Title Contenders Dixon and Palou to Start P4 and P5 in Grand Prix of Portland

In INDYCAR’s penultimate race on Sunday, championship contenders Scott Dixon and Alex Palou will begin the Grand Prix of Portland from P4 and P5 starting positions, respectively. 

For the third time across the past four Portland races, Dixon and the No. 9 PNC Bank team have secured a starting spot within the first two rows. With today’s qualifying result, Palou and the No. 10 American Legion crew have made it to the Firestone Fast 6 in five out of this season’s six road course races.

Marcus Ericsson pushed through to the second qualifying round in the No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda and ultimately secured a P10 starting position, matching last year’s mark as his personal best at the track.

Missing out on advancing to the second round of qualifying by just 0.0700 seconds, Marcus Armstrong will start the 110-lap race from P14. Armstrong has outperformed his starting position in seven of the 10 races he has competed in thus far.

Chip Ganassi Racing will be going for their third consecutive win and their eighth overall victory this season on Sunday.

Up Next: NBC will air the Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET with the green flag waving at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Scott Dixon
No. 9 PNC Bank Honda“P4 in qualifying, which is pretty decent. I think a lot of the other teams compromised a little bit on tire usage, so we’ll see how that compares for the race. The car feels really good on the long run, just lacking a little bit of peak speed.”

Alex Palou
No. 10 American Legion Honda
“We didn’t really do the job we wanted to do in qualifying today, honestly. We had a really fast car. It was really good in Q1, then we missed a little bit of pace in Q2 and in the Fast 6 we thought we were going to have more of a chance. But the American Legion Honda is fast and we’re starting in the top-five, which is perfect. It’s going to be a great race tomorrow for us.”

Marcus Ericsson
No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda
“It was a close qualifying as always here in Portland. I think we have improved the car with each session and I think we did that again in qualifying. I wanted a bit more, but P10 is still a decent result. There’s opportunity to do more tomorrow and we’ll fight from there.”

Marcus Ericsson
No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz Honda
“It was a close qualifying as always here in Portland. I think we have improved the car with each session and I think we did that again in qualifying. I wanted a bit more, but P10 is still a decent result. There’s opportunity to do more tomorrow and we’ll fight from there.”