Alex Palou all but sealed a fourth IndyCar championship when his only challenger Pato O’Ward lost power in his Arrow McLaren car early in the Portland round.
O’Ward needed to outscore Palou by at least 14 points to keep the championship open to the penultimate round of the season at Milwaukee.
He started from pole after an engine penalty for his team-mate Christian Lundgaard and led comfortably in the opening stages.
O’Ward pitted from the lead on lap 17 of 100 while Palou elected to stay out from his fourth-place position, setting up a thrilling duel between the two for the race win.
But O’Ward lost power on lap 22 and pitted, with McLaren saying “a wire connected to the DI [direct injection] box malfunctioned”.
He rejoined 10 laps down after the wiring loom and DI box were replaced, but with no realistic hope of pulling off the points swing needed to delay Palou’s coronation.
O’Ward needed to leave this race with a gap of 107 points or fewer to have any (admittedly remote) chance of overturning Palou, who has obliterated the field this season with eight race wins including the Indianapolis 500.
Palou won his first championship in his maiden season at Ganassi in 2021. His title defence the following year was compromised by a legal fight with his Ganassi team, which was eventually resolved as he rebounded to take the 2023 title and last year’s too.
He follows only Ted Horn (1946-48), Sebastien Bourdais (2004-07) and Dario Franchitti (2009-11) in winning three titles in a row in any form of IndyCar racing, and Horn and Franchitti to have done so and also achieved a career Indy 500 win.
O'Ward is still on course for a career-best second in the championship as he entered the race with a 77-point buffer to Scott Dixon in third place.
While Portland ultimately hasn't provided the result, Lundgaard's pole and O'Ward leading was monumental for the Arrow McLaren team, which struggled exponentially at this track last year, and has clearly made an enormous step forward.
At Laguna Seca last time out McLaren bettered its previous record for number of IndyCar podiums in a season since its 2020 comeback.
from The Race https://ift.tt/ZLF3KXQ
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