Alex Palou Takes 6th Win of the IndyCar Season in Portland
- therookiereporters
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
With the IndyCar Onlybulls Grand Prix of Portland won by Alex Palou, there are only 5 races left of the season.
The race began with Felix Rosenqvist in the lead, Alex Palou in second, and Will Power in third place. On the green flag Rosenqvist led from Palou and Power. Many drivers chose to start on the soft red tires with the plan to complete overtakes and gain track position. This included drivers like Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood, both driving for Andretti Global. Notable on the opening lap was Christian Lundgaard who started in last place as a result of car trouble in qualifying made up six positions. On lap 4 Ericsson who started in fourth made the move on Alex Palou taking second place.
Rosenqvist pits from the lead of the race on lap 31 for his first pitstop and changes from a set of hard tires to another set of hard tires. The number 10 Chip Ganassi crew chose to go long, a strategy they have chosen many times over the course of the 2026 season. Ultimately, a lap later Palou is called into the pits for soft tires coming out of the pits ahead of Rosenqvist. On their second pit stops Palou pitted for scuffed hard tires ahead of Rosenqvist who pitted for soft tires.
In the early stints the race appeared to be going in favour of Rosenqvist or Palou; however, Palau had more push to pass than Rosenqvist at this point. The number 10’s strategy seemed to be favouring Palou for the win; however, with 26 laps to go the race seemed to turn in favour of Will Power who was leading, and lapping quickly.
Will Power with the advantage, a pit stop for soft tires, and a dominating history in Portland, it almost seems guaranteed at this point that he will win. With 25 laps to go Power’s team makes a call to leave him out of the pits, to which he quickly catches up with backmarkers and enters into traffic. Despite the traffic, Power continued to lap fairly quickly and when called into the pits with 24 laps to go, he was still carrying the advantage.
With 24 laps to go, Power is called into the pits, though he does not enter for his pit stop. At this point he had caught up with the traffic and spent the lap fighting with Sting Ray Robb in 18th place, which ultimately cost him the advantage and the race win.
On pit exit Will Power had the soft tires and the push-to-pass advantage on Felix Rosenqvist. It was ultimately their late fighting and a perfect strategy from the Chip Ganassi number 10 team of Alex Palou that led to his 6th victory this season stretching his championship lead by 110 points over runnerup Kyle Kirkwood.
The IndyCar 2026 season returns on August 13, 2026 at the inaugural Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham, which is the first of the last 5 races.
Article Written by Israa Ihab
