Graham Rahal captured the pole position for the second consecutive road course in the NTT IndyCar Series, leading the starting lineup for the BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland.
It’s the second pole in three races for Rahal, who qualified first last month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course — his first pole position since the 2017 season.
“It’s nice to have two poles at the end of the year,” Rahal told NBC Sports’ Dillon Welch. “Everyone has pushed so hard to get our team back to this point, it’s nice to have two poles at the end of the year. Hopefully we can finish this deal off. That’d be pretty sweet.”
TIRE DESIGNATIONS: Alternate or primary
INDYCAR AT PORTLAND: Details, schedules, start times for Sunday’s race on NBC, Peacock
Rahal, who finished second Aug. 13 to Scott Dixon at Indy, is seeking his first victory since June 2017 when he swept the weekend in Detroit.
“I feel our race car is better than our qualifying car,” said Rahal, who edged Scott McLaughlin by less than 4 hundredths of a second. “It felt really good to put that lap in, and be able to get the pole. From here on forward, hopefully we’ll have good stops, and the strategy is straightforward. We’ll see what happens. Certainly a great day for us.”
Will @GrahamRahal pull it off on Sunday?
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 2, 2023
He came so close to breaking a winless streak at @IMS. He's back on pole for @Race_Portland. pic.twitter.com/6ftmOsdVC4
Colton Herta qualified third, followed by Dixon, Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward.
QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Grand Prix of Portland qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3
Palou is aiming to clinch his second championship Sunday if he can finish at least 54 points ahead of Dixon, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate.
Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s BitNile.com Grand Prix of Portland on a 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course in Oregon (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed):
ROW 1
1. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 58.3195 seconds (121.236 mph)
2. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 58.3525 (121.167)
ROW 2
3. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 58.4576 (120.949)
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 58.5803 (120.696)
ROW 3
5. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 58.6492 (120.554)
6. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 58.6737 (120.504)
ROW 4
7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 58.3779 (121.114)
8. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 58.4973 (120.867)
ROW 5
9. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 58.5023 (120.857)
10. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 58.5479 (120.763)
ROW 6
11. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 59.3053 (119.220)
12. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, no time
ROW 7
13. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 58.3240 (121.226)
14. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 58.6652 (120.521)
ROW 8
15. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 58.3522 (121.168)
16. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 58.6835 (120.484)
ROW 9
17. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 58.3678 (121.135)
18. (30) Juri Vips, Honda, 58.7454 (120.357)
ROW 10
19. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 58.7753 (120.295)
20. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 58.6748 (120.501)
ROW 11
21. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 58.8006 (120.244)
22. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 59.0633 (119.709)
ROW 12
23. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 58.9016 (120.037)
24. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 59.2642 (119.303)
ROW 13
25. (20) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 58.6529* (120.546)
26. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 59.2175 (119.397)
ROW 14
27. (60) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 59.4364 (119.397)
*—Six-position penalty for engine change
