Take Saturday’s qualifying crash in the second round away and Josef Newgarden looks like a legitimate contender to win Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland (3 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network). The reigning Indy 500 champion was second in Saturday morning’s 45-minute practice session and in the 30-minute final practice, topped the 27 car field at 59.4533-seconds in his No. 2 Dallara-Chevrolet.

Newgarden rolls off 12th on Sunday on a track that 22 of the last 24 races here in Portland were won from a top 5 starter.

It was a strong final session out of the Juncos Hollinger Racing camp with Callum Ilott (59.3442-seconds) being P2 and his rookie teammate of Agustin Canapino (59.7508-seconds) in sixth.

Ilott rolls off 8th on Sunday.

Points leader Alex Palou (59.5716-seconds) was third in his No. 10 Dallara-Honda. Palou was third and fifth respectively in practice this weekend and also starts 5th too. His teammates Marcus Ericsson (59.6256-seconds) and Scott Dixon (59.7201-seconds) rounded out the top five in being fourth and fifth respectively.

Dixon was third in practice this morning and starts fourth. Ericsson was 13th in practice but qualified 10th.

Pole sitter Graham Rahal was only 18th best in final practice while Scott McLaughlin, who was quickest this morning and second in qualifying, was 21st.

This session saw some mixed strategies with teams trying to figure out their plans on whether to use which tires twice on Sunday.

See, it’s a three stopper which means among the 2 compounds, you’ll use one of them twice. Which one?

That’s why this 30 minute session was so crucial to finding those plans and solidifying them.