NTT INDYCAR SERIES: BITNILE.COM GRAND PRIX OF PORTLAND

August 10, 2025

Jonathan Diuguid

Christian Lundgaard

Will Power

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Joined by the champion at Portland International Raceway, Will Power. First win of the season, first since Portland again last year. 45th career win, which ranks him fourth all time.

Will, a bunch of good stories happening in this race, Alex another champion. To see you back in Victory Lane, pretty cool. Congratulations. Tell us about your day.

WILL POWER: Yeah, it was a nice day because I got to push as hard as I could for the whole race, which usually that's fuel save. I was glad my engineer picked that strategy. He was going to pit me. Then he said to stay out, to be a leader. Had faith that I'd had a lot of pace.

Yeah, it's a Team Penske-type day, man. When we're put in the position, we can win. It's obviously been a rough year on many fronts. Yeah, very nice to get a win.

THE MODERATOR: Christian, a good story for you, as well, in what has been a tremendous 2025. Tell us your thoughts about your podium finish here at Portland.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, it sucks finishing second twice. No, at the end of the day I'm happy to be in the situation that we've been in on the 7 car this weekend. We've shown so much pace all weekend. We're fastest in practice one, seventh in practice two, pole on the race. Obviously had our grid penalty, still raced our way up to second.

I think there's only things to be proud of considering where the team was last year. We were first and second in qualifying. Last year none of the cars transferred through Q1. The trajectory the team is on is only upward and I'm excited for the years to come.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Will, you've won a race, been the highest performing Team Penske driver all season. Do you believe today has earned you a return back to the team in 2026?

WILL POWER: No, I have no clue. I don't know. Yeah, nothing else to say, man. I don't know.

Q. In your mind, to be able to still go out here and win races, out-duel guys like the man next to you, Alex Palou, that has to give you a satisfying feeling about you as a competitor.

WILL POWER: It's what we expect at that team. To me it was business as normal honestly. I've been in that position so many times in my career. Like I said, I'm driving the best I ever have. Simple as that. I'm not slowing down. I am not slower, I am faster. My toolbox is still big as far as understanding the cars, race craft, all that.

Yeah, that's me. I guess I'm different to some people. I never stop working at it. It's a passion. I love it. That's why I'm still winning.

Q. Classic Will Power win. Tell me about the team side. It was cool seeing mechanics from Andretti and Ganassi come up to your crew shaking their hands. Everyone on pit lane felt happy for your team. After such a tough year, transitions a lot of folks feeling really happy.

WILL POWER: I was happy for everyone, man. Like both teammates came up, all the engineers, all the crews came up. As I drove down pit lane, many teams happy to see us get a win there.

I think what's happened to the team this year, probably the situation I'm in, as well. It's a tight-knit community, the INDYCAR paddock, it really is.

I have to say I really have got to know a lot of people from every team in the paddock. I have so many friends in that paddock. I feel like to have done this for this long and know that many good people. Everyone looks out for each other even though we compete against each other.

Nice feeling.

Q. Will, you used red tires for the second stint. When you decided to do that? Decided before the start of the race or...

WILL POWER: No, engineer decided that based on where we would come out. We came out pretty good, clear space. We pulled another big gap. We came out on blacks, we'd have plenty of space to get up to speed, find the balance of the car.

It was strategically a very smart race from the timing stand for me.

Q. Christian, can you explain the situation with Alex at the end of the race. You touched each other, I think.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, in all honesty, I don't think there's much to say. He goes around the outside. There is a curb, then there's gravel.

Q. Christian, take us through the closing 10, 20 laps. What made the difference of not being able to get yourself close to Will?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, we were worst on fuel of all three of us, right? Obviously, we were also worst on tires as we were worst on fuel.

I mean, essentially this track is so difficult with dirty air, you really can't do much. I think that's why no positions were really exchanged at the end of the day.

Alex caught us. We were having trouble with the back markers, Will and I. That's really the only opportunity you have. At the end of the day if it's a train, no one can really do anything.

We all had to save some fuel. We managed to get there, which is really nice.

