title will start behind him on Sunday. Palou got one point for winning pole and that reduced his deficit against Pato O’Ward to just nine points ahead of the race by 110 laps.
“The big points are (Sunday). I’m super happy and super proud of what we’ve done, but we have to try to keep the position, ”said Palou. “It’s a good start to start in the lead and I hope he will continue his momentum until the end of the season. We’ll get there.”
O’Ward overcame a 48-point deficit over two races as Palou suffered both an engine problem and was recovered in a crash two weeks ago at Gateway outside of St. Louis. This put O’Ward at the top of the points standings and moved Palou to second place; Palou was the points leader after eight of 13 races this season.
O’Ward will start seventh after his Arrow McLaren SP teammate Felix Rosenqvist prevented him from qualifying for the final Fast Six qualifying round.
“The guys I’m fighting are in front of me so I have to get past them,” O’Ward said.
Alexander Rossi, who is not part of the championship, qualified second for Andretti Autosport. He was followed by reigning six-time series champion Scott Dixon, who joined his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Palou in the top three.
Dixon went from third to fourth in the IndyCar rankings, to 43 against O’Ward, when he was recovered in the same crash as Palou at Gateway. He still believes that he and Palou are firmly engaged in the title fight, with Dixon’s lane clear: “We have to win,” said the New Zealander.
But if he doesn’t win the title, Dixon said he fully supports his teammates and said Palou, 24, has worked hard for his championship chance.
“You won’t meet a nicer person than Alex. I told him he needed to be a little more of a (jerk), ”Dixon said. “It was really good for the team.
Marcus Ericsson, another Ganassi driver who is fifth in the standings and 60 points, qualified 10th.
Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden had the title contenders worst qualifying effort ever. His Gateway victory propelled him from a spot in the standings to third, just 22 points behind O’Ward, but he failed to advance to Saturday’s first round of qualifying and will start 18th.
“We just didn’t have a rhythm,” Newgarden said of his Team Penske Chevrolet. “It wasn’t a bad trick, it just wasn’t enough. We’ll just have to find out.”
The IndyCar season ends with three consecutive races on the West Coast as the series moves from Portland to California for the road course at Laguna Seca and the final on the streets of Long Beach. All three races were called off last season and Palou, a second-year driver, has almost no experience on the remaining three circuits.
O’Ward, meanwhile, once raced at Long Beach in the IndyCar Series and swept a pair of Indy Lights races in Portland in 2018 when he won five of the last seven events to claim the Feeder Series Championship.
FREE AGENCY
Ryan Hunter-Reay, in his last three races with Andretti Autosport, was unable to make a qualifying attempt due to an electrical problem during practice on Saturday morning. He will start last in the 27-car peloton on Sunday.
Takuma Sato will start 26th because of a penalty for also changing engines on Saturday morning, and Rinus VeeKay, who was celebrating his 21st birthday on Saturday, will drop to 25th because of his own penalty for an engine change after Gateway.
With only three races remaining this season, the free agency period has accelerated considerably, with Hunter-Reay actively looking for another race as he is expected to be replaced by Romain Grosjean next season. Dale Coyne appeared to confirm Grosjean would be gone after his debut IndyCar season with the team when Coyne said on Saturday he was still trying to build a two-car lineup for 2022.
Bobby Rahal said he is evaluating several drivers for a third Rahal Letterman Lanigan appearance next season and that Oliver Askew will drive the final three races of the season as he appears. RLL also used Santino Ferrucci and Christian Lungaard in the car. Rahal has said he’s not sure what will happen next season with Sato, the two-time Indy 500 winner who needs Honda’s financial backing to finalize his deal.
Rahal said Sato is still in the race for a seat at RLL, but the team won’t field four full-time cars next year. RLL would field a fourth at the Indy 500, Rahal said.
Simon Pagenaud has said he is still a few weeks away from revealing his plans for 2022, which seems to indicate he will not be returning to the Penske team next year. Roger Penske has only said that if a current driver leaves the organization – Newgarden, Will Power and Scott McLaughlin are under contract – the Penske team will drop to three IndyCar entries next season.
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