IndyCar Portland: Graham Rahal takes pole, Newgarden crashes

Rahal put down a flying lap of 58.3195s to best the 27-car field at the 1.964-mile, 12-turn circuit. It is the second time this season Rahal has captured the top spot, which he last accomplished in 2009.

Rahal set his pole-winning time on a set of primary, black sidewall tyres and despite the other five drivers swapping to alternate, red sidewall tyres, no one was able to dethrone Rahal.

The best of the rest was Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who was 0.033s off the pace.

Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta qualified third, followed by the Chip Ganassi Racing duo of Scott Dixon and Alex Palou. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward closed out the group’s running in sixth.

The top 12 session was interrupted by a red flag less than three minutes in after Josef Newgarden buried his #2 Team Penske Chevrolet into the tyre barriers at Turn 12.

The Tennessee native, who admitted it was self-inflicted, dropped his left side wheels into the dirt on the exit of Turn 11, which resulted in a broken steering gear-shifter. It put an end to his qualifying effort and he will start 12th.

Upon the resumption, McLaughlin went quickest at 58.0777s, followed by Herta, O’Ward, Dixon, Palou and Rahal.

Beyond Newgarden, others that failed to make it through included his team-mate, Will Power, who missed the cut by 0.0531s. Power will start seventh.

Callum Ilott (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Alexander Rossi (Arrow McLaren), Marcus Ericsson (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren) also didn’t make it through.

Rosenqvist reported an issue and wasn’t able to make a final attempt to advance.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

In the Group 1 stage of qualifying, Rahal set the fastest time on the primary tyres at a lap of 58.3956s. However, the swap to alternate tyres immediately sparked a rotation at the top, which ended with Rosenqvist at the top by session’s end with a fast lap of 57.8967s – which stood as the fastest lap of the day overall.

Herta and Newgarden came across second and third, respectively. Others to advance were Rahal, Power and Ilott.

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay was the first that failed to advance, running a 58.3240s lap that left him 13th on Sunday. Romain Grosjean was left upset about traffic once he finished up his run, with the Andretti Autosport driver set to start 15th.

Despite being fastest in Friday’s opening practice, and quick on Saturday’s second practice, RLL’s Christian Lundgaard ended up on the wrong end of the cut line, ending up ninth in the group and with a 17th-place start.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Ed Carpenter Racing), Devlin DeFrancesco (Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport), Santino Ferrucci (AJ Foyt Racing) and Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing) were the rest that failed to advance.

In Group 2, championship leader Palou made his presence felt on both the primary and alternate compounds by going quickest on both versions of rubber. The Spaniard’s best run came on alternates, jetting to a flying lap of 57.9651s.

McLaughlin, the defending race winner who led Saturday morning’s practice bout, was second. O’Ward was third, followed by Dixon. Rossi got into the top six in fifth, followed by another Ganassi challenger in the form of Ericsson.

Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Marcus Armstrong was the first driver out of the second group to not advance, missing by 0.07s. He will start 14th.

Juri Vips, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Autosport) also failed to move on, ending up eighth in the running and will start 16th.

Juri Vips, who is making his IndyCar debut with RLL, had an eventful run, missing the apex in Turn 1 and sliding over the curbing in the run-off area at Turn 2 before rejoining the circuit in Turn 3. The Estonian’s maiden qualifying bout was a respectable enough on pace that will see him start 18th.

Rookie Augustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), David Malukas (Dale Coyne Racing with HMD), along with rookies Benjamin Pedersen (AJ Foyt Racing) and Tom Blomqvist (Meyer Shank Racing) failed to progress into the top 12.

IndyCar Portland - Qualifying results

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	5	58.3195		121.236
2	S. McLaughlin Scott McLaughlin Team Penske	3	5	+0.0330	0.0330	121.167
3	C. Herta Colton Herta Andretti Autosport	26	3	+0.1381	0.1051	120.949
4	S. Dixon Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	5	+0.2608	0.1227	120.696
5	A. Palou Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	5	+0.3297	0.0689	120.554
6	P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	6	+0.3542	0.0245	120.504
View full results

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	S. McLaughlin Scott McLaughlin Team Penske	3	9	58.0777		121.740
2	C. Herta Colton Herta Andretti Autosport	26	9	+0.1561	0.1561	121.414
3	P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	8	+0.1802	0.0241	121.364
4	S. Dixon Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	8	+0.1876	0.0074	121.348
5	A. Palou Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	7	+0.2455	0.0579	121.228
6	G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	9	+0.2471	0.0016	121.225
7	W. Power Will Power Team Penske	12	9	+0.3002	0.0531	121.114
8	C. Ilott Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	5	+0.4196	0.1194	120.867
9	A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	6	+0.4246	0.0050	120.857
10	M. Ericsson Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing	8	8	+0.4702	0.0456	120.763
11	F. Rosenqvist Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren	6	6	+1.2276	0.7574	119.220
12	J. Newgarden Josef Newgarden Team Penske	2	2	+1.6689	0.4413	118.340
View full results

Q1 G2

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	A. Palou Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	8	57.9651		121.977
2	S. McLaughlin Scott McLaughlin Team Penske	3	8	+0.0874	0.0874	121.793
3	P. O'Ward Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	8	+0.1374	0.0500	121.688
4	S. Dixon Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	8	+0.4050	0.2676	121.131
5	A. Rossi Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	8	+0.4986	0.0936	120.937
6	M. Ericsson Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing	8	8	+0.6301	0.1315	120.665
7	M. Armstrong Marcus Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	8	+0.7001	0.0700	120.521
8	K. Kirkwood Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Autosport	27	7	+0.7184	0.0183	120.484
9	J. Vips Jüri Vips Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	9	+0.7803	0.0619	120.357
10	A. Canapino Agustin Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78	8	+0.8102	0.0299	120.295
11	H. Castroneves Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing	06	8	+0.8355	0.0253	120.244
12	D. Malukas David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing	18	8	+0.9365	0.1010	120.037
13	B. Pedersen Benjamin Pedersen A.J. Foyt Enterprises	55	9	+1.2524	0.3159	119.397
14	T. Blomqvist Tom Blomqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	8	+1.4713	0.2189	118.957
View full results

Q1 G1

Driver Info

Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	F. Rosenqvist Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren	6	8	57.8967		122.121
2	C. Herta Colton Herta Andretti Autosport	26	7	+0.1876	0.1876	121.727
3	J. Newgarden Josef Newgarden Team Penske	2	9	+0.1923	0.0047	121.717
4	G. Rahal Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	7	+0.2645	0.0722	121.566
5	W. Power Will Power Team Penske	12	9	+0.2946	0.0301	121.503
6	C. Ilott Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	8	+0.4108	0.1162	121.261
7	R. van Kalmthout Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	8	+0.4273	0.0165	121.226
8	R. Grosjean Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport	28	8	+0.4555	0.0282	121.168
9	C. Lundgaard Christian Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	7	+0.4711	0.0156	121.135
10	R. Hunter-Reay Ryan Hunter-Reay Ed Carpenter Racing	20	7	+0.7562	0.2851	120.546
11	D. DeFrancesco Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Autosport	29	8	+0.7781	0.0219	120.501
12	S. Ferrucci Santino Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	8	+1.1666	0.3885	119.709
13	R. Robb Ray Robb Dale Coyne Racing	51	8	+1.3675	0.2009	119.303
View full results