Power goes fastest before incident at Portland IndyCar test

Will Power has set the pace before coming to grief in an incident-filled private IndyCar test at next weekend’s race venue of Portland.

The series leader clocked a 58.296s on his 79th lap before going offroad in the #12 Team Penske entry and incurring damage.

In what was a nine-car test, featuring all of the full-time entries from Penske, Andretti Autosport, and AJ Foyt Racing, Power would end up a quarter of a second up on next-best.

That was Andretti w/ Curb-Agajanian’s Colton Herta, who went as quick as a 58.543s, from Penske’s Josef Newgarden on a 58.596s, Andretti’s Alexander Rossi on a 58.620s, and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin on a 58.634s.

Rossi was among those who left the circuit during the day, although he completed a high of 115 laps.

Team-mate Romain Grosjean, on the other hand, notched up the low of only 61, his cause not helped by two off-track excursions, one of which broke the left-front suspension on the #28 Honda.

The test is a critical one for Penske given Power not only leads the series, with Newgarden just three points behind, but three of Chip Ganassi Racing’s drivers are all within striking distance ahead of the final two races of the year, at Portland and Laguna Seca.

Ganassi, McLaren SP, Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, and Andretti rookie Devlin DeFrancesco will all test at Laguna Seca on Monday, August 29 (local time).

Practice at Portland starts next Friday, September 2 (local time), with every IndyCar race streamed live and ad-free on Stan Sport.

Results: Portland private test Unofficial