| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESOnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland1.964-mile, 12-Turn Portland International Raceway road coursePortland, OregonFriday Practice ReportAugust 7, 2026 PORTLAND (August 7, 2026) –– As history has shown, practice one for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES at Portland International Raceway can produce a bit of chaos as drivers re-adjust to the twists and turns of the flat, short, but very fast track. Fortunately, for the majority of the Chevrolet powered INDYCAR drivers, there was little calamity, and Rinus Veekay powered his No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet to third overall following the three-tier session that comprised practice one. Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Sonsio Vehicle Protection Team Penske Chevrolet, David Malulas. No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet also posted top-nine times today. Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, was the victim of the curb and railing of turn one, sending him around off the exit curb. He hustled the car back to pit lane where the team changed the nose, checked the car over, put on new tires and sent him out to finish practice. Activity resumes Saturday.:Saturday, August 8NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #2 – 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)/11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 7pm (ET)/6pm (CT)/5pm (MT)/4pm (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 ONLYBULLS Grand Prix Portland – Friday Practice Results: |
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| NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceFriday, August 7, 2026Scott McLaughlinPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up practice, we’re currently joined by Scott McLaughlin. The 2022 winner here at PIR. Scott, thanks for joining us. Your thoughts on practice one and the start of the weekend here? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, hello, everyone. CTHE MODERATOR: Former winner here. You like this place a lot. What is it about it that seems to fit your driving style? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, anyplace especially you come to that you won before. I think for me, being able to go to a track that requires a little bit of technicality in terms of braking hard, hairpins. Then you have the fast flowing nature of part of the track as well. It’s a challenge to set up for, a challenge to drive and get completely right. It’s a small lap. Always very tight. It’s rewarding when you get it right, but it does punish you when you get it wrong. Hopefully we’re on the right end of it and can make it happen. Certainly feels good. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Scott, how important, if at all, is it to have a good weekend here, because there’s four straight after this one? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Look, positive momentum, it’s a real thing in sport. Especially in motorsport. Yeah, we’re sort of looking at from the 3 car side really trying to concentrate on these five weeks as a little mini five-week championship in some ways, and try to do the best we can. I think the last few races we’ve come on strong as a team, between engineering, driving, on the stand. We’re chomping at the bit to get going this weekend. Yeah, I think it’s important every weekend to go well, important to get that momentum going. Hopefully, yes, we can start it this weekend. Q. Do you think that momentum is more important for the end of this year or for when you look ahead to 2027? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I don’t know. It’s such a long off-season that it’s hard. I think the biggest thing is trying to learn as much as you can with your team, prove that we can do this together and work hard. I really feel like the last month we’ve worked really well as a team. Any momentum’s great. Whether that carries into the off-season, to the preseason, it remains to behold. Certainly the confidence from a really good end to the year you’ll carry through the whole off-season with all your simulator work, testing, whatever. Hopefully that bodes well for the start of ’27. Q. All the engineering changes you kind of had this year, what were some of the biggest challenges initially this season? You mentioned this positive last month or so. Are there any kind of specifics that you feel have maybe clicked with this kind of revamped group in these past few months? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, my stand is fantastic. My engineering group is fantastic. I was so confident with them heading into the year. It’s just one of those things that you’ve got to gel regardless. You have all these different tracks. It’s so tough in INDYCAR to be great week in, week out. For Raul, my engineer, he’s been in sports car for a long time. Hadn’t been in INDYCAR a long time full-time, although he’s done the odd Indy 500 here and there. Going to Barber, going to a street track, going to a short oval, trying to keep that cadence right and getting the balance right, nailing that in a series that’s so tight as INDYCAR, it’s difficult. It just took a little bit more time for me maybe to get my terminology about what I wanted with the car and to make it better to him. I think the way he was taking some of my comments maybe was like a little maybe he thought I wanted too much, and he was changing the car a lot. Then I didn’t want it that much. Just trying to manufacture that language that we can both get on top of a few things. I thought the testing we’ve done was really great. Milwaukee and Mid-Ohio we had some really good tests. The races since Indy, I feel like we’ve all clicked really well. I’m excited to keep building with this group. Have so much confidence and we’ll keep working. Q. Scott, I look at your teammate David Malukas being 83 points behind Palou in the championship. You’ve been in those championship fights before. What kind of collective effort do y’all try to make to help prop him up for this closing stretch? What kind of advice do you give David since he’s never been in a situation like this before? