Christian Lundgaard wins P1 Award – BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland – Photo by Chris Owens

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

INDYCAR ace Pato O’Ward will attempt to keep his championship pursuit of Alex Palou mathematically alive Sunday at Portland International Raceway from a “gifted” pole position.

Arrow McLaren teammates Christian Lundgaard and O’Ward produced Saturday’s two quickest laps, respectively, during Firestone Fast Six qualifying for the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland presented by askROI. Driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, O’Ward was awarded P1 after Lundgaard incurred a six-place grid penalty (to seventh) for an unapproved engine change after Friday’s practice.

Both drivers improved considerably lapping on Firestone’s Firehawk alternate tires from the morning practice, when Lundgaard was seventh-quickest and O’Ward 11th on Firestone’s primary rubber. A year ago at this event, Arrow McLaren’s top two qualifiers were Alexander Rossi in 18th and O’Ward in 23rd.

SEE: Qualifying Results

O’Ward needs to capitalize on every break falling his way on PIR’s 1.964-mile/12-turn natural-terrain road-course. Palou, winner eight of 14 races this season, leads Pato by 121 points entering Round 15 of the 17-race schedule. Palou needs to lead by 108 points at the checkered flag to clinch his third consecutive NTT IndyCar Series championship and fourth title in the last five years.

O’Ward’s best time in the Fast Six was 58.5343-seconds/120.791 mph.

“It’s a bit of a surprise considering where we were in the practices,” said O’Ward, a 26-year-old native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio, Texas. “We were still inching away trying to make it better. Christian did great job on getting the fastest lap time there, and the No. 5 car had strong runs each qualifying session. I was super-happy with that, and the car just came alive. I don’t really have an explanation for it. We didn’t really change anything from practice, but sometimes that’s just the story with these Firestone tires.

“(Sunday), we’ll have the best view into Turn 1. I’m super-proud of the team and all the hard work that’s gone into it because this was really our toughest road-course last year, so today is a great step forward.”

Lundgaard earned the third NTT P1 Award of his career and first with Arrow McLaren, which he joined before this season, with a best lap of 58.3939-seconds/121.080 mph in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. His last pole came in July 2023 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at Toronto, a race he won.

“Honestly, as I crossed the line, I still didn’t really expect pole,” said Lundgaard, a 24-year-old native of Denmark. “I just felt like I had a big push in Turn 5, a big push in Turn 6 and I knew I was slower than the Fast 12, so I didn’t really think that was it. But, and we were discussing this, it’s the best-case scenario for us with the six-place grid penalty.

“I’m just proud of this team. We’ve had a week off and everybody is kind of recharged. Another front row lockout for the team except only one of us will start there. I’m happy that we at least could help Pato out in that sense.”

Felix Rosenqvist will join O’Ward on the revised front row for Sunday’s 110-lap/216.04-mile race after his best Fast Six lap of 58.5583-seconds/120.741 mph in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian.

“It was kind of a weird quali,” said Rosenqvist, a 33-year-old native of Sweden. “I thought it was hard to feel the tires. Sometimes they’re in, sometimes they’re not. In Q2 we had a really good lap and I couldn’t really do the same in the Firestone Fast Six. Someone went off in front of me, so it was kind of a scrappy run. But P3, effectively front row after penalties. It was a good day for us.”

INDYCAR is racing in the Great Northwest this weekend and the shadow of Mount Hood after a weekend off. Three races remain in the 2025 season, all taking place over the next four weekends. Live broadcast coverage today is booked for 3 p.m. (EDT) on FOX, FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. The green flag is scheduled to fall at 3:22 p.m.

Starting third will be reigning Portland winner and two-time series champion Will Power of Australia, who stopped the clocks at 58.6424-seconds/120.568 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.

David Malukas will start fourth after his lap of 58.6557-seconds/120.541 mph in the No. 4 Gallagher Insurance Chevrolet fielded by Waller, Texas-based A.J. Foyt Racing.

“Good run today but a frustrating session, to be honest,” said Malukas, a 23-year-old native of Chicago. “So many things didn’t go our way at all in qualifying. Group 1 I made a mistake, so ended up having to do a drive-through penalty. And then by the time we went back out, the red flag comes out. So they tell me, we have one lap to push. Tires are cold and I scrape the lap together. Made it to the Fast 12. And again, guys in front of us doing different strategies. Tires are cold and we’re getting caught up behind them, try to push, and tires are cold. And we barely, again, scrape into the Fast Six.

