- Steve Bidlack
- News
Portland Timbers star Diego Valeri named grand marshal for Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday
NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Simon Pagenaud will serve as grand marshal for Saturday's ARCA Menards Series West race
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 10, 2021) - Diego Valeri, one of the greatest Major League Soccer players of all time for the hometown Portland Timbers, will serve as the honorary grand marshal for the Grand Prix of Portland which began this morning and runs through Sunday at Portland International Raceway (PIR).
- arcaracing.com
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Track Profile: Portland International Raceway
The ARCA Menards Series West does not have deep roots at Portland International Raceway having competed on the 12-turn, 1.967-mile road course just five times dating back to 1986.
That doesn’t mean the site of IndyCar’s Grand Prix of Portland is not a popular stop on the West Series schedule.
The 2021 West Series event in Portland, Oregon, technically marks ARCA’s first race on this road course, as the first five West Series events at Portland International Raceway ran under the NASCAR banner.
More than three months have passed since the ARCA Menards Series West last competed on a road course. The right turns are back this weekend at Portland International Raceway.
And as the West Series returns to the 12-turn, 1.967-mile road course in Portland, Oregon, for the first time since 2012, it is not alone.
PORTLAND, Ore. (Sept. 2, 2021) – The championship battles are heating up as the 2021 motorsports season draws closer to its finish. Three races remain for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and four for the ARCA Menards Series West with both featured next weekend at Portland International Raceway (PIR) during the Grand Prix of Portland, Sept. 10-12.
Here’s a good problem to have: With three races remaining in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ 2021 season, Chip Ganassi Racing has three viable championship contenders.
Now, how to boost the individual hopes of Alex Palou, Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson while managing the expectations of the organization? Just remember that Chip Ganassi “likes winners.”
This year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship figures to go through one of the top five drivers in the current point standings. Or, it might go through Team Penske’s Will Power.
Now, don’t misunderstand. Power heads to the final three races of the season in ninth place, 120 points in arrears of the top spot. Barring extreme circumstances, the driver of the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet will not win his second season title this year. But, oh, he could have a significant impact on how the year plays out.
- arcaracing.com
- News
Jesse Love earns third consecutive Irwindale victory
Something about Bill McAnally Racing drivers and Irwindale Speedway seem to jive well.
For the second time this season and fifth time in his career, defending ARCA Menards Series West champion Jesse Love earned the victory, surviving a flurry of late-race restarts — including a green-white-checkered — to do so.
Josef Newgarden earned his second victory of the season by winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway in a race that shuffled the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship deck.
Newgarden drove his No. 2 Sonsio Team Penske Chevrolet to victory by .5397 of a second over Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP. O’Ward didn’t enter Victory Lane, but he also was a big winner of the night by taking the championship lead by 10 points over Alex Palou, who placed 20th after being eliminated in a three-car accident early in the race.
- arcaracing.com
- News
PIT BOX: Previewing weekend’s ARCA Menards races at Michigan, Irwindale, Springfield
The ARCA Menards platform is set for its busiest weekend of 2021, with three races across two series scheduled over the span of three days.
The ARCA Menards Series will complete a weekend doubleheader starting with Friday evening’s Henry Ford Health System 200 at Michigan International Speedway. The series and its competitors will then travel Saturday ahead of Sunday’s Allen Crowe 100 on the Springfield Mile at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, the first of two dirt-track races on the schedule.
Meanwhile, the ARCA Menards Series West on Saturday will contest its fifth race of the season, the NAPA Auto Parts 150 presented by Sunrise Ford at Irwindale Speedway outside of Los Angeles. The event marks the series’ second race this season at Irwindale, where defending champion Jesse Love won last month.
