Graham Rahal rolls off on the pole for Sunday’s BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland (3 p.m. ET, NBC, INDYCAR Radio Network). With two races left in the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, there’s a lot at stake here.

11 of the last 13 races there were won by a top 4 starter including three straight here from the front row.

• Championship Race – It’s down to Alex Palou vs. Scott Dixon now. 74 points separate the duo. Dixon needs to make up at least 21 points on Sunday to ensure that the title goes down to the season finale for the 18th straight season. He’s cut out 52 points off his deficit over the last 2 races, both were wins. Can he continue this another week? A max day gets him to 54 total points for the weekend which gets him to 545 for the season. Palou has accumulated 565 points this year and if he needs to be 54 or more points up leaving Portland, 54 + 545 = 599. For Palou’s case, 599-565 = 34 points. That’s 3rd (35 points) or better finish without a lap led to clinch. He starts 4th and Palou in 5th.
• Rookie of the Year: Marcus Armstrong currently leads Agustin Canapino by only 20 points for the ROY honors. It was 27 points entering last week’s race in Gateway but that’s because Armstrong didn’t race. He hasn’t on any of the five oval events this season. Which is why this is remarkable that he’s in this position with two races left.
• 3rd in Points – While the Chip Ganassi Racing duo have distanced themselves from the pack, the fight behind them is an intense one. 43 points separates the 3rd-6th placed drivers in points.
  • At one point, it looked like Josef Newgarden was going to run away with being the top Penske driver but now, he only leads teammate Scott McLaughlin by 14 for that distinction. Last year, McLaughlin dominated this race in Portland and was sixth in the season finale. Newgarden was 8th and 2nd respectively in the pair of races.
  • Sandwiched between them is Pato O’Ward who’s three points clear of McLaughlin but 11 behind Newgarden. O’Ward has 3 podiums in the last 5 races and has finishes of 4th, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 3rd on natural road courses this season.
  • Newgarden crashed and starts 12th. O’Ward will roll off 6th while McLaughlin is back on the front row in 2nd.
• Leaders Circle – The final few spots for the bonus program are tight. 14 points separate 5 cars with 3 of the 5 making the top 22 and 2 being left outside. Wildly enough, 3 of the 5 cars are being driven by someone who didn’t start the year off in that respective ride too. Ryan Hunter-Reay is in the No. 20 Dallara-Chevrolet (+11). Tom Blomqvist (+1) is in the No. 60 Dallara-Honda for ECR. Juri Vips (+1) is in the No. 30 Dallara-Honda for RLL. None of that trio began the season here. In fact, Vips is making his INDYCAR debut this weekend and Blomqvist his second start. Behind them are Agustin Canapino (-1), Devlin DeFrancesco (-4), Sting Ray Robb (-38) and Benjamin Pedersen (-53). 3 of the 4 are rookies. The other? A sophomore. What will the standings look like on Sunday evening?
• Power’s Win Streak – The defending series champion has won at least one race every season since 2007. However, Power is also winless in the first 15 races run in his championship defense. Can he pick up a win over the final two races to keep this streak alive? Alex Palou went winless for the first 16 races a year ago before winning the season finale. The last time someone went that long was Scott Dixon going 14 races in 2014. Dixon went winless in 2004. Sam Hornish Jr. was winless in 11 races in 2003. Can Power avoid their company? He has two top two finishes including a win in 2019 at Portland in his last three tries there while also being 2nd, 26th and 3rd in his three Laguna Seca tries.
• 1st Lap Madness – Death. Taxes. Crash in Turn 1, Lap 1 of the Grand Prix of Portland. However, it didn’t happen last year. Do we see a second straight year of everyone making it through Turn 1?
  • Prior to last year’s race, INDYCAR made a change to the start procedure allowing the front row participants of Scott McLaughlin and Will Power to accelerate exiting Turn 12. That was in hopes of spreading out the field entering Turn 1. While they’d be going faster, it also could have created some space in a way that the cars behind will be slowing in Turn 12 before accelerating themselves.
  • The alternative was having everyone on the front straight in hopes of a slower Turn 1 entry but in seen in support races, that is creating more havoc.
  • Now, do we see a similar instance?
  • The last time that a first lap crash occurred here was back in 2021 and it ironically enough, helped those that were involved.
• Penske vs. Ganassi? Over the last 26 races on these tracks (Since the Aeroscreen debut in 2020), Ganassi is the best team with 11 trips to victory lane. Penske is next best with 9. The only other teams to have won is Andretti (4 wins), Arrow McLaren (1 win) and Ed Carpenter Racing (1 win).
  • They’re also tops among podiums too.
  • Penske has 23, Ganassi 23 and Andretti 17 in 75 opportunities. The next best is a steep drop to McLaren with 6. DCR (4), ECR (3) and RLL (3) are the only other teams with podiums.
  • For Portland, Penske and Ganassi have combined to have won each of the last 3 races (Penske 2, Ganassi 1) with RLL taking the other.
  • For podiums, Ganassi has 4, Penske and Andretti each have 3 while DCR and RLL both have 1. Penske and Ganassi swept the podium last year and had 2 of the 3 in the 2 races prior.
  • At Mid-Ohio, the podium read Ganassi-Ganassi-Penske. In Road America, it was Ganassi-Penske-McLaren.
  • Can anyone stop them on Sunday?
  • Penske and Ganassi have 3 cars in the top 5 of the starting lineup on Sunday. But you have a RLL and Andretti car making up 2 of the top 3 spots.