PORTLAND, Ore. — On a hot and sunny day at Portland International Raceway, two of the hottest drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series were the two fastest on the track during Friday’s practice session.
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing leads Team Penske’s David Malukas by 83 points and Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global by 87 points heading into Sunday’s OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland.
Palou was the fastest driver in practice with a fast time of 0.58.5716 seconds around the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course for a speed of 120.714 miles per hour in the No. 10 DHL Honda. Kirkwood was second fast at 0.58.6602 (120.531 mph) in the No. 27 Honda.
While those two drivers along with Malukas will fight it out over the final six races in a five-weekend span to determine the NTT IndyCar Series Championship, the remainder of the top five included one driver hoping to finalize a ride for 2027.
That is third-fastest driver Rinus VeeKay of Juncos Hollinger Racing, who recorded a time of 0.58.7996 seconds (120.246 mph) in the No. 76 Chevrolet. He continues to look for a ride next season.
“We’ve learned so much throughout the season,” VeeKay said afterwards. “I had a few tough ones, but honestly, our bad weekends, we were not that bad. They were mid pack weekends. And you see that in the points, now, we’re 10th.
“It’s a big leap for this team year over year. I’m having a great time. I think the vibe in the team, the connection, I think, is great. The engineer and I were together well, but the whole time extent, everybody’s kind of flawless out there. So, we’re working like we should, this part to the season.
“We’re a well-oiled machine.”
Will Power of Andretti Global was fourth fastest in the No. 26 Honda at 0.58.9096 (120.021 mph) and he is all set to return for a second season on that team. But if he were to accomplish another win at Portland, it would be very important because it would be his first win at Andretti Global after spending most of his career at Team Penske.
“It would be a big deal,” Power said. “It would be crazy if it all played out like that. It would be something that, yeah, would obviously be great simply. It would be amazing. There’s no other way to put it. It would be just amazing.”
Louis Foster has a contract to return to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing next season and was fifth fastest on Friday at 0:58.9274 in the No. 45 Honda.
Josef Newgarden of Team Penske was the second fastest driver in his split practice session and ended ninth overall in the No. 2 Astemo Chevrolet at 0:59.0349 (119.766 mph). He was also walking around with the aid of crutches after injuring his left foot in a crash in the Indianapolis 500 in May.
“The two-week rest after Nashville was great to prepare for this run to the finale at Laguna,” Newgarden said. “The Astemo Chevy has good pace this weekend, but we need to keep working on it before qualifying tomorrow. Portland is a demanding track, but this team continues to do a great job in giving me a car I can compete with.”
Teammate David Malukas was eighth fastest in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet at 0:58.9888 (119.860 mph).
“We just finished up practice there, just dealing with a little bit of some wrist flare ups, but the guys did a really good job in the car with some repositioning with the steering wheel how I wanted it to be,” Malukas said. “Overall, the car is very quick. These guys have been a fantastic car around Portland International Raceway here and yeah, making my job easy, we’re working through some things, but overall, very happy, very quick. Chevy is working on a few other things that we tried and seems to find a few other tidbits. So, it’s a really good start for the weekend.
“Still a lot of speed to find, but I know we’ll get there.”
Several drivers had a few issues in the Turn 1-2 area and Power explained why that portion of the race course was so difficult on Friday.
“It’s the combined braking in Turn One, you have to get through that dip properly,” Power explained. “It’s really hard to be accurate because, seriously that Turn One apex wall, you got to get as close as you can, get as close as you can, then you’re braking at the same time as you’re turning, go into a big dip.
“It is difficult to get that right.”
