Will Power Rues Missed Pit Call but Still Earns Portland Podium

Will Power finished third in the Grand Prix of Portland, a solid result but one that leaves a lingering what-if. Starting from third, he held his ground all race, but a chance at second slipped away due to a communication error in the pits.

Power admitted to missing the call to pit during the final round of stops. As a result, he got bogged down in traffic the following lap, losing valuable time. "I heard something when I went through Turn 10 and I wasn't sure if that was pit or not," Power explained. "I usually wait for my crew chief to say something else but I never heard it. I think I missed a call there. We certainly lost a lot on that next lap because we were battling with some backmarkers."

Despite the missed opportunity, Power remained upbeat. "Very good day for the team. Man, it was just quali laps all day. I don't think we quite had the pace of the top two guys. We were probably just a tenth or two off them the whole day. Still a great day."

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The race at Portland International Raceway was dominated by Alex Palou from Chip Ganassi Racing, who secured his sixth win of the season. Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing led from pole, but Palou pulled off an overcut during the first round of stops and never looked back. Rosenqvist tried different tire strategies but couldn't close the gap.

"I think that first exchange, Alex went one lap longer. I don't know if we were close to doing that as well, I'll have to look, but the overcut was just so powerful," said Rosenqvist. "I also struggled a bit with my launch [out of the pits]. I was full lock on my wheel when I was launching because we had Mick Schumacher's crew ahead of us. It was not optimal on the launch so I think that's basically what did it. He got ahead of us and then some stints we were really competitive. I think the last stint we just didn't have much. We were also behind lapped cars, which Alex was too. He did a little better job getting around lapped cars. That's all I had. A little bit of oversteer through the race just fighting the rear quite a lot. P2. Great points. Always a little annoying when you have a shot and you don't make it."

Rinus VeeKay enjoyed a strong showing in fourth for Juncos Hollinger Racing, while Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top five for Andretti Global. The race was relatively uneventful, with only one Safety Car period early on for Graham Rahal, who went off at the final turn.

Unfortunately, Marcus Armstrong had to retire on lap 33 due to an engine failure. It was his third engine failure in four races. "I feel bad for myself and the team really," said Armstrong. "We put in so much work, you can't believe, just to have good weekends, and we've had three engine failures in four races. I'm not exactly sure what happened. It felt very similar to Road America where it felt like an overboost. It just broke. I don't know. We need to figure it out and we need to come back stronger in Canada."

No other major drama unfolded. Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon finished seventh and 14th respectively. IndyCar resumes on August 15-17 on the streets of Markham for the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy.