Warmup
Tire selections
Portland Warm Up Results; Staring Tire Selections
Author: thepitwindow
I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events
Lundgaard Pole Caps Wild Fast Six
IndyCar photo
In one of the more entertaining Fast Six sessions of the season, Christian Lundgaard snatched the pole from Will Power late, but a penalty will drop him to seventh on the starting grid. Without the penalty the front row would have been a McLaren lockout as Lundgaard’s teammate, Pato O’Ward, finished second and will inherit the pole for tomorrow’s race. O’Ward missed out on a point that would have helped in his pursuit of Alex Palou for the series championship.
Arrow McLaren has struggled in the past in qualifying, but 2025 has seen marked improvement.
Power led for most of the Fast Six as he and teammate Josef Newgarden both made the second round. Newgarden qualified ninth, but has a six place grid penalty.
Points leader Alex Palou was making a charge for the top spot when he spun and tapped tire barrier, relegating him to sixth place
Notes
The second row will feature Will Power and David Malukas. Irony?
After all penalties are served, Lundgaard will start seventh, Newgarden 15th, Kyffin Simpson will start 18th, and Santino Ferrucci will lineup 21st.
It was a disappointing day for the Andretti team, with only Marcus Ericsson reaching the second round. Colton Herta will move up to 12th in the official lineup.
Results
The final warmup session before Sunday’s race will be this afternoon at 4:30 Pacific on FS1.
Herta Leads Practice; Newgarden Loses Engine; Qualifying Groups
Colton Herta had the fastest lap in this morning’s practice session ahead of qualifying for the Bitnile Grand Prix of Portland. Josef Newgarden lost an engine during practice and will receive a six place grid penalty. With qualifying just 90 minutes after practice, the team is scrambling to replace his powerplant.
Results
Times continue to be tight with only 0.27 seconds between forst and tenth. Any small mistake in qualifying could cost a driver several spots.
Qualifying Groups
Grid Penalty for Newgarden
From IndyCar:
Portland Grid Penalties
From Indycar:
Portland Qualifying Day-A Busy Morning
Today’s Schedule- Times Pacific
9 am -IndyCar Practice 2 FS1
11:35 IndyCar Qualifying FS1
1:30 pm Indy NXT Practice 2 FS 1
4:30 pm IndyCar Final Practice FS 1
5:30 pm Indy NXT Qualifications FS 2
Today’s program also includes four races on The Road to Indy. There are two races for USF Juniors, the first at 2:30 pm and the second at 6:30 pm.
USF Pro 2000 races at 10;20 ad, and USF 2000 gets the green flag at 3:25 pm.
Christian Lundgaard said the week off helped his team.
“It’s been really nice for everybody to have a nice little weekend off. Regroup, recharge. We all needed that week off,” he said.
“If we can execute this weekend and carry this momentum, then we can have a good end to the season.”
Seven teams placed cars in the top ten in Friday’s practice, and they were separated by just three tenths of a second.
Temperatures today are expected to climb to 87 degrees, but the morning practice will run in 64 degree weather. For qualifying, the temperature should be in the low 70s. Final practice will run in conditions similar to green flag conditions tomorrow at around 85 degrees.
Notes
It was hard to gauge attendance yesterday, but it seemed about average for Friday at Portland.
I hope we see merchandise for this Felix Rosenqvist livery soon. I would be grateful.
I will be back after practice with results and qualifying groups.
If you are coming to the track, remember to hydrate and wear sunscreen.
Lundgaard Leads Tight Practice 1
Five drivers finished practice within two tenths of a second in the opening npractice session for Sunday’s IndyCar race at Portland International Raceway.
Christian Lundgaard nipped Alex Palou by just one tenth of a second, turning a lap of 59.1037 seconds. Following Palou were Marcus Armstrong, Felix Rosenqvist, Josef Newgarden. Newgarden’s time was 59.3014 seconds. Louis Foster in 13th place is the first driver more than a half second off Lundgaard’s mark.
Several red flags halted the session, the longest for Scott Dixon who went off course in turn 11 and narrowly missed hitting the tire barriers.
In a media availability after practice, David Malukas was non-committal about his status for 2026.
“Same old, same old,” was his response, saying he is racing for A. J. Foyt Racing right now.
Kyle Kirkwood also spoke. He had the seventh quickest time today. Kirkwood is encouraged necause when Andretti tested here a couple of weeks ago, morning conditions were similar to what they will be for tomorrow morning’s practice, and afternoon conditions were similar to Sunday’s race forecast.
Tomorrow is a quick, early day for IndyCar with practice at 9 am Pacific time and qualifying at 11:35 am. There is a finaql practice at 4:30 pm.
I will be back int he morning. Thanks for following today.
IndyCar Announces Grid Penalty
From IndyCar:
| INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, Aug. 8, 2025) – INDYCAR has announced a six-position starting grid penalty for the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing entry for avoidable contact involving driver Kyffin Simpson during the Sunday, July 27 race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. The penalty comes after a post-race review of the Lap 1, Turn 6 incident with the No. 60 entry of Meyer Shank Racing. Simpson was in violation of: Rule 9.3.3. Avoidable Contact – The primary responsibility for avoiding contact with a Competitor resides with the overtaking Competitor and the secondary responsibility resides with the Competitor(s) being overtaken. A Competitor who fails to demonstrate their responsibility and initiates a maneuver that results in contact with another Competitor may be penalized. According to the rulebook, a penalty can be applied at the next INDYCAR race if the penalty cannot be served at the event where the infraction took place. Consistent with an Unapproved Engine Change-Out penalty in the INDYCAR rulebook, the Avoidable Contact grid penalty is six positions on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and will be served at the series’ next event, the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland presented by askROI on Sunday, Aug. 10 at Portland International Raceway. |
Welcome to Portland; Spotters’ Guide
Today’s Schedule:
Times Pacific
1:00 pm Indy NXT Practice 1 FS 1
2:30 pm IndyCar Practice 1 FS 2
The Road to Indy will be on track all weekend as well, making for constant track activity.
Weekend weather:
The temperature is currently 58 degrees and should be about 75 degrees by the time IndyCar takes to the track this afternoon.
I noticed some paths and driveways have been paved at Portland, and the parking area seems more organized.
Java House continues its West Coast activation with another large area near the footbridge on the frontstretch.
Schedule news: From what I am hearing, the schedule is not quite done, and some fans may be disappointed with the final result. That is all I can share right now.
If seeing David Malukas in the Gallagher livery isn’t a big hint about where he will drive next year, I don’t know what is. The Gallagher livery has been in regular rotation of Team Penske liveries. Malukas has been carrying the colors of an associate Penske sponsor, Clarience, but now with a more regular Penske scheme on the number four, I think we can all see where this is going.
Where does Will Power end up min 2026 if Malukas does make the switch?
Spotters’ Guide
I will be back with a report around midday and then after practice.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 