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Firstly, one race at a time for everybody. Just take it as it comes, especially in this series these days, how competitive it is. From a team perspective, yeah, for sure, we want a Penske car to win, regardless if it’s myself, Malukas or Josef. We’re going to be working hard as a team to make that happen. We’ll figure that out as time goes on. That’s always been the mantra here. Yeah, for him, different championship cars throughout the years in different categories. It’s about trying not to really focus on the points, just worry about execution, the rest will take care of itself. But it’s hard to beat experience in that spot. He’ll just gain it this year and continued to get better. Q. Could you see a situation with you and Josef where maybe as a team y’all try to cover a certain way, do strategy a little bit different to try to shake stuff up and take points off Palou to aid David? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think we always try to make sure a Penske car wins. We always cover all bases. I think you saw that in Nashville. We pitted early. The other guys stayed out. A few other things happened there. You try and cover all the bases to make sure we can at least get one car in front of the 10 or something like that. We just take that as circumstantial, and that will be decided between the strategists really more than the drivers. Q. Looking at the six races in the next five weeks, we know there’s a lot of scenarios that come into play. For you as a driver, how hard does this get in terms of your recovery between events, different type of tracks, all those scenarios? That has to put a lot of demand on the back end of the season for you as a driver physically. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I was speaking to Will about it. I’m so excited. I think five weeks straight is awesome. It’s tough for the teams. It’s tough for us overall as a category. But it’s awesome to be racing that much. Part and parcel of our calendar being from March to September and being so tight-knit together. I’m looking forward to it personally. Yeah, it is tough recovery-wise. Maybe your gym sessions are a little bit less than usual I guess in some ways. It’s nice to be in the seat all the time. Just getting match fit, track fit you could say, being in the race a lot. Q. Within the series of weeks, you have two brand-new tracks that no one has been to before. That will make a little bit more of a level playing field for everyone. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, everyone has seen the track. They’ll get some simulator running. For sure, it’s try to hit the ground running as hard as you can. We know the Andretti boys are strong on street circuits. DC and Markham, two amazing events we’re going to. I’m really excited. It’s going to be great. Try to hit the ground running, but know that the normal guys will be up front and hopefully we can stay with them. THE MODERATOR: Scott, we’ll cut you loose. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
| Tune-In Guide Saturday, August 8NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #2 – 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)/11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 7pm (ET)/6pm (CT)/5pm (MT)/4pm (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 Sunday, August 9NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm Up – 1pm (ET)/ (CT)/7am (MT)/6am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland (110 laps)– 4pm (ET)/3pm (CT)2pm (MT)/1pm (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218  |
| Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) on track at PIR |
| Rinus VeeKay during Friday practice at the Portland International Raceway |
| Media Resources: Images | Media Advances | Chevrolet Newsroom |
| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESOnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland1.964-mile, 12-Turn Portland International Raceway road coursePortland, OregonFriday Practice ReportAugust 7, 2026 PORTLAND (August 7, 2026) –– As history has shown, practice one for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES at Portland International Raceway can produce a bit of chaos as drivers re-adjust to the twists and turns of the flat, short, but very fast track. Fortunately, for the majority of the Chevrolet powered INDYCAR drivers, there was little calamity, and Rinus Veekay powered his No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet to third overall following the three-tier session that comprised practice one. Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Sonsio Vehicle Protection Team Penske Chevrolet, David Malulas. No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet also posted top-nine times today. Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, was the victim of the curb and railing of turn one, sending him around off the exit curb. He hustled the car back to pit lane where the team changed the nose, checked the car over, put on new tires and sent him out to finish practice. Activity resumes Saturday.:Saturday, August 8NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #2 – 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)/11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 7pm (ET)/6pm (CT)/5pm (MT)/4pm (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 ONLYBULLS Grand Prix Portland – Friday Practice Results: |
