Palou clinches IndyCar title with Portland win

Alex Palou has clinched the 2023 IndyCar Series championship with a win in the penultimate race of the season, at Portland.

Chip Ganassi Racing had already locked up the title by the time they arrived in the Pacific Northwest, where Palou needed just a podium to put it out of reach of six-time champion Scott Dixon.

They would also emerge as each other’s main rival for victory for most of the 110-lapper, in which the Spaniard in the #10 Honda prevailed and thus became a two-time series winner.

The McLaren IndyCar Team’s Felix Rosenqvist (#6 Chevrolet), however, finished 5.4353s behind in second place after the deployment of the second Caution of the race fell very kindly for him, leaving Dixon (#9 Honda) third on the day.

2022 champion Will Power was classified two laps down in 25th after spinning early on in the #12 Penske Chevrolet.

Pole-sitter Graham Rahal (#15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) led the field away from pole position with McLaughlin, who was also on alternate tyres (‘reds’), slotting into second place from the other side of the front row.

Despite starting on primary tyres (‘blacks’), Palou was able to nab third through the chicane, a gain of two positions relative to where he qualified, with Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda, reds) fourth and Dixon (blacks) fifth.

A Caution was called on Lap 3 after Power, who started on blacks, was too hot into Turn 4 as he tried to stave off red-shod Alexander Rossi (#7 McLaren Chevrolet) for seventh position and spun into the grass.

Under yellow, Rahal led from McLaughlin, Palou, Herta, Dixon, Pato O’Ward (#5 McLaren Chevrolet, blacks), Rossi, Rosenqvist (blacks), VeeKay (reds), and Ericsson (reds).

Newgarden was 17th after crashing in Qualifying and nudging Kirkwood at the first corner of the Race, while Romain Grosjean (#28 Andretti Honda) had incurred damage after Lap 1 contact with Callum Ilott (#77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet).

The restart came on Lap 7 and, after a brief battle between Rossi and Rosenqvist in which the former reclaimed seventh spot, the race quickly settled down.

Rahal was a full second up on McLaughlin on Lap 9 and two seconds clear on Lap 17 as VeeKay pitted from 10th and was the first to get off reds.

Herta, Rossi, and Ericsson did likewise a lap later, the latter jumping Car #7 in the lane while the former incurred a penalty for speeding.

Palou passed McLaughlin on Lap 21 and the New Zealander was into the lane at the end of that lap to get rid of his worn-out reds, by which time he had drifted to 2.7s away from the lead.

A 5.8s stop put Rahal under pressure and so did Palou, who was less than half a second behind when Car #15 pitted for blacks at the end of Lap 22.

Rahal exited the pits in 14th and had McLaughlin on his tail, as Palou ran until Lap 31.

He pitted from a 6.3s lead and swapped to reds, while Dixon grabbed another set of new blacks when he was into the lane on Lap 32.

Once Malukas, who topped up under Caution, made his first pit stop proper on Lap 34, Palou inherited a 6.2s lead from Dixon, Rosenqvist (blacks), O’Ward (reds), an off-sequence Kirkwood, Rahal, McLaughlin, Newgarden (reds), Ericsson (blacks), and VeeKay (blacks), with Rossi (blacks) in 11th but effectively 10th.

Newgarden passed McLaughlin for seventh on Lap 36, while Kirkwood pitted again on Lap 39.

Armed with the more durable blacks, Dixon was eating into Palou’s lead, and brought it under one second on Lap 47.

The #10 crew responded by calling Palou into the pits on Lap 48 for another set of blacks, and he blocked aggressively to keep Helio Castroneves (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda) at bay at Turn 4 when he emerged on cold tyres, although Race Control saw no need to review the incident.

Rahal and McLaughlin pitted from fifth and sixth respectively on Lap 51, both staying on blacks, with the latter losing track position as he got back up to speed on his out lap.

Dixon ran to Lap 60 and then pitted to take on his set of reds, resuming second to Palou and then coming under pressure from Rosenqvist, who had just stopped for a third set of blacks.

Dixon had drifted to eight seconds in arrears of Palou in another lap, while O’Ward sat fourth, from Newgarden, VeeKay, Marcus Armstrong (#11 CGR Honda), Rahal, Kirkwood, Ericsson, and McLaughlin in 11th, with those drivers all on blacks.

On Lap 63, Ericsson took 10th from Kirkwood, who was attempting to get home with just one more stop, while Palou had grown his margin over Dixon to 10 seconds on Lap 67.

Kirkwood stretched his stint to Lap 76, and Palou was still 7.0s up when he pitted for another set of blacks on Lap 79, resuming in sixth position, just in front of Rahal.

O’Ward stopped from third on Lap 80 and then Dixon was in from the official lead on Lap 81 to swap back to blacks.

Agustin Canapino (#78 JHR Chevrolet) then had a wild spin at the Turn 9/Turn10/Turn 11 sequence and stalled on the outfield.

That was ordinarily not what Rosenqvist needed but Race Control held the yellow flags off long enough for him to pit from the lead, saving him from being trapped by a closed lane but forcing him into a 26-lap final stint on reds.

The McLaren driver thus rejoined in second, between Palou and Dixon, the latter of whom was also behind team-mate Armstrong on the road after Car #11 lost a lap when a wheel fell off as the rookie Kiwi tried to exit his pit box in his previous stop.

O’Ward sat in fourth position from Newgarden, VeeKay, McLaughlin, Ericsson, Rossi, and Herta, with Malukas was second of those on reds in 11th, followed by Rahal in 12th and Kirkwood in 13th on blacks.

Rosenqvist was told “full send” for the Lap 89 restart but Palou held on to the lead while Dixon quickly cleared Armstrong.

A wild moment did come on Lap 90 when Rossi made right-front to left-rear contact with Ericsson as they sped down the back straight, forcing the McLaren driver to pit with wing damage as the #8 CGR pilot pressed on in seventh.

Palou pulled a full second clear on Lap 91 and was a full three seconds up on Lap 103, but Rosenqvist at least enjoyed a gap of nearly six seconds to Dixon at that point.

Herta looked to have salvaged an eighth until he threw away what he had recovered with a spin at Turn 7 with less than four laps to go.

Palou led by 5.4s at the white flag and made no mistake on the final lap.

Notables finishing outside the top 10 were Rahal in 12th, Herta in 13th, Armstrong a lap down in 19th when a top 10 was on offer, and Rossi in 20th.

The season finale takes place next weekend (September 8-10, local time), at Laguna Seca.

Results: Race, Portland International Raceway

Race winner: 110 laps

Series points