1. Oh justice! Sweet, sweet, sweet karmic justice. We will cover a lot of the comments from this weekend on Monday, but a day after being disrespected by the second-most influential front office member of IndyCar, Patricio O'Ward had a statement victory in Milwaukee! One that from the noise coming from the crowd suggests it was a rather popular victory.
O'Ward looked like a man to beat all race, and to be fair, it felt like six or seven guys could have won this race, but O'Ward found something in clean air and when he got out front, he was gone. In Milwaukee form, the race sprung back-and-forth like a rubber band. When in clean air, the leader could be on his own. Once some traffic came into play, it brought everyone together.
This was the case in the closing laps as O'Ward had a motivated Will Power on his rear wing. O'Ward did not flinch, showing his composure, and closing out this victory for his third on the season.
This man has won over the fan base because of his ability but his charisma is taking him further than anyone else in the IndyCar Series. Why he isn't the face of the series and a spokesperson that is out and about at every market is beyond me. He does more than every other driver on the grid, including the past champions and silver spoon Penske drivers, for the series. This might not be his year for the championship, but he is more than capable of winning the next two races and closing out the season with a bang.
2. Forty-three points. That is all Will Power could shrink the deficit between him and Álex Palou in this race. It went in the right direction and Power is now within the margin necessary to keep the championship fight alive into the Nashville season finale. Power will need one more good day tomorrow at Milwaukee to secure the title fight going to the final day of the season.
For the first 100 laps, it looked like Power was going to take a significant chunk out of Palou's lead. It even looked like Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin could come into play and stay alive for the title into Nashville. Instead, it looks like it will be at most a two-man battle if it even gets there.
Power caught a break as he had yet to stop before the final caution for Colton Herta's unsecured left front tire after Herta's final pit stop. If that cycle plays out, there is a good chance Power finishes behind Palou tonight and we are singing a different tune.
There were ten more points in front of Power tonight. It would have been a big difference going to bed tonight down 33 points with a victory versus 43 in second. There is no margin for error tomorrow. Power cannot lose anything. He will start fourth while Palou will start tenth. At the drop of the green flag, Power will have taken out 12 more points. They will go a long way if that holds through the 250 laps, but Power will need more than that.
3. The final caution for Colton Herta's unsecured left front tire after his final pit stop shook up this race and it put Conor Daly, who had a good race but was stuck around 14th and 15th, into a position for a podium result, and Daly stole it!
Daly was making big moves all race. His car was hooked up on the outside and he made up 12 spots in a blink at the start from 25th on the grid. However, he stalled out on the verge of the top ten. Take 12 cars out of the way and Daly was stiffing a podium. He benefited when Santino Ferrucci was balked in some traffic and Daly never looked back. It is Juncos Hollinger Racing's first podium finish in IndyCar.
Taking a note from soccer and relegation battles, the Leader Circle battle has become the equivalent to relegation. Teams need to finish in the top 22 for the funding, and teams will make decisions to ensure it has the best driver capable of getting them over that line. Daly was called in late and this is what he can do that Agustín Canapino could not. It is effectively a "new manager bounce" except it is with a driver. New driver is tossed in the car and gets better results than seen previously.
There are still two races to go and it is still tight, but this was a big evening for the #78 crew.
4. Santino Ferrucci was racy again and he can make a car work on the outside like few else can in IndyCar. Every stint he went forward. Every restart he could make up five or six positions at a time. He will be starting better tomorrow, but he went from 19th to fourth, and nearly had a podium. A.J. Foyt Racing has experienced a rejuvenated season, and with two more races it can only get better for this organization.
5. Álex Palou doesn't do anything wrong. It wasn't his best day and Palou still finished fifth. He didn't really push for more than that. Pit cycles were in his favor as Palou stopped early and gained spots. It took him into contention for the top five, but it also put him ahead of championship rivals. After the first stint, Palou was ahead of Power because Palou stopped earlier. That swung the race in a sense. Palou stayed in contention and his team didn't make any mistakes.
