It stayed tight on the speed chart – and on track – during the second practice for the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland presented by askROI on Saturday at Portland International Raceway.
Colton Herta led the one-hour session with a best lap of 58.4238 seconds in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian.
SEE: Practice Results
That was the quickest lap so far this weekend, as Christian Lundgaard led Friday practice at 58.5320 in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Herta was 13th Friday at 58.8886 after suffering technical problems early in that session.
“The Gainbridge Honda is super-fast,” Herta said. “Big turnaround from yesterday. Really good job from Honda, not only in session but overnight fixing issues that we had in Practice 1. Feel good going into qualifying. Just need to put it all together.”
NTT P1 Award qualifying starts at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, with final practice at 7:30 p.m. ET. FS1, the FOX Sports app and INDYCAR Radio Network will broadcast both sessions.
The 110-lap race starts at 3 p.m. ET Sunday (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Championship leader Alex Palou continued to look in good shape to clinch his third consecutive NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship – only the fourth driver in history to achieve that feat – and his fourth in the last five seasons. He was second in the Saturday morning practice at 58.4531 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Palou leads Pato O’Ward by 122 points and only needs a 108-point lead after Sunday’s race to clinch the Astor Challenge Cup with two races remaining.
Six-time series champion Scott Dixon, seeking his first Portland victory, was third at 58.5023 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Reigning Portland winner Will Power climbed to fourth at 58.5376 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Devlin DeFrancesco rounded out the top five at 58.5441 in the No. 30 Dogecoin Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He also was at the center of a flashpoint with frequent rival Scott McLaughlin, who was perturbed after he thought his No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet was impeded at speed in Turn 1 by DeFrancesco, who was getting up to speed after leaving the pits at the fast, flowing 12-turn, 1.964-mile circuit.
O’Ward, who ended up 11th in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, also was involved in an incident with DeFrancesco’s teammate Louis Foster. O’Ward passed Foster, and Foster’s No. 45 Droplight Honda made contact shortly thereafter with the back of O’Ward’s car.
“It’s tough to have a practice session in INDYCAR with a 58-second lap,” Herta said. “It pushes us all together.”
Those close quarters and short lap distance produced a tight time sheet. All 27 cars were within less than one second of each other, the first time that feat has been achieved in an INDYCAR SERIES road or street-course practice since 2019 at Portland.