Power heads nine-car Portland IndyCar test despite crash

Power’s #12 Team Penske-Chevrolet turned 92 laps, the best being the 79^th – a 58.295sec effort around the 1.967-mile course in Portland, OR. However, he went off on his 93^rd lap, damaging the front of the car, and the damage was such that he couldn’t get back on track.

Nonetheless, his top time left Power around 0.25sec clear of Andretti Autosport-Honda’s fastest representative, Colton Herta, and three tenths clear of his nearest pursuer in the championship, teammate Josef Newgarden. The 2017 and ’19 champion will be taking a six-slot grid penalty at Portland for switching to his fifth engine.

Alex Rossi, who managed to qualify his Andretti car on the front row at last year’s Portland race, was fourth fastest and turned the most laps of the day (115). The third Penske of Scott McLaughlin delivered sixth best time and, like Newgarden and Rossi, also turned over 100 laps.

Devlin DeFrancesco was sixth, impressively just 0.11sec slower than teammate Herta, but the fourth Andretti car of Romain Grosjean had a less satisfying day. The DHL car went off twice at Turn 12, the first time tearing off the front-left corner, the second time without significant damage and able to rejoin. Nonetheless, the former Formula 1 ace was able to squeeze in only 61 laps.

AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolets of Kyle Kirkwood and Dalton Kellett finished up eighth and ninth, the former 1.1sec off Power’s best, but 0.7sec ahead of his more experienced teammate.