IndyCar
Alex Palou survives Turn 1 melee to win Grand Prix of Portland
PORTLAND, OR (Pittsburgh Racing Now) – Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou survived a first lap incident heading into Portland International Raceway’s first turn and came back to win Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES Grand Prix of Portland.
The victory was the third of the season for Palou, who regained the Championship points lead with the victory.
“It was massive,” Palou said of the victory. “I don’t think that much about the three wins or two wins. I think that’s important but not super. What I think is important is that even having a really bad start of the race, we were able to fight.”
Palou started on the pole position and was leading the field down the frontstretch with Alexander Rossi to his left in second place and Scott Dixon behind him to Palou’s inside in third when fourth-starting Felix Rosenqvist carried too much speed into the first turn. As Rosenqvist took evasive action he made contact with Dixon, which prevented the six-time series Champion from making turn one. Â Dixon went straight through the runoff area but that move prevented Palou and Rossi from making the turn too.
“I filled that gap because I figured Rahal or somebody was going to try and scoot down the inside of us,” explained Dixon. “I bailed out of it and then got hit from behind, I think it was Felix (Rosenqvist), and that caused a bit of an interesting moment for all of us on the start there.”
All four drivers went through the runoff area and rejoined the field however more turn one chaos was happening behind them as several drivers made contact or were forced to take evasive action to avoid contact bringing out the caution flag. Â Among the drivers sustaining damage were Helio Castroneves, James Hinchcliffe, Will Power, Romain Grosjean and Oliver Askew.
INDYCAR race control penalized Palou, Rossi, Dixon and Rosenqvist and sent them to the back of the field for not taking the first turn, which mystified the drivers.
“I got hit at some point,” said Palou. “I knew Scott was on the inside, so I couldn’t really go there, so I knew I had to go through the chicane. I made it through the chicane, and I said, ‘okay, I only lost like five positions’, which is a lot, but I said, ‘at least I’m not out’. And then INDYCAR decided that that was not penalizing enough, and they put me in the back, which I don’t know what they want me to do at that point. Do they prefer me to like completely stop the car and make that corner, making the race unsafe?”
“It was just the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in racing a little while,” explained Dixon. “I don’t know what they (race control) were thinking or how that came about, but put all of us at the back the field. Be interesting to go talk to them later and see how they came up with that scenario.”
“I thought it was pretty low grip in Turn 1 when Felix, I guess — when Scott and Alex and them kind of slid through, I didn’t really have anywhere to go, and I thought if we got back to the styrofoam chicane, that was acceptable,” said Rossi. “But it was self-penalizing because we all went from like first, second, third to sixth, seventh, eighth, and then they’re like, ‘oh, you’re going to 24th’. It was like, okay, cool. Â But fortunately it all came around.”
INDYCAR rules state that cars avoiding the collision and remaining on the racing surface at the timing lines embedded in the track through the chicane are placed at the front of the field on the restart, with drivers avoiding the collision but leaving the racetrack placed behind them, followed by drivers involved in the incident.
The reshuffling of the field and subsequent restart saw Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward, who was leading the Championship by 10-points coming into the weekend, take the early lead with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal right behind in second place. Â Those two remained out front until their first round of pit stops.
The second caution flag came out on lap 52 when rookie Callum Ilott and Dalton Kellett both slowed on different parts of the track. Â Several drivers elected to pit for service but Rahal elected to stay out and led until Lap 74, when he and second-place Ed Jones pitted to hand the lead to Jack Harvey.
Pit stop strategy eventually worked out in the favor of Palou, Rossi and Dixon. Palou, who made his final stop on Lap 79, one lap before teammate Dixon, took the lead for good on Lap 86 and survived two late restarts and was able to hold off Rossi and Dixon for the win.
Two races remain in the season-long championship, WeatherTech Raceway at Laguna Seca and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, where the 2021 Champion will be crowned.
“Clearly we are in the fight,” said Palou of his Championship chances. “But I think until Long Beach we are not going to know really who’s what. I think that many people today after the first lap thought that Pato was going to win and that we were going to lose 40 points, and it was the opposite. That’s why INDYCAR is INDYCAR, which is really good. I think that makes the racing super exciting and the championship super exciting until the end.”
LONG BEACH, CA (April 18, 2026) Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is picking up right where he left off at Long Beach. Â The 2025 winner of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was quickest in the second NTT IndyCar Series practice session at the iconic street circuit.
Kirkwood’s fast lap of 1-minute, 7.5417-seconds was 0.2333-seconds quicker than Team Penske’s David Malukas.
Saturday’s practice session was sort of similar to Friday’s session as Andretti Global and Team Penske were 1-2 on the timing chart, except Friday’s session was led by Will Power, who beat out Scott McLaughlin for the top spot.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou was fourth quickest on both days in the No. 10 OpenAI Honda.
