By the Numbers: Grand Prix of Portland

The Grand Prix of Portland may not have been the most spectacular race of the season, but it was certainly a fast one: winner Will Power drove the fastest race on this track since IndyCar returned in 2018. Santino Ferrucci took his very first pole and gave AJ Foyt Racing their first pole in over ten years. However, in the race, the American could only enjoy it for 300 meters. What else stood out? We summarize the race with some key numbers!

300 - Santino Ferrucci didn't get to enjoy his first IndyCar pole position for long: he led an estimated 300 meters into the race. He eventually dropped back to eighth place.

169 - Overtaking was remarkably limited in Portland this year; only 169 passes were recorded, 124 of which were for position. Last year, there were 219 passes for position and 322 in total. This race, however, was affected by a second caution.

122 - Santino Ferrucci's pole position was the first pole for A.J. Foyt Racing after 122 winless races! The team’s last pole was with Takuma Sato on the streets of Detroit in 2014.

54 - Alex Palou won't lose sleep over missing out on the win in Portland: his lead in the championship only shrank by five points to 54. With three races remaining and a maximum of 54 points per race, Palou’s lead remains substantial.

41 - With just one caution, the Grand Prix of Portland turned out to be a fast race. The 110-lap race was completed in 1:55:34, making it the fastest race since the return to this track in 2018 (where the first two editions featured 105 laps)!

19 - He wasn't seen much on screen, but Jüri Vips had an impressive performance. The Estonian hadn't raced all year, stepped in for his third IndyCar race (after two races last year), qualified 15th, and drove a clean race to finish 19th. Will we see him full-time next year with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing?

18 - With a total of 18 passes to his name, Kyle Kirkwood was the driver with the most overtakes.

16 - For David Malukas (20th), Portland was a weekend to quickly forget. Despite that, there was a small victory for the young American: he set the fastest lap of the race on lap 16! Malukas had pitted three laps earlier for a fresh set of soft tires and with a time of 59.7452 seconds, he was the only driver to lap under 1 minute.

16 - It was a tough race for the rookies: the highest-finishing rookie placed only 16th (Kyffin Simpson).

13 - With a total of 13 positions gained from his starting spot, Scott McLaughlin was the driver with the most positions gained; he started 20th and finished 7th!

11 - With Rinus VeeKay finishing 11th, his streak of four top-10 finishes came to an end. This narrowly prevented him from setting a new personal best.

6 - The race only required one caution, but that didn’t mean the stewards had a quiet day. In total, 6 penalties were handed out: Pietro Fittipaldi received two drive-throughs for contact with Scott Dixon and Conor Daly, Romain Grosjean received a drive-through for unsafe driving, Kyle Kirkwood had to drop two positions for blocking, David Malukas had to drop three positions for cutting the chicane, and Colton Herta had to drop one position for restarting his engine in the pits using the hybrid system.

5 - Despite Will Power’s dominance, five drivers led laps: Will Power (101 laps), Colton Herta (4 laps), Alex Palou (1 lap), Josef Newgarden (1 lap), and Marcus Armstrong (1 lap).

2 - The fact that Scott Dixon didn’t complete a single lap is remarkable. In the 399 IndyCar races he has contested, this is only the second time this has happened - the first being at Motegi in 2005.

1.15 - Alex Palou seemed faster in the battle for the lead for much of the race, but whether he pitted earlier or later than Power, he couldn’t get by him. The reason lay mostly in the pits: measured from the pit entrance to exit, Palou lost an average of 1.15 seconds per stop across his three pit stops!