Q. Will, when you won this race last year, a big celebration. You put yourself squarely in the championship fight. What does this win after the 12 months that have taken place mean to you and how does it stack up in your career?

WILL POWER: Yeah, it's a very nice feeling. Done it many times before. Just funny that it comes at this time of the year. It's going to be interesting, man (smiling).

Yeah, yeah, obviously don't know what the future holds. I think it was just very nice. I feel good for the whole team, I really do. Where we stand in the championship really isn't indicative of our true potential. It's just been a rough year. Feel good for Chevy, as well. I think on that front they've had a pretty bad year.

Yeah, I think the whole team, I can tell they're so very sort of happy and relieved that we've got a win on the table now. We started out pretty rough in practice, made a lot of changes, got a car that was probably not good enough for pole, but right there in that top four.

It's a good weekend, man.

Q. We still have a few weeks to figure out what your future holds. Do you kind of feel no matter what happens you've left everything out there and put the decision in someone else's hands?

WILL POWER: I don't know, man. Maybe it's my decision.

Q. Will, do you feel like this win is more important to show the people at Penske that you can still win or people from other teams who might be looking at you?

WILL POWER: It's probably good on both fronts. But yeah, I mean, I won three races last year. If you're a team, if you're waiting on me to know if I'm good enough, I don't know what you're thinking. If you're actually waiting, I'm not sure if this guy is good enough, just go back to last year and you'll fucking know.

Q. What does this do for you in terms of your confidence for the rest of the season?

WILL POWER: It's like flowing the way it normally does for me. Been in the top six the last three races, in qualifying. Obviously strategy didn't play out at Laguna. I got taken out at Toronto.

Yeah, man, I go into every weekend, I feel like we have a chance to win as a team and as a driver. If everything goes right, we'll be in the hunt. That goes for the last two races, as well, yeah.

Q. Looking at the race, there was a lot of talk beforehand about the heat and the weather. Did the heat actually come into play today?

WILL POWER: It's actually not that humid, so that makes it nicer. But yeah, as far as track temp and all that, it certainly played a part in tire deg. I think our car worked pretty nicely in that respect.

It was a physical race for me. I had to push so hard the whole time. But it was good. It was good. I like a dogfight like that where you're really struggling. It's hot for everyone and hard for everyone, yeah.

Q. Looking at the last two races, short track ovals, a bit of a forté of Team Penske.

WILL POWER: Yeah, the next two tracks, particularly the next track, is very good for us. Certainly I feel like we'll have three cars that can win next weekend or next week in Milwaukee.

THE MODERATOR: Jonathan Diuguid, the president at Team Penske, has joined us. Long time coming to get a win in 2025.

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Will did an amazing job today. A little bit of a risky strategy. Exposed to yellows a lot of times. They didn't come. Will had an extremely strong pace to pull the gap he needed there on the second restart at the beginning of the race. The team executed after that.

What we've been doing all year, I think it's no secret, been struggling on road courses a little bit. We used all three cars over the past couple events to right the ship. We showed up strong in Portland this weekend. Rewarding to finally end up in Victory Lane.

Q. Jonathan, how much did May play into Team Penske's problems this year? Was it as big of a setback, catastrophic situation, or other things in play that Team Penske has not been able to perform as expected?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, I mean, May seems quite a long time ago. I think the team's performed well at a bunch of races. It just hasn't all come together. Today it did.

Really proud of the team. The same people are the same ones that have won an average of seven races for the past three seasons. This year it hasn't come together for us. Today it did. Really proud of the group. We showed we can do it.

Q. Unfortunately for you they throw you to the wolves on this sitting next to Will, the winner, in a contract year. What is Will's future with Team Penske?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Will's future is about 30 minutes old from winning a race. His future's definitely bright. He did an amazing job today. Looking forward to the last two races of the season.

Q. Will, what sort of personal satisfaction, if any, is there that it was you who won the first race for Penske this year?

WILL POWER: Oh, it was just satisfying for the whole team, man. Just driving down pit lane, seeing each crew so happy we finally got a bloody win. Both teammates came to Victory Lane. I was just happy for the group because it was just an unusual year for us.

It is not from a lack of performance. That capability has been there every weekend. It's just been one of those years. You have 'em. You have 'em.

We were capable of winning every weekend. It's a great group. It's a great group. I know people think after May that things changed. You still got all those very good processes in place, great people. The talent is very deep there. You got people that step up and can totally do the job.

Yeah, never count out Penske, man.

Q. Would you be happy with a blue flag rule being in place or are you happy about that?

WILL POWER: We've talked about that for a long time. For me it's been very frustrating when you're trying to win a race and you have to use a lot of push to pass to get around a car that's going to go a lap down.

I actually got blocked by Kyffin. He actually moved over, blocked me, squeezed me, used a full push to pass to get around that guy. Certainly, the rule is he's allowed to do that. He has a team car one back from me trying to win the race.

When Malukas let me go, okay, tell him to hold them up if we're going to play this game. I don't like it. I think we should just fight it out. It's probably because they don't have enough people in race control to be able to monitor when a car...

Once you get a blue flag, that guy has to get a blue flag for everyone in the field as they come up to him. I think it's difficult from that standpoint.

It is frustrating if you're the leader. If you're third, it's kind of nice because you might have another shot. Yeah, I could see from a fan's perspective it probably made the race more exciting that you had a lot of pressure. You think of it a few different perspectives there.

Q. Alex won his fourth championship today. What does it take to beat Alex over the course of a season? Do you think anybody will be able to do it in the near future?

WILL POWER: Yeah, I think you have to have a very close look at what he's doing. Yeah, I think Ganassi is certainly performing at a very high level right now. Palou is probably the most impressive guy I've seen come along in a long time. In my career actually.

A complete driver who has qualifying pace, but then he's just so good at walking the tightrope of risk versus reward, race craft, then his race pace. He's absolutely a full package. Man, he's going to be a very, very tough guy to beat.

Q. You've had a lot of victories at Team Penske. This is your first INDYCAR win as the team president. With the current administration, the oval office, how big a day is this for you?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: It's obviously rewarding to be in a leadership position of the team. Like Will has mentioned a bunch of times, it's not just myself. It's many others that have put us here.

With the turbulence the team has experienced in the past months, to have the dedication and support of all the team members that we have, that is rewarding to me, that they believe in the team like Will mentioned many times, believe in our processes, in what we do, believe in how we approach race weekends.

To be rewarded with a race win is the ultimate part of it. Couldn't be happier to be here.

Q. Jonathan, you spoke about trying to get this team back on the right track. Did you feel like today was about this team taking steps forward that it hadn't quite gotten to this season or was this about perfecting everything at a race weekend that you haven't been able to do so far?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, I think when you're not winning races, you have to look in the mirror first. We can talk about yellows or crashes or other things that put us out of contention, but we got to look in the mirror first.

I can definitely say over the past three or four events, the group, both the engineering office and the shop floor, have changed how we approach some things. I think that's brought performance over the past couple events specifically and hopefully it will for the last two.

Q. Will's future not being set yet, what ultimately with a guy that's leading the team in points, what needs to be hashed out for that not to be already decided at this point?

JONATHAN DIUGUID: Look, I'm not going to discuss that today. I'm going to focus on the win, the team performance. Like you mentioned before, winning can do a lot of things. It's very positive for our program. We're going to reap all the benefits of that as we head to Milwaukee.

Q. Last year you told us, Will, that this was the first track you actually ever got a test at. Short lap here, yet you seem to do well. Something special about you and this track?

WILL POWER: I mean, every track has a different style of driving. There's so much information available these days. It's never the same. You can come back... Came back with last year's setup and we were slow. We had to make big changes in setup. You never assume you're going to be good.

Driving styles change, like the way you attack corners. It's always a lot of work and homework to win anywhere, even if you do it back to back. It's completely different this year.

But I do love this place. Very nice, flowy track. Kind of suits my style. I love every sort of track. I love their challenges. That's what I love about INDYCAR, you have to be extremely versatile, even throughout a race with the changing conditions and different compounds you have to use, the deg. That's the fun of racing.

Q. Nice to have a back-to-back win, though?

WILL POWER: It is very good (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Or three straight next year.

Guys, congratulations on the win.