IndyCar returns to Portland for the 2025 BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland. Who will come out on top in the City of Roses? Will Alex Palou continue his winning ways or will a title challenger close the gap once again?
Alex Palou won this race in 2023, and stood second in IndyCar’s most recent visit to the PDX, losing out to Penske’s Will Power. Will he continue his winning way once again, when we return to the City of Roses?
The Track
The 2025 BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland will be run to 110 laps and 216.04 Miles. This road course opened in 1961 as the Portland International Raceway. Hosting 12 turns over its 1.964-mile natural road course, it’s a relatively flat track.
However, there are multiple spots for overtaking – a chicane at the end of the front stretch, a hard-braking right hand Turn 7, leading onto the sweeping back stretch, and a fast flowing three-turn series leading back to the front.
This track also hold the record for closest two-car and three car finish. In 1997, Mark Blundell beat second-place Gil de Ferran by 0.027 of a second, and beat third-place Raul Boesel by 0.055 of a second, in a three-wide race to the checkered flag.
Back in 2024
The BITNILE.com Grand Prix of 2024 was smooth sailing. Santino Ferrucci took a surprising Pole position after having run most of the weekend’s sessions outside of the Top 5, but showed strong results in the later qualifying sessions.
Eventual race winner Will Power was present in high standing across most of the weekends sessions, before slotting into second position on the front row.
Eventually, Power would go on to lead all but 9 laps of the 110 lap race. Portland also saw 8 changes in race leader across 5 different driver, with the dominate driver being Power.
Additionally, the 2024 race in Portland only saw 1 caution for all 110 laps. On the opening lap of the race contact between the cars of Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, and Pietro Fittipaldi, in Turn 8 saw the caution fly for 4 laps.
The 110 lap race ran to a final length of just under 2 hours. David Malukas put in the fastest Lap with a 118.343 mph ( 59.7452 sec) on lap 16, and the fastest lap by a race leader coming from Will Power on Lap 9 with a 117.516 mph ( 60.1654 sec).
Will Power took the win after a dominant race, with eventual series winner Alex Palou in second and fellow Penske driver Josef Newgarden rounding out the podium in third.
What to watch out for in 2025
The intensity is ramping up this weekend, as defending champion Alex Palou can secure his 3rd consecutive championship. However, past winners in Power and McLaughlin are hungry and hunting for their first wins of the 2025 season.
The 2025 season has seen only 4 different race winners, and in seasons past the average sits at double that, with 2024 having seen 7 different winners secure multiple wins.
Winning doesn’t fully define a driver’s season, but it does make the off months a bit easier to digest, and with so many being so close to the top step – the fight is on in Portland.
Alex Palou has seen the top step twice in Portland, in 2021 and 2023, and he comes into the weekend off a win in Monterey at Laguna Seca. He can secure the championship if he can maintain a buffer of at least 108 points over Pato O’Ward.
Also, Santino Ferrucci saw his first NTT IndyCar Pole position earned here, and with an off week to heal an injured hand from Toronto, he looks to continue the upward trajectory that he’s had all season.
Palou also has the chance to break more records in Portland. He currently has 8 wins int the 2025 season, two shy of A.J. Foyt (10 in 1964) and Al Unser (10 in 1970). Mario Andretti sits as the only driver to have more wins in a season than Palou currently, with nine in 1969.
So, will the championship be secured for Palou in Portland or will a challenger step up to push the fight one more race?
Coverage for the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland begins at 5:30pm EST (10:30pm BST) on FS2 and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
