The penultimate three-race stint of the IndyCar season kicked off on Sunday afternoon from Portland International Raceway. Pato O’Ward of Arrow-McLaren entered this weekend with the series points lead after a couple of weeks off. This largely due to a calamitous stretch for former leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. The Spanish-born driver suffered an engine failure at the second road course race in Indianapolis. Then just a week later at Gateway, got wrecked out early in an incident with teammate and title rival Scott Dixon. After Portland, just two rounds remain on the year, good days are all but needed from here on out.
Pre Race Headlines
Silly Season Heating Up (Part 1)
One of the biggest dominos of this IndyCar silly season dropped in the two-week break. Marshall Pruett of Racer.com confirmed that Romain Grosjean is making the jump from Dayle Coyne Racing to Andretti Autosport. A monster move that will see him take over the No. 28 ride currently occupied by Ryan Hunter-Reay. The French-Swiss IndyCar rookie has had a solid year for himself in 2021. Despite starting out on a road course-only schedule, he scored top 10 results in half of his starts this year. A jump up to Andretti should do wonders for Grosjean.
Speaking of the Andretti family, there had been some rumors of late of Micheal Andretti wanting a piece of the Formula 1 pie. Pruett just days ago made a big reveal in that department, being that Andretti is dead serious about the venture. The team mentioned by name as a target would be Alfa Romeo, who just picked up Valterri Bottas for 2022. Not to say it is 100 percent set in stone just yet, but a major story if so.
2018 Indianapolis 500 champion Simon Pagenaud almost certainly will not be back at Team Penske in 2022. With that said Pagenaud by his own admission says he has plans already for next year. Pruett, according to people he has talked with, sound sure a move to Meyer Shank and a reunion with Helio Castroneves is in the works. Keeping up with European drivers, there was much speculation that former Red Bull F1 driver Alex Albon could likely join Grosjean in heading to IndyCar. That is now dead, with the Thai-British driver headed to Williams next year.
Silly Season Heating Up (Part 2)
Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing is reportedly on an expiring deal. That should not be the case much longer, as a new deal should be coming shortly for the man sitting top five in the points. Further on the Gannasi front, Jimmie Johnson just recently took an oval test at Texas Motor Speedway. He is also set to take part in a tire test at Indianapolis in October, along with Grosjean most likely. With the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion making it sound like he wants to run the Indianapolis 500, these moves feel like a clear confirmation of that statement.
Two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato is set to be out of a ride next year at Rahal-Letterman. In his place with be Britain Jack Harvey, who this year is with Meyer Shank. The third car at Rahal-Letterman, the No. 45 car, is unfilled at the moment, but the team likely has options to fill it. As for the aforementioned Hunter-Reay, expect him to likely have options on the table, including Rahal-Letterman and Ed Carpenter Racing as logical landing spots for the former series and Indy 500 champion.
The Juncos-Hollinger camp, co-owned by Williams F1 Brad Hollinger, is set to be a full-time participant in IndyCar starting next year. They picked up Scuderia Ferrari F1 Test driver Callum Ilott to run the final three rounds of this season. If this stint goes well, it would be hard to imagine that he is not at least considered for the ride. He finished second in the 2020 Formula 2 championship to Mick Schumacher with three wins on the year.
Remembering Robin Miller
When you think about media presence in IndyCar, and previously during the IRL/CART split, Robin Miller was the be-all-end-all. He has been at the forefront of the American Open Wheel Racing media presence since the mid-1960s when he started at the Indianapolis Star. In the mid-2000s up until a few years ago, he remained a major presence in IndyCar through TV. Either through Dave Despain’s Wind Tunnel show on the old SPEED channel (Now Fox Sports 1). Miller additionally was on broadcasts for the NBC family of networks, as well as writing with Racer.com in the last decade.
Sadly Miller, who has had Leukemia as early as 2017, announced that it had reached a terminal stage in late July. A number of weeks later, he was honored at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Becoming only the second designated media member to receive the honor. Just 12 days later, Miller passed away at the age of 72.
