Christian Lundgaard is looking to score his second career INDYCAR win this Sunday at Portland. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
PORTLAND, Ore. – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing continues to hit their stride on the road courses this season, especially Christian Lundgaard who was fastest in Friday’s practice session at Portland International Speedway.
Lundgaard’s time of 58.1776 seconds was 0.1470 seconds quicker than Andretti Autosport’s Kyle Kirkwood while INDYCAR championship leader Alex Palou ended up third quickest, trailing Lundgaard’s time by 0.1779 seconds.
The only man who can challenge Palou for the Astor Cup with two rounds remaining is Scott Dixon. Unlike Palou, Dixon’s session did not go to well as he wound up 19th quickest out of the 27-car field.
Dixon enters Portland trailing his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate by 74 points and must be below 54 to send the championship fight to Laguna Seca next weekend.
Kirkwood was fairly happy with his No. 27 Honda as he and Lundgaard made most of going on the red Firestone compounds early in the session.
“That probably benefited us because we didn’t get trafficked,” said Kirkwood. “It looked like a bit of a traffic jam out there towards the end of the session. Granted, the track does get a little faster as the run goes on. I was happy to get out early and get our lap in.
“We are happy with the car. We were a little bit different than our teammates, and I imagine because of that, you’ll see my teammates take a step tomorrow.”
Throughout the 75-minute session, a few drivers struggled navigating around the 1.964-mile road course. It led to a couple of red flags in the session with Felix Rosenqvist, Santino Ferrucci and Ryan Hunter-Reay having their own separate incidents. Each driver was able to continue their practice session with Rosenqvist going fifth quickest.
Regarding Rosenqvist going off at the treacherous 12th turn where he made contact with the barriers, it was an unexpected moment for the Arrow McLaren driver.
“It was just really low grip in turn 12. I don’t know if we have too much grip in the simulator or something,” said Rosenqvist. “Coming to the real deal it was a bit slower?
“In my second lap I just over-pushed it and under-steered off. Just a little mistake there, but that corner is always a bit tricky. It definitely caught some of us off guard a couple of times.”
Other than that episode, it was fairly smooth for the Swedish racer who hopes to finally end his long winless streak this Sunday at Portland. However, there are some elements of the circuit that will be challenging for everyone.
“It seemed like a little bit different balance from last year. We were a bit lost initially, and we kind of worked ourselves back to it,” said Rosenqvist. “Kind of a weird result, like Lundgaard and Kirkwood. We were kind of in the distance lap time-wise.
“We have a little bit of a gap to close tomorrow, but overall we’re P5. Kind of in the mix, but a lot to work on.”
The next time these 27 INDYCAR racers will hit the track is Saturday morning for a one-hour session at noon ET followed by the fight for the pole as qualifying commences at 3:30 p.m. ET. Finally, Saturday’s activities will wrap up with a final 30-minute warmup session at 8:15 p.m. ET. All sessions will be streaming live on Peacock.
Race coverage for the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBC. Scott McLaughlin is the defending race winner.
