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| Álex Palou powers to Portland pole position |
Álex Palou picked the perfect time to win his first career pole position as the Spaniard topped qualifying from Portland with a lap of 58.7701 seconds. It is also Palou's first front row qualifying result. He did start on the front row for both Texas races, but both of those grids were set via entrants' points, as qualifying was rained out that weekend. The pole position awards Palou a bonus point and he will take the green flag nine points behind championship leader Patricio O'Ward. Palou has retired from the last two races after having been running at the finish of 14 consecutive races. He has scored only 15 points over the last two races. He has scored 30 points or more in seven of the first 13 races.
Alexander Rossi starts second for the third time this season. The American missed pole position by 0.0872 seconds. Rossi was second on the grid for Barber and second for the first Belle Isle race. He has finished worse than his starting position in eight of 13 races this season, including in five of the eight times he has started in the top ten. Rossi has only led two laps this season. He has only led in five of the 34 races since his most recent victory at Road America in 2019. His fewest laps led in a season were 23 laps in his rookie year in 2016.
Scott Dixon makes it two Ganassi cars in the top three, as Dixon was 0.0972 seconds behind his teammate Palou. Dixon heads into Portland with consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen. The last time he had consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen was at Gateway and Portland in 2019. Dixon has not had three consecutive finishes outside the top ten since 2014 between the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis 500 and the first Belle Isle race. He has not had three consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen since 2005 between Michigan, Kentucky and Pikes Peak.
Felix Rosenqvist matched his best starting position of 2021 as Rosenqvist was fourth, 0.1804 seconds behind Palou. Rosenqvist has started fourth at Nashville and he finished eighth that day, his only top ten finish this season. Rosenqvist was second at Portland in 2019. Only once has a driver finished second at Portland and then returned and won the following Portland race. Emerson Fittipaldi was second in 1992 and then won in 1993.
Graham Rahal scored his first top five starting position of the season and Rahal rolls off from fifth. His most recent top five start was fifth in the second Road America race last year. Unforunately, Rahal was taken out on the opening lap of that race in turn three. Two of Rahal's six career victories have come in the 14th race of the season. The first was at Mid-Ohio in 2015 and the other was at Texas in 2016. Rahal won the 2005 Star Mazda race at Portland.
Colton Herta rounds out the top six starters. Herta has led a lap in four consecutive races and in six of 13 races this season. However, only twice has Herta finished in the top ten when he has led, his St. Petersburg victory and when he was third in the August IMS road course race. This is the most consecutive races he has led in his IndyCar career and his 257 laps led in 2021 are three more than he led in his first two seasons combined.
Championship leader Patricio O'Ward will start seventh after missing out on the Fast Six by 0.0103 seconds. O'Ward enters Portland with the best average finish in IndyCar at 6.6923, most top five finishes with eighth, tied for most top ten finishes with ten, tied for most laps completed this season at 1,634 of 1,635, tied for most pole positions with three and he has the championship lead on 435 points. O'Ward is one of those drivers in this field who could become the first driver to win in Indy Lights and IndyCar at Portland. The other driver who could accomplish that first is Rinus VeeKay.
Ed Jones qualified eighth, his second top ten start of the season after starting fourth for the first Belle Isle race. Jones has finished outside the top twenty in three of the last five races and in five of 13 races this season. Prior to this season, Jones had only finished outside the top twenty in seven of his first 47 IndyCar starts.
Oliver Askew makes his IndyCar return this weekend and he qualified ninth in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. This is only Askew's third top ten start of his career after starting fifth last year in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and tenth in last year's St. Petersburg season finale. Askew will be driving for his third IndyCar team in his two-year IndyCar career. This is his first race with a Honda team. He has made four Road to Indy starts at Portland, all were podium finishes and he won in Pro Mazda at the track in 2018.
Marcus Ericsson bookends the top ten on the grid for Chip Ganassi Racing. Ericsson enters with seven consecutive top ten finishes, the longest stretch of his IndyCar career. Ericsson did not race at Portland in 2019 as Sauber called him in on standby for an ailing Kimi Räikkönen at the Belgian Grand Prix. Räikkönen was fine to compete the weekend.
Max Chilton will start a season-best 11th. It is Chilton's first time advancing to the second round of qualifying since last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis when he started tenth. Chilton is looking for his second top ten finish of the season. Since his tenth-place finish at Road America, Chilton has finished 18th, 18th and 20th since. His top ten result is Chilton's only top fifteen result this season. He was 11th at Portland two years ago.
Sébastien Bourdais closes out the round two runners in 12th. Bourdais is the only multi-time Portland winner entered this weekend. A victory would put Bourdais level with Michael Andretti and Al Unser, Jr. for most Portland victories with three. Bourdais' last four victories have come from starting positions outside the top ten after his first 33 victories all came from top ten starting spots.
James Hinchcliffe missed out on round two by 0.0395 seconds and will start 13th. Hinchcliffe has finished 22nd and 20th in his two Portland starts. It is the only track where he has made multiple starts and has an average finish worse than 20th. Hinchcliffe won the 2006 Formula Atlantic race at Portland. He could become the first driver to win in Atlantics and IndyCar at Portland.
