The 16th and penultimate round of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season has the 27-car grid moving into the Milwaukee Mile for what will be the 116th race at the historic circuit. Last year, Patricio O'Ward and Scott McLaughlin split the doubleheader weekend. This year, there will only be one race on Sunday. In the most recent race, Will Power won at Portland for his and Team Penske's first victory of the season, and the 45th victory of Power's career. Power became the fifth different winner this season. There have been three different winners across the first four oval races. The one repeat winner is our champion-elect Álex Palou.
Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday August 24 with green flag scheduled for 2:20 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.
IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Saturday:
First Practice: 11:00 a.m. ET (60 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:00 p.m. ET
High-Line Practice: 4:45 p.m. ET (30 minutes)
Final Practice: 5:30 p.m. ET (60 minutes)
Sunday:
Race: 2:20 p.m. ET (250 laps)
Sunday:
Race: 2:20 p.m. ET (250 laps)
FS2 will cover all practice sessions. FS1 will cover qualifying with race coverage on Fox.
Palou Chasing History
The championship is already secured for Álex Palou after he finished third at Portland with Patricio O'Ward suffering electrical issues within the first quarter of the race, leaving O'Ward ten laps down. With the result, Palou became the first driver to clinch the championship with multiple races remaining since Cristiano da Matta won the 2002 CART championship with three races to spare. It was the 45th time since 1946 that an IndyCar championship has been clinched early.
Though the title is clinched, Palou's fourth of his career and third consecutive, he still has a bit of history in his sights over the final two races. Entering with eight victories, Palou could tie the single season record for victories if he wins the final two events. Ten victories has not been seen in a single season since Al Unser did it in 1970. A.J. Foyt set the record when he won ten times in the 1964 season.
Along with Foyt and Unser, the only other time a driver has won nine times in a season was Mario Andretti in 1969. A ninth victory for Palou would not only put him in that esteemed company but it would make him the first driver to win over half the races in a season since Sébastien Bourdais won eight of 14 races in the 2007 Champ Car season.
One more victory would give Palou the 20th of his career, and he would become the 24th driver to reach that milestone. Palou is currently level on the all-time win list with Jimmy Murphy, Jimmy Bryan and Sam Hornish, Jr.
Palou hasn't only been the best being first to the checkered flag, he has also been the best at being first on the grid. With five pole positions, Palou has already clinched the honors of most pole positions in the season. No other driver has more than two, but with one more pole position, Palou could become the first driver with six pole positions in a season since Will Power in 2017. Palou has already reached 11 career pole positions. One more would put him tied with Parnelii Jones for 30th all-time.
If you have won eight races, you have likely led a lot of laps, and Palou has led the most laps this season. He has led 568 laps through the first 15 races. It is actually easier to list the races Palou did not lead this season as he led a lap in 12 of them. The three he didn't lead were Long Beach, Detroit and Gateway. He enters this weekend having led a lap in seven consecutive races.
With 475 laps left to run this season, in theory Palou could end the season with as many as 1,043 laps led. Only three times has a driver led at least 1,000 laps in a single season. Al Unser has the record with 1,527 laps led in the 1970 season. Four years prior to that, Mario Andretti became the first driver with 1,000 laps led in a season. Andretti led 1,142 lap. The most recent season with someone leading a four-figure lap total was in 1992 when Michael Andretti led 1,136 laps.
Palou has led 28.68% of the laps run this season. If he maintains that batting average through the checkered flag at Nashville, he would end with 704 laps led. No one has led at least 700 laps in a single season since Dario Franchitti led 884 laps in 2011.
In the career record book, Palou is four laps away from the 1,500 laps led milestone. He would become the 29th driver to reach that milestone. The next three drivers ahead of Palou in all-time laps led are Tony Stewart (1,515), Ryan Hunter-Reay (1,562) and Parnelli Jones (1,596).
Victories, pole positions, laps led, why not set a mark on the record book when it comes to podium finishes as well? Because Palou has already done that. His third-place result in Portland was 11th of the season. It is only the 20th time since 1946 that a driver has finished on the podium at least 11 times in a season. Only six times has a driver stood on the podium 12 times in a single season. The most recent was Scott Dixon in 2008.
