Amazing Foster comeback in Portland

Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Louis Foster was spun around by another competitor but still finished 13th in a 27-car field at the Portland NTT IndyCar Series race.

Foster, 22, had qualified 17th after a red flag meant he was one of the only cars not to get a proper representative lap completed.

During the race, on lap eight of 110 Foster was spun around by another competitor who was deemed to be at fault. After that, Foster had to go to an alternative strategy but set the seventh fastest lap of the race and kept his car clean while overtaking to work back up the order.

He remains the top rookie in the championship with two races to go.  

“Overall it was a tough weekend but one that could have ended up a lot worse given everything that happened,” said Foster, who is backed by Copart, a global leader in online auto auctions. 

“In qualifying it was quite a messy session with the red flag.

“I think we were one of the only cars that didn’t really get a lap before the red flag came out which is unlucky, simple as that.

“In the race, the field got bottled up on the start and I got hit unfortunately. I got spun around and managed to keep the car going. 

“From there it was just about trying to claw back as many positions as possible. We moved back up to P13 in the end so I’m happy with that. It’s a good result, at least from where we were after the incident. 

“It’s disappointing from the sense that it was another weekend with an issue that was out of our control. 

“Congrats to Graham on finishing P4, just off the podium, but I feel we should have been up there somewhere near him. But its good points so we’ll move on to the next one.

"Thanks to everyone in the team for their support."

Portland was the last road course on the schedule. In his maiden season, Foster finished the road courses with an average start of 8.29 in a 27-car field, showing how strong his one-lap performance has been.

IndyCar now has a weekend off from racing before heading to the last two races of the season, both on ovals, at Milwaukee and Nashville.