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| NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceFriday, August 7, 2026Scott McLaughlinPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up practice, we’re currently joined by Scott McLaughlin. The 2022 winner here at PIR. Scott, thanks for joining us. Your thoughts on practice one and the start of the weekend here? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, hello, everyone. CTHE MODERATOR: Former winner here. You like this place a lot. What is it about it that seems to fit your driving style? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, anyplace especially you come to that you won before. I think for me, being able to go to a track that requires a little bit of technicality in terms of braking hard, hairpins. Then you have the fast flowing nature of part of the track as well. It’s a challenge to set up for, a challenge to drive and get completely right. It’s a small lap. Always very tight. It’s rewarding when you get it right, but it does punish you when you get it wrong. Hopefully we’re on the right end of it and can make it happen. Certainly feels good. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Scott, how important, if at all, is it to have a good weekend here, because there’s four straight after this one? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Look, positive momentum, it’s a real thing in sport. Especially in motorsport. Yeah, we’re sort of looking at from the 3 car side really trying to concentrate on these five weeks as a little mini five-week championship in some ways, and try to do the best we can. I think the last few races we’ve come on strong as a team, between engineering, driving, on the stand. We’re chomping at the bit to get going this weekend. Yeah, I think it’s important every weekend to go well, important to get that momentum going. Hopefully, yes, we can start it this weekend. Q. Do you think that momentum is more important for the end of this year or for when you look ahead to 2027? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I don’t know. It’s such a long off-season that it’s hard. I think the biggest thing is trying to learn as much as you can with your team, prove that we can do this together and work hard. I really feel like the last month we’ve worked really well as a team. Any momentum’s great. Whether that carries into the off-season, to the preseason, it remains to behold. Certainly the confidence from a really good end to the year you’ll carry through the whole off-season with all your simulator work, testing, whatever. Hopefully that bodes well for the start of ’27. Q. All the engineering changes you kind of had this year, what were some of the biggest challenges initially this season? You mentioned this positive last month or so. Are there any kind of specifics that you feel have maybe clicked with this kind of revamped group in these past few months? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, my stand is fantastic. My engineering group is fantastic. I was so confident with them heading into the year. It’s just one of those things that you’ve got to gel regardless. You have all these different tracks. It’s so tough in INDYCAR to be great week in, week out. For Raul, my engineer, he’s been in sports car for a long time. Hadn’t been in INDYCAR a long time full-time, although he’s done the odd Indy 500 here and there. Going to Barber, going to a street track, going to a short oval, trying to keep that cadence right and getting the balance right, nailing that in a series that’s so tight as INDYCAR, it’s difficult. It just took a little bit more time for me maybe to get my terminology about what I wanted with the car and to make it better to him. I think the way he was taking some of my comments maybe was like a little maybe he thought I wanted too much, and he was changing the car a lot. Then I didn’t want it that much. Just trying to manufacture that language that we can both get on top of a few things. I thought the testing we’ve done was really great. Milwaukee and Mid-Ohio we had some really good tests. The races since Indy, I feel like we’ve all clicked really well. I’m excited to keep building with this group. Have so much confidence and we’ll keep working. Q. Scott, I look at your teammate David Malukas being 83 points behind Palou in the championship. You’ve been in those championship fights before. What kind of collective effort do y’all try to make to help prop him up for this closing stretch? What kind of advice do you give David since he’s never been in a situation like this before? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Firstly, one race at a time for everybody. Just take it as it comes, especially in this series these days, how competitive it is. From a team perspective, yeah, for sure, we want a Penske car to win, regardless if it’s myself, Malukas or Josef. We’re going to be working hard as a team to make that happen. We’ll figure that out as time goes on. That’s always been the mantra here. Yeah, for him, different championship cars throughout the years in different categories. It’s about trying not to really focus on the points, just worry about execution, the rest will take care of itself. But it’s hard to beat experience in that spot. He’ll just gain it this year and continued to get better. Q. Could you see a situation with you and Josef where maybe as a team y’all try to cover a certain way, do strategy a little bit different to try to shake stuff up and take points off Palou to aid David? