PORTLAND, Ore. — The “Bus Bros” were back on schedule Saturday morning at Portland International Raceway as the Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden were the fastest two drivers in Saturday morning’s practice session for Sunday’s Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland.
McLaughlin was the fastest in the No. 3 Freightliner Chevrolet with a time of 58.1516. That was slightly faster than. His teammate, Newgarden, was second at 58.2694 in the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet.
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Scott Dixon, who enters the weekend 74 points behind championship leading teammate Alex Palou, was third at 58.2785 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. Graham Rahal’s No. 15 Honda was fourth at 58.3054 for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Palou rounded out the top five at 58.3630 in the No. 10 American Legion Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Toward the end of the session, Alexander Rossi spun off course, ran through the dirt and came down pit lane to have his No. 7 Chevrolet checked for damage.
With 2 minutes to go, the “Bus Bros” duo of Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden were at the top of the speed charts, where they would stay through the checkered flag.
With a few seconds left, Callum Ilott tried to go to the inside of Romain Grosjean. The two cars made contact and Ilott went skidding through the dirt.
Estonia’s Juri Vips, who is making his IndyCar Series debut for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, was 19th at 58.8040 in the No. 30 Honda.
“Yesterday as about getting laps and laps and getting used to a race car and pushing it,” Vips said. “At the end it was OK, but I was lacking confidence.
“Today, I came with the attitude to push more. I made some mistakes that would have put us in the top 10. We are there in pace but need to put it together for qualifying.
“It’s very different the way you attack the corners in these cars compared to the F2 car,” Vips continued. “It’s definitely impressive what these Indy cars can do.”
Qualifications for Sunday’s Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland are later today at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.