Newgarden's Nightmare Continues
While there has been a lot to celebrate for Palou, Josef Newgarden has been floundering for the entire 2025 season, and the two-time champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner is on pace for his worst season since his rookie year in 2012.
After he was spun in the chicane at Portland and lost two laps in an effort to restart his career, Newgarden has finished outside the top twenty in seven of 15 races this season. He has finished outside the top ten in the last three races. With an average finish of 16.2667, Newgarden is well on his way to his second-worst season on average finish. Only his rookie season was worst at 18.214. The good news is it cannot be his worst season. If Newgarden finishes 27th in the final two races, his average finish on the season will be 17.529.
Average finish aside, Newgarden is still 18th in the championship, one point behind Kyffin Simpson and only 19 points ahead of Conor Daly.
Newgarden has not finished outside the top fifteen in the championship since he was 23rd in his rookie season. He has not finished outside the top ten of the championship since he was 13th in 2014, which is also his last winless season, and Newgarden still has a zero in the victory column with two races remaining. Beyond victories, Newgarden is set to have his fewest podium finishes since 2018 and his fewest top five finishes since 2014. He has only five top ten finishes. The only time he had fewer than seven top ten finishes in a year was his rookie year when Newgarden had zero.
The last two races taking place on ovals favor Newgarden, but Milwaukee might be the more likely place for victory than the Nashville finale next week. Newgarden has led a lap in only five races this season. Three of those have been short ovals. He had led 25 laps at Gateway before being caught in the path of a spinning Louis Foster while in first place. He led the first 232 laps in the first Iowa race before Patricio O'Ward jumped ahead of Newgarden through the pit cycle. Newgarden led another 72 laps in the second Iowa race where poorly timed cautions shuffled Newgarden out of the battle for victory and down to tenth.
Though this has been an agonizing season for the American, Newgarden enters the final two race weekends with a chance of making a bit of history of his own. He has won an oval race in nine consecutive seasons. No driver in IndyCar history has ever won an oval race in ten consecutive seasons. Newgarden is tied with Bobby Unser and Johnny Rutherford for most consecutive seasons with an oval victory. Unser did it from 1968 to 1976. Rutherford did it from 1973 to 1981.
Newgarden also enters this weekend with 17 oval victories in his career, which is 13th all-time. One more will put him in a tie with Hélio Castroneves for 12th.
If there is any other bright side for Newgarden it is a fair number of championship positions are still within reach. He is only seven points behind Graham Rahal in 15th and 18 points behind Christian Rasmussen in 13th. With 108 points left on the table, the most points Newgarden can end the season on is 347. Last season, 347 points would have been good enough for 11th and it would have been good enough for 12th in 2023.
Newgarden's last eight victories have all come on ovals. He has won on five different ovals in his IndyCar career. If there is any reason for optimism, it is Newgarden should at least be starting from a good position. In the three oval races where he was allowed to fully participate in qualifying, Newgarden has started in the top five of all of them and he was on pole position for the first Iowa race. He started on pole position for the second Milwaukee race last season.
American Woes
It isn't has only been a rough stretch for Newgarden. The American drivers across the board have been struggling into the final stretch of the IndyCar season.
While Kyle Kirkwood won three of the first eight races, Kirkwood has not had a top five finish in the last six races and he has finished outside the top fifteen in four of the last five races. At Iowa, he was 26th and 18th. Kirkwood has fallen from a potential championship challenger to Palou to fifth in points.With two races remaining, Kirkwood is still the only American race winner in 2025.
Colton Herta does enters Milwaukee with three consecutive top ten finishes, but Herta has not finished better than third this season. His average oval finish is 16th with his best result being 13th in the first Iowa race. He has only led 18 laps this season, 11 of which came at Detroit.
David Malukas does make it three American drivers in the top ten of the championship, but Malukas has only four top ten finishes this season. He is only two points ahead of Scott McLaughlin in 11th. Malukas has finished outside the top ten in four of the last six races, however, during that stretch he did finish fourth the second Iowa race.
There are three Americans clustered together in 14th, 15th and 16th in the championship.