“And then in the Fast Six, we’re on a different strategy. We push on Lap 3 but Palou goes off and causes a yellow and we have to back out and try to save fuel for the last one. So it was a chaotic session, but the guys gave me an incredible rocket ship. I mean, it was so fast. The fact that we’re scraping laps together and still making it through every single time just goes to show how good this car is.

“We’ll take a P5, and starting P4 with the penalties. So, good day for the No. 4 crew in the Gallagher car.”

Championship leader Palou received a small bonus by earning the fifth starting spot at 58.6690-seconds/120.513 mph in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou went off-track and nosed into the tire barrier in Turn 11 late in the Fast Six, losing his best lap for causing a local yellow that affected another competitor and ending up last in the final segment of qualifying.

“Happy that we had pace,” said Palou, a 28-year-old native of Spain. “Obviously not happy that I went looking for mushrooms there in the Fast Six.”

Palou indicated he will not be lulled into a false sense of security, point-wise, during the race. “Everybody here is saying we’ve already won,” Palou said. “But although we have a lot of points, we still need to win it. If somebody else is mathematically alive, it’s still alive, so we don’t want anybody to be mathematically alive for the points. I was going to say ‘we don’t want anybody to be alive,’ and that was going to sound very bad.

“Yeah, mindset is always to obviously win, win the championship, win races. If we have the chance to win it, yeah, we’re going to try and do everything we can.

“But at the same time, the goal is to win the championship this year, like not to go crazy and be like, ‘Oh, we need to do it at Portland.’ I’ll be super-happy if we get it at the end of the year in Nashville. I’ll be so happy. But obviously if it comes earlier because we’ve done a great job and we can still do a good job at Portland and otherwise Milwaukee, I would be super-excited.”

Rossi just missed the Fast Six by 0.0163-seconds in the second round of qualifying. He will start sixth in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet due to Lundgaard’s penalty, tying his best starting spot of the season set in March at The Thermal Club in California. Rossi’s best lap was 58.4973-seconds/120.867 mph.

Dallas resident Santino Ferrucci was affected by the red flag for Israeli-born rookie Robert Schwartzman’s off-track excursion in the Round 1/Group 1 session. Ferrucci was in sixth in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet, which would have been good enough to transfer to the next round. However, he wasn’t able to post a quicker time during his final one-lap run and dropped to eighth in Group 1, placing him 15th on the grid at 58.6237-seconds/120.607 mph. Like Lundgaard, Ferrucci’s car also underwent an engine change after Friday’s practice, a penalty that left him 21st on the starting grid.

“Obviously, I think we’re struggling,” said Ferrucci, who won his first series pole at PIR last summer. “We’ve been struggling a lot this year in qualifying, and we’ve been struggling with the same thing in the car. This lap was good. We just kind of missed it by two-tenths; it’s a bit of a shame. We really needed to complete our first run before the red, and I think that would have got us in. Going out in the back here and having to sit in the traffic and check-up, you just can’t get the tires in quick enough.

“We’ll take the grid penalty as well, and we’ll do what we do best and race our way forward. I love this track. I love this team. I think we’ll do a great job.”

Caio Collet with Firehawk – Grand Prix of Portland – Photo by Chris Jones

Caio Collet refuses to concede the INDY NXT by Firestone championship. Collet continued his late-season pursuit of point-leader Dennis Hauger by winning the Firestone P1 Award Saturday for the INDY NXT by Firestone Grand Prix of Portland at Portland International Raceway. It was Collet’s third pole of the season _ all in the last three races _ and fourth career pole in INDYCAR’s developmental series.

SEE: Qualifying Results

Collet claimed P1 on his final lap in the second qualifying group with a time of 1-minute, 3.3595-seconds/111.592 mph in the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car. The pole run essentially was a one-lap flyer, as Collet had to serve a drive-through penalty with less than two minutes left in the session for improper lane usage as he exited pit lane.