Will Power failed to make it out of round one for the third time this season after falling 0.0642 seconds short. Power will start 14th, the best Team Penske starter. This is the second time Team Penske does not have a top ten starter for a race. The other race was the Indianapolis 500. Power could score his third consecutive podium finish, something he has not down since 2018 when he went third, second and first at Mid-Ohio, Pocono and Gateway. Power became the ninth driver in IndyCar history to reach 4,500 laps led in a career at Gateway.
Scott McLaughlin will be making his 15th career start this weekend and McLaughlin's 15th career start will come from 15th on the grid. Nine drivers have picked up their first career victory in their 15th career start, including Álex Palou in the 2021 season opener at Barber. The previous three drivers to get their first victory in their 15th start are Rick Mears at Milwaukee in 1978, André Ribeiro at Loudon in 1995 and Graham Rahal at St. Petersburg in 2008.
Conor Daly joins McLaughlin on row eight. Daly drove in place of Marcus Ericsson two years ago at Portland when the Swede was call-in as a possible substitute for Kimi Räikkönen at the Belgian Grand Prix. Daly does not have a top ten result this season and his most recent top ten finish on a natural-terrain road course was tenth at Sonoma in the 2017 finale.
Hélio Castroneves ended up 17th in qualifying. Castroneves had started in the top three in his last three Portland starts. Castroneves will be making his first Portland start since 2001. In four Portland races, Castroneves' best finish was seventh in 2000 after starting on pole position, but his average finish is 15.75.
Josef Newgarden will start 18th, his third time starting outside the top ten in the last four races. After his Gateway victory, Newgarden has totaled 337 laps led this season. This is the seventh consecutive season he has led 300 laps or more. If he leads 63 laps over the final three races, this will be the fourth consecutive season he has led at least 400 laps. He would become just the fifth driver in IndyCar history to lead at least 400 laps in four consecutive seasons joining Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Michael Andretti and Dan Wheldon.
Callum Ilott will make his IndyCar debut from 19th on the grid. Juncos Hollinger Racing's best IndyCar finish was 15th on its debut with Sebastián Saavedra in the 2017 Indianapolis 500. Ilott could become just the sixth driver in IndyCar history to participate in an IndyCar race with a last name beginning with the letter "I." The last driver with a last name beginning with "I" was Gary Irvin at Springfield on August 14, 1982. Irvin was 22nd that day in his third and final IndyCar start.
Jack Harvey is looking for his third consecutive top ten finish, but he will have to do it from 20th, completing an all-British row ten. Only once prior has Harvey had three consecutive top ten results. It happened last year between the Iowa doubleheader and the Indianapolis 500. Twice has Harvey picked up a top ten finish after starting 20th or worse. One was Austin in 2019, going from 23rd to tenth. The other was last year's Indianapolis 500, going from 20th to ninth.
Romain Grosjean lost his two fastest laps in round one of qualifying for interference and that knocked him to 21st. Grosjean has finished in the top ten in all five natural-terrain road course races this season, including three top five finishes. This will be Grosjean's 11th career start. Only four drivers have won their first IndyCar race in their 11th career start: Norman Batten at Atlantic City in 1926, Joe Leonard at Milwaukee in 1965, Dan Gurney at Riverside in 1967 and Tomas Scheckter at Michigan in 2002.
Jimmie Johnson joins Grosjean on row 11. Johnson scored his first lead lap finish of the season in his last start on the IMS road course when he finished 19th. Johnson has finished better than his starting position in six of nine races this season.
Simon Pagenaud will start 23rd, his worst starting position since he started 26th for the Indianapolis 500 in May. Pagenaud won from 23rd on the grid in the first Iowa race last year. The Frenchman has finished in the top ten in the 14th race of the season for six consecutive years and in nine of 11 seasons he has competed in.
Dalton Kellett will start 24th. Kellett is coming off his career-best finish of 12th at Gateway. Portland is one of five tracks where Kellett scored a top five finish in his Indy Lights career in 70 starts. He was fifth in the first race in 2019.
The bottom three cars all were issued six-grid spot penalties for engine changes. Rinus VeeKay leads the way of the reprimanded in 25th. VeeKay did not finish worse than second in his four Road to Indy starts at Portland. He won the first Indy Lights race at the track in 2019. VeeKay enters with five consecutive finishes outside the top ten, tied for the longest drought in his IndyCar career.
Takuma Sato starts 26th, his worst starting position since he started 26th at Sonoma in 2012. Coincidentally, Sato retired from that Sonoma race with an engine failure after two laps. He enters Portland without a podium finish, let alone a victory this season. He has won a race and stood on the podium in four consecutive seasons. The latest Sato's first podium finish in a season has come is the 11th race, which came when he finished third at Iowa in 2018.
Electrical issues prevented Ryan Hunter-Reay from participating in qualifying and Hunter-Reay will start 27th after completing only ten practice laps. This is Hunter-Reay's worst starting position since he started 33rd in the 2011 Indianapolis 500 after replacing Bruno Junqueira in the #41 A.J. Foyt Racing Honda. In five Portland starts, Ryan Hunter-Reay has one top ten finish, his runner-up result to Takuma Sato in 2018. Portland is one of seven tracks Hunter-Reay has a podium finish but has not won at. The others are St. Petersburg, Texas, the IMS road course, São Paulo, Mid-Ohio and Austin.
NBC's coverage of the Grand Prix of Portland begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 110 laps.
