PORTLAND, Ore. — For the second time this season, Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was the fastest driver in an NTT IndyCar Series practice session.
On Friday, Lundgaard’s No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda was the fastest with a time of 58.1776 seconds around the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course at Portland International Raceway.
Lundgaard drove to his first NTT IndyCar Series race victory on July 16 in the Honda Indy Toronto on the streets of Toronto.
“The car is fast, and we knew that coming in here,” Lundgaard said. “It’s nice to prove that once again. I have to think the team for the progress we have been making this season on certain tracks. The balance seems pretty consistent. It’s going to be interesting come Sunday.”
Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Autosport was second at 58.3246 seconds in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda.
“I came into this weekend hoping we would be fast, so to be P2 is pretty good,” Kirkwood said.
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, the championship leader by 74 points over teammate Scott Dixon, was third at 58.3555 seconds in the No. 10 American Legion Honda. Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren Racing was fourth at 58.4098 seconds in the No. 5 Chevrolet. His teammate, Felix Rosenqvist, rounded out the top five at 58.6428 seconds.
“I think we are looking all right,” O’Ward said. “Still a couple tenths we need to get out of it. You have to commit to this place like a bobblehead.”
Scott Dixon, who hopes to make up a 74-point deficit to Palou, was 19th fastest at 59.0457 seconds in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. Juri Vips, the Estonian who is making his first IndyCar Series start, was 15th in the No. 30 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Ryan Hunter-Reay ran off course coming out of the final turn. Prior to that, Felix Rosenqvist had a moment where he beached his Chevrolet in the sand.
“It was really low grip in Turn 12, I don’t know if we had too much rear grip in the simulator, but we pushed it and made a mistake there,” Rosenqvist said. “I had a little off in the beginning, but other than that it was fairly smooth. It was a weird result by Lundgaard and Kirkwood. We were in the distance, but P5 is in the mix. We have a lot to work with here.”
Rosenqvist believes a good car balance is important to have a good race. Both Rosenqvist and Kirkwood believe the softer Firestone Red tires may be the preferred choice in the race.
IndyCar is set to return for a second practice from 12 noon to 1 p.m. (ET) on Saturday. Qualifications for the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland begin at 3:30 p.m. (ET). Final practice is set for Saturday at 8:15 p.m. (ET).
Palou leads the championship with two races to go for the second time in his career.
Palou previously led the championship with two races in 2021 when he won the championship.
There are two drivers still mathematically eligible for the IndyCar Series championship: Palou leads Dixon by 74 points. Palou will clinch the championship if he leads Dixon by 54 points at the end of the race.