In a year where his future at Penske has been a talking point from weekend to weekend, Will Power delivered Roger Penske his first win of the season in the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland Sunday afternoon.
With just three races to go heading into this weekend, it was starting to look like the bad luck that has marred the three Penske Chevrolets all year could lead to the first winless season for The Captain since 1999.
Power started fourth after qualifying fifth and moving up one spot, thanks to pole winner Christian Lundgaard's six-place grid penalty for an engine change. Power and Lundgaard were on the same strategy all race, with Power coming up ahead in the closing half. The two were chased down by Alex Palou, who secured his third straight championship with a third-place finish.
Power's last win came last year at Portland, when he was still within striking distance of stealing a championship away from Palou, in a less dominant year for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.
Since then, engine failures, tire failures, and Indy 500 controversies have kept Power from a race win. Power knows that it hasn't been pace that has been keeping Penske and the No. 12 team back.
"I just think it’s a big win for all the team, we’ve had a rough year, and it’s not really because we’ve been off the pace, but it’s just been unfortunate circumstances," Power told IndyCar on Fox. "I’ve had two engine failures, a tire failure, it was hard for the win. We picked that strategy to run hard and pull enough of a gap. It was a bit dicey at the end there."
The first half of the race was marked by cautions and chaos, starting with Santino Ferrucci hard into the pit wall on the exit of the final corner of the first lap. Two
A few laps later, pushing and shoving between Christian Rasmussen and Conor Daly ended when Rasmussen sent Daly into the wall in a brutal hit.
On the third restart, Pato O'Ward fell off pace, suffering a failure that forced him to the pits with no power, ultimately ending his hopes of winning the 2025 IndyCar Championship.
Ultimately, Tony Kanaan explained that the issue in the No. 5 Chevy was that a wire connected to O'Ward's engine injection box was vibrating, causing a short in the entire wire system, burning the box.
In the closing half, Palou cut the lead from 20 seconds behind Power and Lundgaard on the alternative strategy to under 10 seconds.
Lundgaard, who would go on to finish second, was the first of the three leaders to pit for the final time, coming back to the race track in eighth. Power followed with 29 laps remaining in the race to put on a pair of used reds (tires), as Lundgaard and Palou still had new reds to run in the closing segment.
Power's teammate, Josef Newgarden, went around after contact with Scott Dixon with 26 laps to go, bringing out a local yellow as Lundgaard was gaining on Power for the lead.
With 20 laps to go Power, Lundgaard and Palou are within 1.9 seconds of each other. Eleven laps later, with nine to go, the three were within a second of each other, with Palou holding on to almost double the amount of push-to-pass of the leaders, attempting to force them to use it.
Palou made his move on Lundgaard with four laps to go and ran out of track, running off into the grass and rejoining the track still in third place ahead of Graham Rahal, who had his best race of 2025.
Alexander Rossi completed the top five ahead of the Prema of Callum Ilott in sixth.
Power's teammate Scott McLaughlin finished seventh ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Felix Rosenqvist, who fell to ninth after starting next to O'Ward on the front row. Colton Herta completed the top ten.
You Might Also Like
Comments