Complicating matters for Collet and all drivers in the second group was a red flag triggered by a crash involving Jack William Miller in the No. 40 Abel/Miller/Vinatieri Motorsports car due to an apparent mechanical failure with just under 11 minutes left. That mishap trimmed nearly eight minutes from the session.

“It was one of the toughest sessions of my life, to be honest,” said Collet, a 23-year-old native of Brazil. “The drive-through, I was not expecting that. My engineer came on the radio and said I only had one lap after coming out of the pits. So, it was really tough. But I had a really good car and I was glad I could put together a lap. Hopefully we can win the race.”

Collet has won three of the last five races this season to climb into second in the standings, 42 points behind Hauger. Three races remain this season, starting with Sunday’s 35-lapper at 1 p.m. (EDT) on PIR’s 1.964-mile/12-turn natural-terrain road-course. Broadcast coverage will be provided by FS1, FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.

Myles Rowe led the first group to qualify second at 1:03.5755-seconds/111.213 mph in the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy machine. It’s Rowe’s best qualifying performance in two seasons in INDY NXT, topping the third-place start during his series debut in 2024 on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Rookie sensation Hauger, a 22-year-old native of Norway, will start third after his best lap in the second group of 1:03.4152-seconds/111.494 mph in the No. 28 Nammo entry of Andretti Global. Hauger won four of the first five races of the season and appeared to be on cruise control to the championship. But he has won only once in the last six races, allowing Collet to jump into second.

Callum Hedge of New Zealand will join Hauger in Row 2 of the starting grid after qualifying fourth at 1:03.6185-seconds/111.137 mph in the No. 17 Abel Motorsports car.

Bryce Aron tied his career-best start of fifth with his lap of 1:03.8284-seconds/110.772 mph in the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing machine. Salvador de Alba of Mexico qualified on the outside of Row 3 in sixth at 1:03.8486-seconds/110.737 mph in the No. 27 Grupo Indi car of Andretti Global.

NTT IndyCar Series Point Standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 590; 2, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 469; 3, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 392; 4, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 377; 5, Christian Lundgaard, Arrow McLaren, 357; 6, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 315; 7, Colton Herta, Andretti Global, 313; 8, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing, 307; 9, Will Power, Team Penske, 289; 10, David Malukas, A.J. Foyt Racing, 276;

11, Rinus VeeKay, Dale Coyne Racing, 259; 12, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 259; 13, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 248; 14, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 239; 15, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 232; 16, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 231; 17, Conor Daly, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 215; 18, Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing, 214; 19, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 213; 20, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 200;

21, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 181; 22, Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 172; 23, Robert Shwartzman, PREMA Racing, 168; 24, Callum Ilott, PREMA Racing, 163; 25, Sting Ray Robb, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 144; 26, Devlin DeFrancesco, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 133; 27, Jacob Abel, Dale Coyne Racing, 100; 28, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 36; 29, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing, 20; 30, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 16;

31, Jack Harvey, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports, 12; 32, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing/Cusick Motorsports, 10; 33, Kyle Larson, Arrow McLaren with Henrick Motorsports, 6; 34, Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian, 5.

FOX SPORTS’ 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES BROADCAST COVERAGE SCHEDULE

Sunday, March 2 _ Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, March 23 _The Thermal Club, Thermal, Calif.  (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, April 13 _ Streets of Long Beach, Calif. (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)

Sunday, May 4 _ Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala. (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, May 10 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road-Course (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, May 25 _ Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, June 1 _ Streets of Detroit (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)

Sunday, June 15 _ World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison, Ill. (Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global)

Sunday, June 22 _ Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis. (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, July 6 _ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington (Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Saturday, July 12 _ Iowa Speedway, Newton, Race 1 (Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren)

Sunday, July 13 _ Iowa Speedway, Newton, Race 2 (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, July 20 _ Streets of Toronto, Canada (Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren)

Sunday, July 27 _ WeatherTech Raceway, Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif. (Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing)

Sunday, Aug. 10 _ Portland (Ore.) International Raceway (FOX, 3 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 24 _ The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis. (FOX, 2 p.m.)

Sunday, Aug. 31 _ Nashville Superspeedway, Lebanon, Tenn. (2:30 p.m.)

NOTE _ All times Eastern. Dates and times subject to change.