PORTLAND, Ore. — When Alex Palou and teammate Scott Dixon missed the primary activate the primary lap at Portland Worldwide Raceway, it put Pato O’Ward in place to take agency maintain of the IndyCar championship.

However the two Chip Ganassi Racing drivers did not panic, even when IndyCar despatched Palou and Dixon virtually to the again of the complete subject at a race neither may afford to lose to O’Ward.

As a substitute, they strategized on easy methods to salvage Sunday, a feat completed when Palou recovered for his third victory of the season and Dixon completed third. The victory put Palou again on high of the factors standings with two races remaining to crown the IndyCar champion.

“I believe that many individuals after the primary lap thought that Pato was going to win and that we had been going to lose 40 factors,” Palou stated. “And it was the alternative. That is why IndyCar is IndyCar — I believe that makes the racing tremendous thrilling and the championship tremendous thrilling till the tip.”

Palou received the primary pole of his profession to set the tone for what he hoped can be a weekend rebound after back-to-back poor races moved O’Ward previous the Spaniard and into the factors lead.

The second-year IndyCar driver had an engine failure at Indianapolis after which crashed at Gateway to go from 42 factors up within the title race to trailing O’Ward by 10 headed into Portland.

The pole earned him one level and minimize Palou’s deficit to 9 factors when the inexperienced flag flew, however mayhem ensued earlier than the very first activate the everlasting street course. Palou and Dixon hurtled towards the primary flip and Felix Rosenqvist — the driving force Palou changed this 12 months at Ganassi — appeared to clip Dixon.

It prompted Dixon to lock his brakes as he and Palou rode side-by-side. Neither Ganassi automobile was going to make the flip and each adopted Rosenqvist by a runoff to keep away from crashing.

It took 10 laps below warning for IndyCar to determine easy methods to reorder the sphere, and Palou and Dixon had been dropped to seventeenth and 18th for the restart on Lap 11 — the primary lap below inexperienced. In all of the ducking and weaving to keep away from a multi-crash accident, O’Ward had cycled from seventh on the begin to the lead earlier than he even made it by the primary flip, and but Palou felt the race was nonetheless in his management.

As IndyCar took 10 laps to line the vehicles again up, Palou realized he’d possible have sufficient gas to make the 110 laps on solely two pit stops.

“I believe once they had been taking a very long time to penalize us, I used to be counting laps and I used to be like ‘OK, it is a good factor. I do know we will make the gas mileage to make it in two solely stops,”’ Palou stated. “Even when we had been on the identical technique as everyone, possibly we weren’t in a position to win, however we had been in a position to be within the high 5, high six. You by no means know.”

Though O’Ward led 28 laps, he could not put an entire race collectively and the Ganassi drivers slowly picked their approach again into competition. Palou had returned to the lead and was out entrance for a pair of restarts within the remaining 20 laps, holding off Alexander Rossi each instances to protect the victory.

The 24-year-old moved again atop the standings and takes a 25-point lead over O’Ward into subsequent week’s street course race at Laguna Seca in California. The season then concludes Sept. 26 on the streets of Lengthy Seashore, marking three tracks the place Palou has by no means raced to shut the season and his first championship.

“Laguna Seca goes to be good for us. We examined there. I really feel robust there,” Palou stated. “Lengthy Seashore, that is going to be fascinating and thrilling, however nothing I can do about it. By no means been there, all my rivals been there and received races there, so it’s kind of scary.”

Rossi completed a season-best second for his first podium of the season and was adopted by Dixon, who regardless of ending third misplaced floor in his bid for his seventh IndyCar title. The reigning champion went from 43 factors right down to O’Ward to 49 factors behind Palou.

“It is undoubtedly been a attempting season for us, however finally if it comes right down to we have to assist Alex, that is advantageous, too,” Dixon stated. “I believe for us it is about holding the championship at residence and on the workforce. Except you are out, you are not out. It is all attainable.”

Jack Harvey completed fourth, and two-time sequence champion Josef Newgarden rallied from his 18th-place beginning place to a fifth-place end. He is fourth within the standings, 34 factors behind Palou.