Almost immediately, an outpouring of support came in from all over the racing world. From the likes of Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt to Tony Stewart and Johnson and, and everyone in between. IndyCar’s own Conor Daly even took the time to write up what Miller meant to the sport. Miller’s loss is an immeasurable one for the IndyCar community, just weeks after losing legendary announcer Bob Jenkins as well. Our thoughts are with his family and friends, as well as his Racer.com colleagues in these times.
Race Recap
Green Flag-Yellow Flag
One of the key features of the PIR course is the opening corner. Which is almost a carbon copy of the Monza circuit, which hosted its Formula 1 race just hours earlier. The Ganassi duo of Dixon and Palou, the latter who was the pole winner, did not have the smoothest navigation through turn one. former Ganassi driver Felix Rosenqvist blew the corner behind the pair, forcing both to have to cut the corner as a result. Even further behind, a multitude of cars ended up spinning out. These included Oliver Askew, Grosjean, and Will Power. The ensuing cleanup would take around 10 laps to complete. Furthermore, both Gannasi drivers, despite unintentionally cutting the course, received grid penalties, which put O’Ward and Graham Rahal upfront.
The ensuing stint would lead to green flag pitstops around 20 laps after, with Rahal cycling to the lead ahead of O’Ward. Another 15 laps down the road, Dalton Kellett‘s No. 4 car stalled on track, and a slew of cars dived to pit lane before a potential caution. Rahal from the lead did not, but many in the top 10, including O’Ward, Josef Newgarden, Pagenaud, and Ericsson all did so. Just as O’Ward was leading this group out of the pits, the caution did come out on lap 52, much to the delight of all of the strategists of the cars that opted to pit.
Championship Swing
O’Ward despite being on the positive end of a great strategic move was about to be in big trouble. He reported on the radio that “I’m getting, DESTROYED, in the straightaways.” some laps into the next green flag run. Not a particularly great sign with a lot of high-speed sections on the track. O’Ward restarted in 12th, but by that point was already back to 15th just three laps in. Making things much worse was Palou had found some good luck, running well in the top five just before the 70 lap marker.
Some potentially good news for O’Ward was that another caution was coming. For what feels like the 15th time this season, an incident between two Penske cars, this time with Pagenaud and Power.
And they were teammates.
Simon Pagenaud and Will Power make contact, and Pagenaud spins.
Less than 25 laps remain on @NBC and @PeacockTV: https://t.co/dQFdTWkQMq pic.twitter.com/9qJHSDOHVv
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 12, 2021
Great meme reference aside, another restart was on the horizon. The saying “Cautions breed cautions” was in effect here. As for the second time on the day, Askew would go for a spin in turn one once again to bring out caution No. 4 on the day. The good news was this would be the final of the afternoon in the pacific northwest.
Sprint To The Finish
The battle for the win would feature the Ganassi title contenders in Palou and Dixon in first and third. However, a pleasantly surprising third man involved was Alexander Rossi, who has had the worst luck in Motorsports the last two and a half years. His last IndyCar win came in late June of 2019 at Road America, and it has been close to complete misery since. Very nice to see the former Indianapolis 500 winner battling for a win. In a bittersweet twist, he would take home his best finish in over a full season with a second on Sunday. Palou got out to a great start on the last restart, and that was all she wrote.
RETWEET to congratulate @AlexPalou on his WIN in the @Portland_GP!
He's your new @IndyCar championship leader with two races remaining! pic.twitter.com/Rnr77JGQTu
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 12, 2021
The Spaniard now in just his second season in IndyCar has his third win of the year. In addition to being back in the driver’s seat for what would be his first title with only two races left. This is a devastating blow to O’Ward, who entered Sunday up 10 on Palou, and exits down 25. While not an impossible gap, you would almost certainly be in Palou’s spot currently. But with Laguna Seca and Long Beach on the horizon, this title fight is far from over.
Just two races left in the @IndyCar Series, and @AlexPalou has taken the points lead back!
Take a look at the championship standings with @WeatherTechRcwy and @GPLongBeach on the horizon. #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/epGXqt38pf
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 12, 2021
Check us out on our socials:
Twitter: @PTSTNews and @TalkPrimeTime
Facebook Page: Prime Time Sports Talk
Join our Facebook Group: Prime Time Sports Talk
Instagram: @ptsportstalk
Follow Jack Gaffney on Twitter @JackGaffneyPTST
Main Image Credit: Embed from Getty Images