Power will have the advantage on the grid tomorrow but he must know Palou will make up at least four stops. That is eight points Power is going to lose because Palou will drive forward. The pressure is on and if Palou keeps his nose clean, he will at least be significantly in control of the championship, if not have done just enough to clinch his this title.
6. Somehow Linus Lundqvist overcame two slow pit stops because of right rear tire troubles to finish sixth. Lundqvist was competitive and was hanging with pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin through the opening stint. The slow tire change on the right rear cost Lundqvist on the first stop, but he remained in the top ten and had a strong day at a time when he is auditioning for a seat in 2025. It hasn't been a great year, but a day like this one can turn some heads.
7. Alexander Rossi did nothing and finished seventh. That is harsh but we are over two years removed form his most recent victory. Rossi has led 32 laps since the start of 2023, 102 laps since the start of 2022 and 104 laps since the start of 2021. It has been years since we have gone into a race weekend and seen Rossi be the man to beat. We know he is capable of it, but he hasn't been able to extract anything more out of that car at Arrow McLaren. He should have been able to do it at least once over the last two seasons. That is what makes seventh such a disappointment because it doesn't appear he can do much better than that.
8. It was a weird race for Scott McLaughlin because he led the opening stint, lost the lead to Lundqvist for a moment, cycled down a few spots during the first pit cycle and then he was back in the lead because McLaughlin did not stop under the caution for Katherine Legge's spin. McLaughlin held off drivers on fresher tires, but then McLaughlin went too long and ended up getting cycled back anyway and this is ultimately what cost him the victory and more because he wound up eighth.
It feels like McLaughlin had the best car tonight but it didn't quite pan out and that was more down to strategy than the car. There was hesitation to stop early, and that is understandable on an oval, but it cost the front-runners dearly, and McLaughlin lost out more than most.
9. Christian Lundgaard probably cannot fathom how he finished ninth tonight. The answer is Colton Herta not getting his left front tire secured on his final pit stop and running long on the penultimate stint hoping a caution would come. Lundgaard got it. None of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing cars were good tonight. They aren't going to be good tomorrow. I would love to see where Lundgaard was running and his average running position through the first 180 laps compared to the final 70 laps.
Due to the Herta caution, Lundgaard was one of four cars that had yet to stop and O'Ward and Ferrucci had made their final stops and remained on the lead lap through the pit cycle. This meant Lundgaard would restart no worse than sixth. He lost a number of spots because the car was not good, but it was good enough to get a top ten finish.
10. Scott Dixon's balance was off in qualifying and he didn't look all that good during the race, but he snuck out a top ten finish in tenth, a small victory in his 400th start. It was odd to see Dixon be second in practice and then fail to crack the top ten in qualifying for either race. I really thought we would see Dixon qualify in the top five and be a threat in this race. That didn't quite happen.
The Ganassi cars looked good. Lundqvist held his own. It will be interesting to see how Dixon and company responds tomorrow.
11. With Conor Daly finishing third, Ed Carpenter Racing needed something good out of Christian Rasmussen, and it got 11th, which eases the bleeding a bit. This could have been catastrophic for Ed Carpenter Racing. It still isn't good in terms of the Leader Circle, but the gap is not insurmountable with two races remaining. Elsewhere, Rinus VeeKay looked poised for a top ten finish and then the final caution bit him the hard and he could only finish 14th.
12. Let's blow through the field because I have a preview to write for tomorrow's race still and it is already late. Andretti Global had a rough day. Kyle Kirkwood clipped his crew members on a pit stop and could never really overcome that penalty. Twelfth was as good as it was going to get.
This was a big blow for Colton Herta because he had a good shot at remaining alive for the championship today. For a moment, it looked like Herta was going to be the guy to beat. This team makes too many mistakes, driver and crew combined. Strategy was a weak point as well.
I don't understand how Herta is not brought into pit lane when he has lost ten second to O'Ward after being on his gearbox until getting stuck in traffic. I don't get it. Herta should have came into pit lane about eight laps earlier than he did for his second pit stop. It was clear stopping early was the way to go and they were in the window for two more stops from there. Put pressure on O'Ward and everyone else.
