PORTLAND — IndyCar’s championship race is the centerpiece of the long-awaited return to Portland International Raceway, once a schedule staple for American open wheel racing and now a throwback to headier times.
The fierce championship battle puts the three challengers at the front of the field in Sunday’s first IndyCar event at Portland in 11 years. Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power won the pole, teammate and defending series champion Josef Newgarden qualified second and Alexander Rossi third.
They are chasing Scott Dixon, who was a distant 11th after a poor qualifying effort. Dixon has two races left to lock down his fifth series championship, and he’ll have work to do in IndyCar’s celebrated return to the Pacific Northwest. CART first raced at Portland in 1984 when the series was the strongest in the U.S. and Al Unser Jr. won the inaugural event. Two years later, Mario Andretti beat son Michael Andretti by less than a second on Father’s Day.
Michael Andretti went on to win the race three times, tied with Unser for most in track history. Sebastien Bourdais is a two-time winner, including in 2007, the last time IndyCar ran on the permanent road course. The big joke all week has been that at 11 years, Bourdais is the longest defending race winner of any event in IndyCar.