Qualifying Report: OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (August 8, 2026) — AJ Foyt Racing drivers Caio Collet and Santino Ferrucci will face challenging starting positions in Sunday’s OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland after qualifying 18th and 22nd, respectively, on Saturday at Portland International Raceway.

Although Collet qualified 18th, he will serve a six-position grid penalty for an unapproved engine change, moving him to 24th on the starting grid. The rookie believes the team’s race pace provides reason for optimism heading into Sunday’s 110-lap contest.

“I think so far this weekend we didn't really extract everything when we put on new tires," said the 24-year-old Brazilian. "I've been struggling a little bit to extract the grip and the lap time whenever we put new tires on. I think we've been quite competitive with used tires yesterday and this morning. In qualifying, when you need to extract everything from the tire, we just missed a little bit. I think the race will come to us because we were a bit stronger on the used tires and the longevity, so that's not a bad thing for the race. But definitely, we need to understand how to extract a little bit more from the new tires.”

Starting 24th will put Collet near the back of the field, but the rookie sees one potential advantage to his position heading into the opening lap.

“Starting almost last keeps me safe out of Turn One [chaos] at least. I can hopefully watch what will happen a little bit more safely and then do my race from there.”

Ferrucci qualified 22nd and will move up one position to 21st for the start of Sunday’s race due to his teammate's setback.

The veteran was encouraged by the handling of his car on the primary tire but struggled to find the expected improvement when switching to the alternate tire during qualifying.

“The balance on the prime tire is really good," said Ferrucci. "You make your standard adjustments to go to the reds, and you just expect to pick up grip, and the car balance was just infinitely worse for no reason. I couldn't put power down. But yeah, it was just an overall nightmare. So a lot of work to do tomorrow.”

Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist won the NTT P1 Award for the second time this season edging out Alex Palou for the top spot with a lap time of 58.48 seconds (120.897mph) to Palou's 58.50 seconds (120.859mph) over the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course. Rounding out the Firestone Fast Six were Will Power, Marcus Ericsson, Rinus Veekay and Kyffin Simpson.

The OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland will be broadcast on FOX Sunday afternoon starting at 4 p.m. ET.

In INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying, Alessandro de Tullio captured his eighth pole of the season in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing entry, moving to within one pole of tying the series record of nine.

INDYCAR PHOTO

De Tullio recorded his pole-winning lap of 1 minute, 2.2006 seconds during the first qualifying group and then had to wait for the second group to complete its session before celebrating the top starting position.

“Very happy to get the pole again here at Portland," said de Tullio. "Eighth pole of the season is quite an achievement, and I can’t thank the team enough for giving me a great car week in and week out. We executed once again and got another pole — that's an amazing feeling. Now just looking forward to tomorrow, with full focus on the race — hopefully have a clean race and get through Turn One all good, and then manage the rest of the race. The goal is to win tomorrow.”

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Driving the No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing entry, Nicholas Monteiro qualified 24th for Sunday’s INDY NXT race.

The Portland weekend marks his second INDY NXT appearance at the circuit, and he remains confident that improvements to the car can produce a stronger result in the race.

“We finished up qualifying here — the car was harder to drive due to oversteer, but I love this track. It is my second time here in INDY NXT, and I did well here last year. Let's try to keep improving and put together a good car for the race tomorrow. It’ll be a long and hot race, but I hope we get some good points.”

The Grand Prix of Portland can be seen on FS1 Sunday starting at 1 p.m. ET.