Portland IndyCar: Dixon leads Newgarden, Jones in final practice

Dixon turned a 59.4111sec lap of the 1.964-mile road course to set an average speed of 119.008mph and finish up a couple of tenths clear of Josef Newgarden of Team Penske-Chevrolet, and a hundredth ahead of Ed Jones in the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan-Honda.

Behind them was Dixon’s Ganassi teammate and today’s pole winner Alex Palou.

Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda was fifth, while all three Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars finished in the top nine. This was despite Takuma Sato causing the session’s only red flag moment with a spin and stall at the final turn.

The Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy of Conor Daly also spun there but was able to rejoin under its own power.

IndyCar has revealed that Sato’s engine change during the morning session and Ryan Hunter-Reay’s engine change during qualifying has consigned them to the back of the grid for tomorrow’s race, along with Rinus VeeKay who started the weekend with his fifth engine of the season following his shunt at Gateway.

Tomorrow’s race begins at 12.35pm local (Pacific) time and will run for 110 laps.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	Engine	Team
1	Scott Dixon	59.4111	59.4111	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	Josef Newgarden	59.6296	0.2185	Chevy	Team Penske
3	Ed Jones	59.6403	0.2292	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
4	Alex Palou	59.7467	0.3356	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	Jack Harvey	59.8976	0.4865	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
6	Graham Rahal	59.9019	0.4908	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
7	Takuma Sato	1:00.0880	0.6769	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	Alexander Rossi	1:00.2162	0.8051	Honda	Andretti Autosport
9	Oliver Askew	1:00.2303	0.8192	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	Rinus VeeKay	1:00.2611	0.8500	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	Colton Herta	1:00.3001	0.8890	Honda	Andretti Autosport
12	Will Power	1:00.3095	0.8984	Chevy	Team Penske
13	Scott McLaughlin	1:00.3916	0.9805	Chevy	Team Penske
14	Max Chilton	1:00.4267	1.0156	Chevy	Carlin
15	Conor Daly	1:00.4422	1.0311	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
16	Pato O'Ward	1:00.4529	1.0418	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
17	Felix Rosenqvist	1:00.5299	1.1188	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
18	Marcus Ericsson	1:00.5710	1.1599	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
19	Sebastien Bourdais	1:00.5871	1.1760	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
20	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:00.5973	1.1862	Honda	Andretti Autosport
21	Helio Castroneves	1:00.6133	1.2022	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
22	Romain Grosjean	1:00.6685	1.2574	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
23	Dalton Kellett	1:00.7102	1.2991	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
24	Simon Pagenaud	1:00.7416	1.3305	Chevy	Team Penske
25	James Hinchcliffe	1:01.1949	1.7838	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
26	Jimmie Johnson	1:01.4827	2.0716	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
27	Callum Ilott	1:01.5187	2.1076	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing