IndyCar Portland conclusions: Indy needs its Charlie Whiting now more than ever

We’ve wrapped up IndyCar’s final road course race of the season, and the Portland event raised one big concern: Indy desperately needs its Charlie Whiting figure.

Our conclusions are led by the series’ frankly perplexing inconsistencies in issuing penalties — an issue that dominated the Portland Grand Prix.

Conclusions from IndyCar Portland

IndyCar race control offers some perplexing penalties (or lack thereof)

IndyCar’s officials have been, well, a little bit perplexing lately, and in Portland, it seemed to hit a new low.

On the first lap, Kyle Kirkwood ran Scott Dixon wide in the heat of the start; Pietro Fittipaldi then hopped a curb and was unable to control his car as it careened into Dixon. It ruined Dixon’s race — and Fittipaldi earned a penalty for avoidable contact, even though an argument could be made that he couldn’t avoid Dixon.

Then, on Lap 34, Romain Grosjean shoved Colton Herta off the track. What looked to be an instant penalty resulted in… nothing.

Instead, Kyle Kirkwood got a penalty later in the race for defending too aggressively against rookie Toby Sowery — a clean battle that lasted for five corners and ultimately came out in Sowery’s favor. Kirkwood was instructed to give up two positions for his allegedly aggressive moves; it then put the Andretti Global driver firmly behind both Juncos Hollinger Racing cars.

Another oddity was issued to Colton Herta. Drivers aren’t allowed to have the hybrid restart system enabled on the pit lane, but Herta used that restart when he stalled on pit road late in the race. His only penalty was to let a car by on the track — but the closest car was a car that was already a lap down.

The inconsistency in IndyCar’s race control has been frankly absurd. Somehow, the same rules seem to result in different applications depending on the drivers involved.

Romain Grosjean is falling apart

Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Romain Grosjean had his strange moments in Formula 1 — but his IndyCar struggles have been impressive.

During the Portland Grand Prix, Grosjean spun on track, got restarted, and promptly drove in front of Christian Rasmussen as he tried to turn around. When the drivers made contact, Grosjean hopped on the radio to blame Rasmussen for the whole affair.

IndyCar naturally issued another of its perplexing penalties; Grosjean had to take an extra tour through pit lane. But the move was as dangerous as it was stupid; perhaps race control couldn’t pull Grosjean off the track, but his performance certainly warrants a difficult conversation with the former F1 driver after the race.

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Team Penske has a tough choice ahead of it

Coming into the 2024 season, most IndyCar pundits and fans assumed Will Power would be out at Team Penske by the end of the year. He went two years without a win, and at 43 years of age, it seemed as if the Australian racer was on his way out.

Now, Power is the first driver to win three races in the 2024 season: Road America, Iowa, and Portland. He’s second in the championship fight, and he’s one of the only drivers with experience at the coming oval tracks. A title is still in his sights.

Team Penske now has a difficult decision ahead of it. Keep Power and assume his pace will continue, or send him on his way with an impressive final season?

It’s a tough decision, especially as Power’s performance fall-off in 2023 was the unfortunate result of some family struggles. His wife Liz was diagnosed with a staph infection in her spinal column and nearly died as Power continued traveling to IndyCar races wondering if it was worthwhile.

Liz Power is now healthier and traveling with her husband again, perhaps lifting the mental block that prevented Will from succeeding in the past — and it means Team Penske will have to really weigh its options about the future of its most experienced driver.

Circuit aesthetics aren’t everything — but they’re important

Watch a Formula 1 race no matter the location, and you’re sure to be dazzled by the top-notch facilities and spectacular track surfaces. That’s not always the case for IndyCar, which operates on a much lower budget, and that’s not normally any issue.

But Portland perhaps pushed things too far in the wrong direction. ABB branding was still scarred into the grass from July’s Formula E race, while overhead shots of the track looked a bit desolate and unmaintained.

IndyCar is a series that prioritizes racing, so it doesn’t necessarily need to dazzle at-home viewers by spending millions to make its tracks look good on television. But a lack of maintenance made the event look somewhat amateurish.

IndyCar’s NBC broadcast has fallen apart

Since it has become clear that IndyCar will defect from NBC to new broadcast partner FOX in 2025, the quality of the broadcast has fallen apart.

Lead commentator Leigh Diffey, an NBC man through and through, has swapped to the NASCAR Cup Series, and without his presence, the IndyCar broadcast feels lost.

Kevin Lee doesn’t quite have the experience to lead a broadcast, even if his contributions are informative. James Hinchcliffe is an exceptional color commentator, but he isn’t leading the broadcast. And Townsend Bell is, well, Townsend Bell — a figure who seems to thrive on playing the devil’s advocate.

Though NBC did seem to fix its missing hybrid graphics after they were absent for much of Gateway, the pre-race build up featured a long-since-forgotten “hate cauldron” that would have been better left in the archives. Unfortunately, it left an amateur taste in viewers’ mouths and left many fans hoping FOX will put in more effort.

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