They needed to do something big to stay in the championship hunt. They have nothing to lose rolling the dice. It could be the case the ghost of Iowa haunts the #26 team after being on pit lane as Palou spun, costing them a shot at victory, but they entered today below the cutline to remain championship eligible into the season finale. This is the time to gamble, and it likely would have paid out today.
We will cover Marcus Ericsson and Josef Newgarden here because they got together in turns one and two battling for second after the both of them were aggressive on strategy, stopped early for their third pit stops and both went from outside the top ten and up to second and third. That is how powerful stopping early was in this race. They were both still over nine seconds behind O'Ward after the stop but they both made up over ten spots in one pit cycle.
This was a racing incident. Two cars, side-by-side through the long, low-banked corners in Milwaukee. Neither gave an inch, both ended up out. Ericsson didn't do anything wrong. Newgarden didn't do anything wrong. It was an unfortunate result for both because it seems both drivers have been magnets to bad days this season. It is uncommon to see these two have as many run-ins as they have.
13. Meyer Shank Racing didn't have a good day despite having good pace. Felix Rosenqvist ended up losing spots late and fell out of a possible top ten finish to 13th. David Malukas was running in the top ten before the first pit stop and once he was cycled out he never got back into contention. Malukas ended up 15th. This has been a much better season for MSR, but they must work on closing races.
14. Jack Harvey was 16th, which isn't great but as good as it gets for Dale Coyne Racing, and I feel like I have written that after about 11 races this season. Katherine Legge didn't hit anything when she spun and rallied to finish 19th. That is a good bounce back for Legge.
15. I don't think Nolan Siegel has experienced tire degradation like this before in his life and he was 17th. Siegel is still 19 years old. It is ok for him to have some learning experiences. This was one of them.
16. Don't let Christian Lundgaard's result fool you. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was bad and Pietro Fittipaldi in 18th and Graham Rahal in 20th are a true indication of this team's oval pace. I don't get how it hasn't gotten any better over the last three seasons. It was bad in 2022. It was a nightmare in 2023. It isn't better in 2024. I don't get it and I do not understand how any free agent would choose to go to RLLR in 2025. Is Alexander Rossi really going to lower himself to struggling to make the Indianapolis 500? It might be a great spot for a young kid with nothing to lose (Jüri Vips), but veterans don't need that headache.
17. Marcus Armstrong was hosed when his team decide to try and make this race a two-stop race when nearly everyone else was convinced it was going to be a four-stop race. Armstrong did over 80 laps or nearly 80 laps on his first stint after hoping to make it 85 laps. This caught him two laps down when Legge spun and Armstrong could never get out of that hole. At least Chip Ganassi Racing can say it had all the strategies covered, but no one should have ever considered attempting a two-stop race tonight.
Kyffin Simpson had electrical issues, lost many laps and then always appeared to be directly in front of the leader, especially when another Ganassi car was in the top five. Not Simpson's greatest night.
18. Sting Ray Robb had some issue and ended up finishing six laps down. That about wraps up his night.
19. Add this as Exhibit #254 as to why I think Romain Grosjean will not be back in IndyCar next year. Grosjean and the team were on two entirely different pages in terms of fuel mapping and whether or not they were saving fuel for a three-stop race or running a four-stop race. Then Grosjean had some suspension damage after he, Kirkwood and Rasmussen bumped together while running three-wide in turn four, and Grosjean was on the radio screaming for a caution while he and everyone else was still running.
Grosjean ran well most of this race. He was running in front of Daly on the cusp of the top ten as well. This man spent a decade in Formula One! I guess about half of IndyCar is good enough to spend a decade in Formula One as well.
20. To close because we get to do this all over tomorrow, this was a fun race and a great reminder of how fun Milwaukee can be. Tire wear dictated this race and it threw everyone for a loop. Everyone had to adjust on the fly. Some did better than others and it showed. It sucks that we didn't have this race for nine years, and it was a good crowd even if the standard should be higher. Night one of this revival was sufficient. It should set up well for day two.
