PORTLAND, Ore. — Alex Palou earned the primary pole of his IndyCar profession and put himself in place to reclaim the championship lead Sunday at Portland Worldwide Raceway.

Palou turned a prime lap of 58.7701 seconds in Saturday qualifying on the 1.964-mile, 12-turn everlasting highway course inbuilt 1960. The Spaniard had been to the Portland observe solely as soon as earlier than — the race was canceled final season throughout pandemic rescheduling — for a take a look at session final month.

However he stated he instantly beloved the observe and spent IndyCar’s three-week break heading into Portland on the simulator making ready for this pivotal title race.

“We have been working arduous, attempting to make this occur,” Palou informed The Related Press after his qualifying lap. “We have been tremendous aggressive in qualifying this 12 months, however we by no means bought that final lap time that we wanted for a pole and bought it right here and am simply tremendous joyful to tick that field off.”

Extra necessary, Palou’s prime competitors for the title will all begin behind him Sunday. Palou earned one level for profitable the pole and lower his deficit to Pato O’Ward to simply 9 factors forward of the 110-lap race.

“The large factors are [Sunday]. I am tremendous joyful and tremendous pleased with what we did, however we have to try to hold the place,” Palou stated. “It is a good begin to begin up entrance and hopefully nonetheless going to hold some momentum to the top of the season. We’ll get there.”

O’Ward overcame a 48-point deficit over two races as Palou suffered an engine problem on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway highway course and was collected in a crash at Gateway outdoors St. Louis. Palou had been the factors chief after eight of 13 races this season.

O’Ward will begin seventh after his Arrow McLaren SP teammate Felix Rosenqvist bumped him from advancing into the Quick Six closing spherical of qualifying.

“The blokes I am preventing are in entrance of me, so I must cross them,” O’Ward stated.

Alexander Rossi, who just isn’t a part of the championship image, certified second for Andretti Autosport. He was adopted by six-time and reigning sequence champion Scott Dixon, who joins Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Palou within the prime three.

Dixon dropped from third to fourth within the IndyCar standings, 43 again from O’Ward, when he was collected in the identical crash as Palou at Gateway. He nonetheless believes he and Palou are firmly within the title combat, with Dixon’s path clear: “We have to win,” the New Zealander stated.

But when he would not win the title, Dixon stated he’s rooting squarely for his teammates and stated the 24-year-old Palou has labored arduous for his shot on the championship.

“You will not meet a nicer individual than Alex. I’ve informed him he must be a bit extra of a [jerk],” Dixon stated. “It has been actually good for the workforce.”

Marcus Ericsson, one other Ganassi driver who’s fifth within the standings and 60 factors out, certified tenth.

Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden had the worst qualifying effort of the title contenders. His win at Gateway moved him to 3rd within the standings, 22 factors again of O’Ward, however he did not advance out of the primary spherical of Saturday qualifying and can begin 18th.

“We simply did not have any tempo,” Newgarden stated of his Chevrolet from Staff Penske. “It wasn’t a nasty lap. It simply wasn’t sufficient. We’ll simply must determine it out.”

The IndyCar season concludes with three consecutive races on the West Coast because the sequence shifts from Portland to California for the highway course at Laguna Seca and the finale on the streets of Lengthy Seashore. All three races had been canceled final season, and Palou, a second-year driver, has nearly no expertise on the three remaining circuits.

O’Ward, in the meantime, has raced at Lengthy Seashore earlier than within the IndyCar Collection and swept a pair of Indy Lights races at Portland in 2018 when he gained 5 of the ultimate seven occasions to win the feeder sequence championship.

Ryan Hunter-Reay, in his closing three races with Andretti Autosport, was not in a position to make a qualifying try due to {an electrical} problem in Saturday morning apply. He’ll begin final within the 27-car discipline Sunday.

Takuma Sato will begin twenty sixth due to a penalty for additionally altering his engine on Saturday morning, and Rinus VeeKay, celebrating his twenty first birthday Saturday, will drop to twenty fifth due to his penalty for an engine change after Gateway.

With solely three races remaining this season, the free-agency interval has picked up dramatically with Hunter-Reay actively searching for one other trip as he’s anticipated to get replaced by Romain Grosjean subsequent season. Dale Coyne appeared to substantiate that Grosjean can be gone after his first season in IndyCar with the workforce when Coyne stated Saturday that he’s nonetheless attempting to place collectively a two-car lineup for 2022.

Bobby Rahal stated he’s evaluating a number of drivers for a 3rd Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry subsequent season, and Oliver Askew will drive the ultimate three races of the season as he will get his look. RLL has additionally used Santino Ferrucci and Christian Lundgaard within the automotive. Rahal stated he isn’t positive what’s going to occur subsequent season with Sato, the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner who wants monetary backing from Honda to finalize his deal.

Rahal stated Sato remains to be within the combine for a seat at RLL, however the workforce will not discipline 4 full-time automobiles subsequent 12 months. RLL would discipline a fourth on the Indy 500, Rahal stated.

Simon Pagenaud stated he’s nonetheless a number of weeks away from revealing his 2022 plans, which appears to point he will not be returning to Staff Penske subsequent 12 months. Roger Penske stated solely that if a present driver leaves the group — Newgarden, Will Energy and Scott McLaughlin are underneath contract — Staff Penske would cut back to a few IndyCar entries subsequent season.