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Will Power’s future still in limbo at Team Penske, but his 45th triumph would appear to be worthy a contract extension.
Christian Lundgaard runner-up to Power, holds off third place Alex Palou.
Two more events will complete season.
Will Power, desperate to make a contract-saving statement for Team Penske, seized the day Sunday at Portland International Raceway, winning his first trophy of the season in the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland.
But Power’s 45th overall triumph and second consecutive victory at Portland in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet took a back seat to third-place finisher Alex Palou’s clinching of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series championship.
Palou, though unable to overtake runner-up Christian Lundgaard, of Arrow McLaren, navigated the 12-turn, 1.964-mile Oregon road course efficiently in his No. 10 DHL Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing for the 110-lap distance and benefitted from an early ignition-box failure for closest rival, polesitter Pato O’Ward.
It marked the third consecutive series title and fourth in five years for Palou and ties him with Mario Andretti (1965, ’66, ’69, 1984), Sébastien Bourdais (2004-07), and Dario Franchitti (2007, ’09, ’10, ’11).
And it pushes Chip Ganassi Racing’s title total to 19 IndyCar championships – Scott Dixon leads the team with six, Palou and Franchitti have earned four apiece, Alex Zanardi has two, and Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser captured one each.
“It’s amazing. It’s crazy. I couldn’t be happier right now,” Palou said. “This has been an amazing season. I have no words to describe how grateful I am to everybody at CGR, especially Chip, [and] our partners, and all of our fans.” Palou, as always, gave credit to his team.
Ganassi said well before Sunday’s race, “Well, I'm going to tell you something. That 10 car stand has all-stars on it. In terms of race strategy, calling the race, communication, there's nobody better than the 10 car guys.”
And the team owner’s praise went to the crew, as well. “The team is doing what they're supposed to do. It's hard to get everything right. It's hard. But when everything is right, you have some amount of success. I feel bad for some other teams, not because we're beating them, but they haven't had a chance. Some of these guys are beating themselves, whether it's in the pits or they're having mechanical issues. We've been the [beneficiary] of that also,” Ganassi said.
He said after Palou shone at four of the first five races that “the 10 car has done everything right, not put a wheel wrong, got in and out of the pits, got through the start, had the right tire strategy, whatever you want to say. But it's hard to get everything right, believe me. But that's what we've been working at for 35 years, to get everything right.
"It's down to the people on the team. When you have everybody rowing the ship in the same direction, you're going to have some amount ofsuccess, and right now that's what's happening.”
Portland winner Power, who has 45 victories of his own to rank fourth all-time, put Palou’s achievements in perspective: “Man, I've been around a long time, and in this field in this time, it is amazing to see something like that. It really is. It is incredibly tough just to win a race in IndyCar now.”
Power called Palou’s record “stout,” saying, “It's very impressive. It's something we'll look back on, as much as we want to beat him. But I have appreciation for people that are very good at their craft, and he is extremely well-rounded and good at his craft. He's one of the best.”
Power was best on the track Sunday and clearly had his future with Team Penske top of mind in his post-race remarks: “I think it's just a big win for all the team. I mean, we've had a rough year, and it's not really because we've been off the pace. It's just been unfortunate circumstances. I've had two engine failures, a tire failure, so it's good for a win. We picked the strategy to run hard, pulled enough of a gap and a bit dicey at the end there. But yeah, man, just stoked. I've had a great career with Verizon and Penske, so I really, really enjoyed winning for the guys and everyone I've worked with for a long time. So that's awesome.”
Graham Rahal finished fourth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and Alexander Rossi gave Ed Carpenter Racing a top-five performance.
As for Palou, he’s at nine victories in 15 races this season. That's 23rd on the all-time list, ahead of such all-time greats Danny Sullivan, Tony Kanaan, Dan Wheldon, Zanardi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tom Sneva, Gil de Ferran, Christiano da Matta, and Montoya.
He can write some more history as the schedule shifts to Milwaukee, then winds up Labor Day weekend at Nashville.
Last month at Iowa, with the threat of funnel clouds all too close for comfort during Friday practice, Palou carried his 19-month-old daughter Lucia into the media center and sought shelter, along with wife Esther and about one-hundred others. They included drivers who had originally taken shelter in their motorhomes. The media center, essentially a pole barn with metal siding, was designed for significantly fewer people.
A reporter asked Palou, “Do you think people followed you in here for the tornado because they figure you're invincible and if they're around you that there won't be any issue?”
Palou replied, “Probably, yes. Yes.”
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