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think we always try to make sure a Penske car wins. We always cover all bases. I think you saw that in Nashville. We pitted early. The other guys stayed out. A few other things happened there. You try and cover all the bases to make sure we can at least get one car in front of the 10 or something like that. We just take that as circumstantial, and that will be decided between the strategists really more than the drivers. Q. Looking at the six races in the next five weeks, we know there’s a lot of scenarios that come into play. For you as a driver, how hard does this get in terms of your recovery between events, different type of tracks, all those scenarios? That has to put a lot of demand on the back end of the season for you as a driver physically. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I was speaking to Will about it. I’m so excited. I think five weeks straight is awesome. It’s tough for the teams. It’s tough for us overall as a category. But it’s awesome to be racing that much. Part and parcel of our calendar being from March to September and being so tight-knit together. I’m looking forward to it personally. Yeah, it is tough recovery-wise. Maybe your gym sessions are a little bit less than usual I guess in some ways. It’s nice to be in the seat all the time. Just getting match fit, track fit you could say, being in the race a lot. Q. Within the series of weeks, you have two brand-new tracks that no one has been to before. That will make a little bit more of a level playing field for everyone. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, everyone has seen the track. They’ll get some simulator running. For sure, it’s try to hit the ground running as hard as you can. We know the Andretti boys are strong on street circuits. DC and Markham, two amazing events we’re going to. I’m really excited. It’s going to be great. Try to hit the ground running, but know that the normal guys will be up front and hopefully we can stay with them. THE MODERATOR: Scott, we’ll cut you loose. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
| Tune-In Guide Saturday, August 8NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #2 – 1pm (ET)/noon (CT)/11am (MT)/10am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 7pm (ET)/6pm (CT)/5pm (MT)/4pm (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 Sunday, August 9NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm Up – 1pm (ET)/ (CT)/7am (MT)/6am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland (110 laps)– 4pm (ET)/3pm (CT)2pm (MT)/1pm (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 |
| Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) on track at PIR |
| Chevrolet history at Portland International RacewayChevrolet wins at Portland International Raceway: 9 2025 – Will Power – Team Penske2024 – Will Power – Team Penske2022 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske2019 – Will Power – Team Penske1993 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing 1990 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing 1989 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Patrick Racing1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske Chevrolet poles at Portland International Raceway: 8 2025 – Christian Lundgaard – Arrow McLaren2024 – Santino Ferrucci – A.J. Foyt Racing2022 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske2018 – Will Power – Team Penske1992 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1991 – Emerson Fittipaldi Team Penske1990 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske Chevrolet podiums at Portland International Raceway: 22 Chevrolet podiums at Portland International Raceway by driver: Emerson Fittipaldi (5), Will Power (4), Michael Andretti (2), Al Unser Jr. (2), Mario Andretti (1), Christian Lundgaard (1), Scott McLaughlin (1), Rick Mears (1), Josef Newgarden (1), Bob Rahal (1), Felix Rosenqvist (1), Danny Sullivan (1) and Paul Tracy (1) Chevrolet podiums at Portland International Raceway by team: Team Penske (12), Galles Racing (3), Newman Haas Racing (3), Patrick Racing (2), Arrow McLaren (2) Chevrolet laps led at Portland International Raceway: 854 Chevrolet laps led at Portland International Raceway by driver: Will Power (233), Michael Andretti (203), Emerson Fittipaldi (182), , Scott McLaughlin (109), Danny Sullivan (46), Pato O’Ward (45), Rick Mears (25), Mario Andretti (3), Josef Newgarden (3), Felix Rosenqvist (3), Al Unser Jr. (3), Callum Ilott (1) Chevrolet laps led at Portland International Raceway by team: Team Penske (488), Newman Haas Racing (206), Patrick Racing (110), Arrow McLaren (46), Galles Racing (3), and Juncos Hollinger Racing (1) Manufacturer History at Portland International Raceway Wins (with competition): 9 – Chevrolet (2025, 2024, 2022, 2019, 1993, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988)7 – Honda (2023, 2021, 2018, 2000, 1999, 1998, 19964 – Cosworth (1987, 1986, 1985, 1984)2 – Ford (2001, 1992)2 – Mercedes (1997, 1995)1 – Toyota (20021 – Ilmor (1994 Poles (with competition): 8 – Chevrolet (2025, 2024, 2022, 2018, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1988)6 – Honda (2023, 2021, 2019, 2000, 1999, 1996)5 – Ford (2001, 1998, 1997, 1995, 19934 – Cosworth (1987, 1986, 1985, 1984)1 – Toyota (20021 – Ilmor (1995)1 – Porsche (1989) |