INDYCAR Previews

Preview – 2018 Grand Prix of Portland

By Dylan Reynolds, The Open Wheel

The INDYCAR season continues this weekend with the Verizon IndyCar Series Grand Prix of Portland and the Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Portland Powered by Mazda at Portland International Raceway in Portland, Oregon. The Open Wheel will be on-site covering the action all weekend so stay tuned to this site and our Twitter page @openwh33l for all of the latest news.

Preview – 2018 Grand Prix of Portland - 2018 DETROIT GP SUN 16

Photo by Parker Hall/The Open Wheel

Weekend ScheduleEntry ListSpotter GuideCircuit MapTickets

Indy Lights Preview: Cooper Tires Indy Lights Grand Prix of Portland Powered by Mazda (Entry List), Race 1 – Saturday, September 1, 2018 5:05PM (ET) & Race 2 – Sunday, September 2, 2018 12:55PM (ET) – The final weekend of the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires season takes place at Portland this weekend and Patricio O’Ward has a massive lead in the championship. Colton Herta still has feasible hopes of winning the title but needs maximum points in each race and some luck with poor finishes by O’Ward. Ryan Norman has shown improvement over the course of the season and is coming off his first win in the series at Gateway. He could be one to keep an eye on this weekend. Santi Urruita will be keen to put on a show after an exciting three years in Indy Lights and might just threaten for wins even thought a title isn’t likely. My picks to win: Patricio O’Ward & Colton Herta

Verizon IndyCar Series Preview: Grand Prix of Portland – Sunday, September 2, 2018 2:30PM (ET) NBCSN – We’ll see one of the bigger fields of the season this weekend at Portland with 25 entries for the Verizon IndyCar Series’ much-anticipated return to Portland International Raceway. Previous driver experience shows just seven drivers in the field that have raced at Portland before in Sebastien Bourdais (5), Tony Kanaan (4), Ryan Hunter-Reay (3), Scott Dixon (2), Will Power (2), Simon Pagenaud (1), and Graham Rahal (1). Bourdais is the only driver in the series with wins at Portland with two. The lack of history and a proper circuit comparison makes this weekend very tough to predict.  My pick to win: Alexander Rossi – With not much else to predict on, I’m sticking with the dominant Andretti Autosport driver who can seemingly do no wrong at the moment. Alexander Rossi is my pick this weekend.

My fantasy.indycar.com picks: Alexander Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simon Pagenaud, & Pietro Fittipaldi – You know my thoughts on Rossi. Hunter-Reay is due for some good luck and I think it happens this weekend. He’s been fast everywhere and just needs to stay out of the path of trouble to make it to the end. Pagenaud is coming off a Top 5 at Gateway and I’m going to put faith in Team Penske to get it right as much as anyone else at a new track. INDYCAR is getting “better” at setting higher values for hot drivers even in the mid-pack so I’m settling for a budget pick of Pietro Fittipaldi for $12.