Knockout style qualifying takes place at 6:30 p.m. ET with the Firestone Fast Six shifting to single car attempts.
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Chip Ganassi Racing’s 2026 Trading Cards are coming out soon, and race fans can support a great cause by picking up a pack.
CGR’s 2025 trading card program raised over $20,000 for charities across the country, and proceeds from the 2026 program will benefit education nonprofit DonorsChoose, a PNC Grow Up Great® partner supporting public school and Head Start classrooms.
PNC Grow Up Great is a $500 million, bilingual early childhood education initiative that has been helping to prepare children from birth through age 5 for success in school and in life since 2004.
PNC and DonorsChoose—an education nonprofit that allows individuals to donate directly to classroom projects—have collaborated since 2017 to help teachers obtain quality resources and experiences for students in public pre-K, public charter, and Head Start classrooms. The $20 million alliance has included flash funds, match offers, DonorsChoose gift codes, and jumpstart donations to support early childhood learning.
Cards are available for pre-order now at chipganassiracing.com/cgrcards. Fans may receive autographed cards from Scott Dixon, six-time NTT IndyCar Series Champion and driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda; defending IndyCar Champion and defending Indianapolis 500 winner Alex Palou, driver of the No. 10 DHL Honda; and rising star Kyffin Simpson, driver of the No. 8 Sunoco Honda.
Since 2018, Dixon has visited high-quality education centers across the country, engaging in reading and other early learning activities with thousands of preschoolers—helping to expand PNC Grow Up Great and inspire the next generation of IndyCar fans.
BIRMINGHAM, AL (March 29, 2026) — Alex Palou returned to victory lane Sunday, winning the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park.
Driving the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, Palou started from pole, led 79 laps, and beat Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard by 13.2775 seconds.
The win was Palou’s second of the 2026 season and his third career victory at the picturesque 2.33-mile, 17-turn road course. It also marked a second consecutive win at Barber for Chip Ganassi Racing. The track was built by the late George Barber, who passed away in February at the age of 85.
“What an amazing car,” said Palou. “Another win here. Love this place, love the fans. What a great day. Today in the race, it was pretty good in the beginning, really good at the end, but we suffered a little bit on the used blacks (Firestone Firehawk primary tires) that we had to use.”
Lundgaard appeared poised to challenge Palou in the closing stages as pit cycles and traffic shuffled the field. Palou made his final stop first but rejoined in traffic among cars fighting to stay on the lead lap.
“Those moments you can lose the race in like nothing,” said Palou. “You can lose five, six seconds with two laps because you’re fighting with cold tires and lap cars.”
“It was coming down to I think like we were three seconds ahead of him when we pitted,” said Julian Robertson, lead engineer on the No. 10 Honda. “We had some pretty decent, once we got through the traffic, started running some decent laps. It was going to be really close.”
Lundgaard pushed to close the gap but saw his chances slip away during a slow final pit stop—more than 17 seconds—due to a right-rear issue.
“I think we had something for him (Palou),” said Lundgaard. “I don’t really know what happened (on pit road). It’s unfortunate because I was told that we would have passed him if we would have had a clean stop. At that point I really just wanted to get back past Graham (Rahal) to get back what we lost because Alex was gone.”
“He (Lundgaard) had two sets (alternate Firestone’s) because he didn’t advance to Fast Six,” explained Palou. “He had two sets of brand-new stickers. When we were on used primaries, which were not very good, he was on brand-new alternates. That’s why he was getting so close.”
Graham Rahal finished third—his best result of 2026—but could not hold off Lundgaard late. Team Penske’s David Malukas came home fourth, just 0.07 seconds behind Rahal after starting on the front row.
“It’s a good reward for the guys and gals,” said Rahal, who earned his first podium finish since August 2023 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. “Everybody has worked so hard to get back here and heard all the noise and b.s. that we get to hear all the time. All weekend the car was in very good shape and very, very competitive and very comfortable.”
Kyle Kirkwood finished fifth in the No. 27 JM Bullion Honda for Andretti Global and now holds a two-point lead over Palou in the championship standings heading into the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Strategy played a major role throughout the race. Palou started on the black sidewall Firestone Firehawk primary tires—harder and more durable but slower—while Malukas opted for the faster, quicker-wearing red sidewall alternates.
A difficult warmup session led Ganassi to adjust its approach and commit to the primary tire strategy.
“This morning with the warm-up, like, tanked,” said Robertson. “We kind of switched strategy somewhat, which meant in the middle of the race we had to put a set of used blacks on. Got pretty sketchy”.
The strategy ultimately paid off, as Palou secured the 21st win of his career and moved firmly back into the championship fight as he pursues a fourth consecutive title and a second Indianapolis 500 victory in May.
The IndyCar Series is off the next two weekends before returning for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 19.
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Alex Palou wins the pole position for Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park
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