Portland, OR (Saturday, September 3, 2022) – Takuma Sato (#51 Nurtec ODT- Dale Coyne Racing with RWR) is hoping to repeat his performance from the 2018 Grand Prix of Portland where he moved up from 20th on the grid to take the win after placing 22nd in the starting lineup for the Grand Prix of Portland.
Starting: 22nd
Round 1 (group 2): 11th
Best Lap: 58.6058
- Sato took to the track in Group 2 in the first round of qualifying.
- He recorded his best time on his eighth and final lap around the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course with a lap of 58.6058 seconds.
- His fastest lap placed him 11th in his group, and less than half a second from making it to the second round.
- This will be Sato’s fourth race at Portland International Raceway, in his first appearance in 2018, he climbed to the top step of the podium after starting from the 20th position.
- His best starting position at PIR is 17th.
- In 15 races this season, Sato has a best finish of fifth (World Wide Technology Raceway) and a best starting position of second on the streets of Detroit this year.
Career facts:
- Has six INDYCAR SERIES wins (2013 – Long Beach; 2017 – Indy 500; 2018 – Portland; 2019 – Barber, Gateway: 2020 – Indy 500)
- 10 poles (2011 – Iowa, Edmonton; 2013 – Houston Race 1; 2014 – St. Pete, Detroit Race 2; 2017 – Detroit Race 2, Pocono; 2019 – Barber, Texas; 2020 St. Louis Race 2)
Takuma Sato #51 Nurtec ODT Honda – Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
“We had a bit of a scary issue in practice yesterday and I lost a lot of track time, so I lost the chance to try the red Firestone tire. The only chance I had was this morning in practice, so it was a little bit challenging for us going into qualifying. We did try hard. The outcome wasn’t what we wished but the 51 Nurtec ODT car was pretty good in the final practice, and I feel much more positive after moving up to 13th in that session. I think we are wide open strategy wise. We can do many, many things and we can still overtake so I look forward to tomorrow’s race.”
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