(Photo of Will Power, winner of the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland, by Joe Skibinski)

Will Power and Team Penske made their point Sunday by winning the BITNILE.COM Grand Prix of Portland in dominant fashion: The race for the Astor Challenge Cup is far from over. Power earned his series-leading third victory of the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season in the No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Business Chevrolet and gained ground on championship leader Alex Palou with three races remaining. He drove to a 9.8267-second victory over the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing DHL Honda of Palou on the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course at Portland International Raceway. Two-time series champion Power, who started second, earned the 44th win of his Hall of Fame career on the heels of disappointing consecutive finishes of 12th in July at Toronto and 18th last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. “Very rewarding,” Power said. “I came here determined, so did the whole team. We wanted to get qualifying right and then execute in the race. It’s not a last-ditch effort, but really if Palou finished ahead of us today, it was going to be very difficult. We’re going to keep fighting ahead here. A couple of bad races before this, but let’s see if we can get a championship.” The three remaining races are all on ovals – the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s doubleheader Aug. 31-Sept. 1 at the Milwaukee Mile and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway. The INDYCAR SERIES hasn’t raced at the Milwaukee Mile since 2015 or Nashville Superspeedway since 2008. Watch the Extended Race Highlights from Motorsports on NBC here. (Thank you to INDYCAR Media)

(IMSA)

Paul Miller Racing drivers Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers made it back-to-back wins at VIRginia International Raceway – this time in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class – with Sunday’s victory in the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR. Snow drove the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 across the finish line 3.368 seconds ahead of Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Ford Mustang GT3. It’s the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD PRO win for the Paul Miller team since it advanced to the class after winning the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) championship last year. It’s also the first win for PMR, Snow and Sellers since they won at VIR a year ago. The second-place finish for Rockenfeller, co-driver Harry Tincknell and the No. 64 Mustang marked the first podium finish for Ford since re-entering WeatherTech Championship competition this season. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, with drivers Alex Riberas and Ross Gunn, recovered from the penalty to finish third.

In GTD, the No. 32 Korthoff/Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 claimed the team’s first WeatherTech Championship win behind co-drivers Kenton Koch and Mikael Grenier. Koch was among the first to pit in the race, and the undercut helped the No. 32 overtake the pole-sitting No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 for a lead that Koch and Grenier never relinquished. The No. 32 finished 0.897 seconds ahead of the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin shared by Zacharie Robichon and Roman De Angelis. Loris Spinelli, in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2, churned past four other GTD competitors following a restart with 22 minutes to go to nab third place in the car he shared with Misha Goikhberg.

All four WeatherTech Championship classes – GTP, LMP2, GTD PRO and GTD – return to action Sept. 22 at the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The season concludes Oct. 12 with the Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Watch the Extended Race Highlights from Motorsports on NBC here. (Thank you to Mark Robinson/IMSA Media)