Greetings from 38,000 feet! As I type this on Thursday, Susan and I are on a flight to the Pacific Northwest. Unfortunately, it’s not what you think. We are not headed to Portland for the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland – the site of this weekend’s NTT IndyCar Series race. Instead, our ultimate destination is Boise, Idaho – to see my one and only grandchild. He turned three in June, and this will be only my third time to see him.
Normally I don’t schedule trips over an IndyCar weekend. Originally, this trip was planned for this past weekend – an off-weekend for the series. But I was looking to book hotels before I got plane tickets. It’s a good thing. I noticed that hotels were extremely expensive for the weekend of August 1 – much more than they were last year when I was out there. As it turns out, last weekend was the annual Basque Festival in Boise – supposedly the largest Basque Festival in the world outside of Europe. After realizing traveling that weekend would be a huge mistake, then juggling all of our respective calendars – we had to settle on this weekend or not go at all until next year. So here we are, flying from Nashville to Seattle (over five hours, non-stop) before changing planes for our flight to Boise.
You would think that Portland was just next door to Portland. I asked my son if we could maybe go for the Saturday on-track activity. I figured it was probably about an hour and a half away. He laughed, saying that it was about a seven-hour drive one-way. We are flying back Sunday and I’ll be reduced to watching the race on my iPad on the plane.
Since this race first ran back in 1984, it was always run in June – usually around Father’s Day. Like many venues, Portland was a casualty of the reunification in 2008, between CART/Champ Car and IndyCar (Indy Racing League). From 2008 until 2018, there was no Grand Prix of Portland. When it finally resurfaced on the schedule, the new date was September.
June is the rainy season in Portland. I actually thought the Pacific Northwest had a constant rainy season. Turns out I was following stereotypes of the entire region and I was dead-wrong. September is the dry-season. What had always been lush green infields for the June race, turned to dry dust by September.
If you’ll recall, there was a major dust-up (see what I did there?) on the opening lap of that 2018 race. At the chicane before the first turn, Marco Andretti was flipped over and several cars got caught up in the melee. A huge brown dust cloud formed that encompassed all of the affected cars. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes; out of nowhere Scott Dixon emerged with his now-familiar blue & orange PNC Bank Honda covered in dust. With one car upside down and several others stuck, wedged against each other – Dixon somehow came through unscathed and went on to earn a fifth-place finish.
As entertaining as that was, I thought the dry and dusty conditions were an isolated fluke. Now I know that is the norm for September. I have been chirping for an early summer date for Portland ever since. Last year, this race ran on August 25. It moved up a little. But it was still the dry conditions we have gotten familiar with. This year, we are two weekends earlier than last. I’m not sure what the weather pattern has been in Portland this summer, but I am hoping for clear skies for the weekend, but for greener and more water-soaked ground than we’ve seen in the past few years.
Alex Palou has won two of the past four races run at Portland – in 2021 and 2023. He clinched the 2023 championship at Portland when there was still one race left. Whether or not he wins on Sunday, he is expected to clinch the 2025 championship at Portland, with two races remaining – Milwaukee and Nashville. About the only way Palou would not clinch the championship, is if he crashes out early and Pato O’Ward lands on the podium.
Over the past four years, when Palou wasn’t winning Portland, Team Penske was. Scott McLaughlin won in 2022 and Will Power won last year. Team Penske is on the verge of going winless this season with three elite drivers in their cars/ That’s almost unthinkable. They have three chances left in this season to do it, but I don’t think it will happen at Portland. I think their best chance to avoid the winless label will come at Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. Their short oval program is still excellent and I could certainly see Josef Newgarden winning there.
The weekend kicks off with Practice One this afternoon at 5:30 pm EDT on FS2. Practice Two starts at Noon EDT on FS1. Qualifying will take place at 2:30 pm EDT on FS1. The Final Practice will be on Saturday, starting at 7:30 pm EDT on FS1. Coverage for Sunday’s race will start at 3:00 pm EDT on Big FOX.
Who do I think will win this weekend? Not Team Penske and not Palou. Arrow McLaren is really coming on, and I think Pato O’Ward is getting in the right mindset for next season. After a forgettable day at Laguna Seca a couple of weeks ago, I think O’Ward will climb the top step of the podium on Sunday. He will be the winner of the Bitnile.com Grand Prix of Portland; and I’ll be watching on an iPad from 38,000 feet.