Three of the four remaining challengers for the Verizon IndyCar Series championship were fastest in Thursday’s second test session at Portland International Raceway.
Series points leader Scott Dixon was fastest around the 1.964-mile permanent road course, which is hosting Indy cars for the first time since 2007. Dixon (121.153 mph) and Will Power (121.083 mph) were the only two drivers to surpass 121 mph in the afternoon session.
Power is currently third in the standings, 68 points behind Dixon with two races left on the 2018 IndyCar schedule -- this Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland and the season finale at Sonoma Raceway on Sept. 16.
Defending series champion Josef Newgarden was third-fastest at 120.937 mph, followed by Marco Andretti (120.630) and rookie Zach Veach (120.527).
Series veteran Sebastien Bourdais (sixth-fastest at 120.443 mph) won the last Indy car race at Portland.
Rounding out the top 10 fastest drivers were Ryan Hunter-Reay (120.405), Ed Jones (120.393), Alexander Rossi (120.368) -- who trails Dixon by 26 points heading into Sunday’s race -- was ninth-fastest, while Jack Harvey, making just his fifth start of the season, was 10th-fastest at 120.268 mph.
There are 25 drivers entered in the race.
Friday will see two practice sessions, while Saturday will have one final practice followed by qualifying (live 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN).
The race takes place Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (NBCSN begins its telecast at 2:30 p.m. ET).
Here’s the results for both the second and first sessions:
