Takuma Sato put on an exemplary display of driving to come through from 20th place on the grid to win the Grand Prix of Portland, narrowly beating Ryan Hunter-Reay in a thrilling event which saw numerous swings in title battle across the 105 laps.
The Japanese driver was able to make a two-stop strategy work with a lengthy fuel-saving strategy and made the numbers work in his favour, beating the #28 Andretti Autosport of Hunter-Reay to claim a third career IndyCar series victory.
The opening lap of the race saw a caution period after the Zach Veach appeared to squeeze James Hinchcliffe's #5 Schmidt Peterson machine on the exit kerb of the festival chicane, hitting the Canadian and pitching him around and into facing the rest of the field in the opposite direction.
Ed Jones, Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal were all caught up in the aftermath with Dixon being extremely lucky and escaping the melee unscathed and got back on the track with barely a scratch on his #9 Ganassi PNC Bank machine.
Hunter-Reay was unable to overhaul the Japanese driver who was able to keep his focus and maintain the gap to American driver in the infield section of the lap and made it very difficult to be caught, despite being let loose by his Andretti team after saving enough fuel in the final laps to make a last-gasp charge.
Four-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais was able to avoid the first lap mayhem despite damaging his front wing in the process to secure the final spot on the podium with a great performance in the #18 Dale-Coyne entry.
The #21 Fuzzy's Vodka entry of Spencer Pigot put on an amazing display in Portland after making a stunning pass on Scott Dixon around the outside of the final chicane to cross the line in fourth place, ending the season on a high.
Dixon managed to come through all the drama and clinch a fifth-place finish which meant he was able to increase the gap over Rossi to 29 points ahead of the double-points season finale in Sonoma.
Simon Pagenaud in the #22 Meynards Penske clinched sixth place but it nearly wasn't to be after coming ever so close to tagging Alexander Rossi in the final pit stop phase as he was exiting his pit box.
Carlin's Charlie Kimball managed to sneak through the field after starting at the back of the field after a poor qualifying to end the race in a strong seventh place.
Rossi pushed hard to come back through the pack to end the race in eighth-place and minimise the damage in the points standings to Dixon, The Californian had led the initial stages of the race after the #12 Penske of Will Power dropped back after suffering gearbox troubles.
Pietro Fittipaldi enjoyed the best result of his young IndyCar career in ninth-place for Dale Coyne as he continues his comeback after the devastating crash at Spa-Francorchamps in the WEC in May.
Reigning series champion Josef Newgarden completed the top 10 after having run the red alternate tyres for most of the race and fell away due to running the harder black Firestone tyres in the final stint and was unable to keep up with the field who were all on the softer red tyres.
The double-points finale in Sonoma, California will take place on September 16 which will see Rossi, Dixon, Power and Newgarden battle it out for Astor Cup.
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