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Alexander Rossi Lands First Top-Five In Portland Driving For Ed Carpenter Racing

by racerx55 August 12, 2025 0 comments

Story & Photo by: Christian Koelle/TheFourthTurn.com

PORTLAND, OR – The INDYCAR on FOX crew marked it as the worst season of Alexander Rossi’s career, and when you look at the statistics, the finishes show it.

Through the first eight races of the 2025 season, his first with Ed Carpenter Racing, Rossi had the best finish of eighth at Barber Motorsports Park back in May. Despite having four top-10 finishes heading into Sunday’s race at Portland International Raceway, it was beginning to look as if is top-five streak would come to an end.

Dating back to his debut year in 2016, Rossi had earned at least one top-five finish every year, including eight wins and 30 podium finishes. Up until this point this year, Rossi had failed to finish fifth or better. That was until a solid showing Sunday at Portland.

Sunday’s showing wasn’t a surprise, though, based on Rossi’s experience at Portland. In six starts at Portland, Rossi has finished a little bit of everywhere in the field, including a runner-up finish in 2021. The car showed speed early during the weekend, highlighted by Rossi just missing a spot in the Firestone Fast Six by .0163 seconds. Rossi took advantage of an engine change grid penalty, putting him up to starting sixth.

It was all about the strategy on Sunday in Portland, and Rossi’s engineer selected the right strategy to put them in a good position, should the race turn chaotic. Though it never turned chaotic, alongside Graham Rahal, two drivers who hadn’t finished inside the top-five all year, found themselves in a position to earn a solid finish. Rahal and Rossi were prepared to strike, though from a distance, if anything went sour with the three podium drivers Will Power, Christian Lundgaard, and 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou. 

A better finish was within grasp as Lundgaard and Palou made contact, sending Palou off course and in a situation where the third podium finish could’ve opened up for the taking, but it also could’ve resulted in a full-course yellow. With an amazing save, Palou kept his third-place finish and left Rahal and Rossi to fill out the top-five. 

“First top-five of the year for us on the 20 car,” said Rossi. “Overall, a great execution by the whole Java House team. It was a strong weekend for us, which was a good way to end the last road course race of the year. We’re now going into two ovals where we feel like we’ll be quite strong. We appreciate all the support and hope to see everyone at the last two races!”  

The NTT INDYCAR SERIES heads to Milwaukee next for the second-to-final race of the 2025 season. In two starts at the Milwaukee Mile, Rossi has the best finish of sixth, coming in the second of two races last season. Sunday’s solid showing could be the run of momentum that the team needed to finish off the season and possibly start 2026 on a high note.