After finishing eighth in the first Iowa race, Santino Ferrucci was tenth in the championship and he had four top five finishes and five top ten finishes in a six-race stretch. Since then, Ferrucci has finished 15th, did not start at Toronto after an accident in the warm-up, 22nd and 27th. Ferrucci is on 253 points, seven points ahead of Graham Rahal and nine points ahead of Alexander Rossi.
Rahal and Rossi are probably the two Americans feeling the best after the last race at Portland. Each driver scored their first top five finish of this season in the Rose City. Rahal was fourth and Rossi was fifth. For Rahal, it was his first top five finish in 34 races. For Rossi, it ended the longest top five finish drought in his career at 22 races.
Conor Daly's three top ten finishes this season have all come on ovals, and he is looking to leap up from 19th in the championship over the final two races. Daly's best three starting positions of the season have also come on ovals. He started in the top ten in both Iowa races. Outside of ovals, Daly's road/street course average finish will go down as 18.636 for the 2025 season.
Nolan Siegel has fallen out of the top twenty in the championship as Siegel has not finished in the top ten in any of the last six races, and in one of those races he did not start. He missed the second Iowa race after an accident in the first race of that weekend. Siegel is 13 points behind Marcus Ericsson in 20th.
Sting Ray Robb and Jacob Abel take two of the bottom three spots in the championship. Robb is on 160 points, 15 points ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco. Abel has scored 107 points from his 14 starts. Robb is coming off his second-best finish of the season as he was 14th in Portland. Abel has finished outside the top twenty in his last three starts, and in seven of the last eight races. However, the one race that breaks up that stretch was an 11th in the second Iowa race.
There have been at least two American winners in the last 14 IndyCar seasons, and American drivers have combined to win at least four races in eight consecutive seasons. The last time fewer than three American drivers finished in the championship top ten was in 2014 when Ryan Hunter-Reay was sixth and Marco Andretti was ninth.
Manufacturers' Battle
The drivers' championship was claimed at Portland, and the manufacturers' championship might be the next thing to be sealed with a race to spare.
Honda has won 12 of 15 races this season, and with two races remaining, it has 1,389 points and a 212-point lead over Chevrolet.
Chevrolet has found its way onto the board, and it has won three of the last five races. Though Honda has won three oval races this season, Chevrolet has won 20 of 31 oval races since the introduction of the aero kit in 2020. Prior to the start of this season, Chevrolet had won 13 of the last 15 oval races.
Last year at Milwaukee, Chevrolet not only swept the weekend, it thrashed Honda. In the first race of the weekend, Chevrolet took the top four positions. Over the two races, Chevrolet drivers combined to lead 427 of 500 laps.
Dating back to IndyCar's previous stint at Milwaukee at the start of the DW12-era, Chevrolet has won six consecutive Milwaukee races and is unbeaten at the one-mile oval since 2012. Over those six races, Honda drivers have combined for only three podium finishes out of a possible 18, and six top five finishes out of a possible 30.
With only two races remaining, both manufacturers are running out of representatives that can score points to the manufacturers' championship. Any entry that has exceeded the four-engine limit for the season is ineligible to score points.
That is particularly noteworthy for Chevrolet. At Portland, Chevrolet saw three entries take on their fifth engine of the season. Those teams were the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet of Josef Newgarden, the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Christian Lundgaard and the #14 A.J. Foyt Racing entry of Santino Ferrucci. Prior to Portland, the only Chevrolet entry ineligible for manufacturer points was Christian Rasmussen in the #21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.
For Honda, the only entry ineligible for manufacturer points at Portland was Chip Ganassi Racing's #9 Honda for Scott Dixon. Dixon took on his fifth engine at Detroit and then took on his sixth engine at Toronto.
At Portland, every other Honda was on their fourth engine of the season, meaning it is likely we will see a few Honda entries take on their fifth engine at some point over the next two race weekend.
For Chevrolet, there were actually two teams that were still on their third engine of the season entering Portland. Those were A.J. Foyt Racing's #4 Chevrolet for David Malukas and Juncos Hollinger Racing's #77 Chevrolet for Sting Ray Robb. The other eight Chevrolet teams were all on their fourth engine of the season in the most recent race.
With the final two races being oval events, the grid penalty for taking on a fifth engine increases to nine spots compared to six spots on road and street courses.
Ahead of the first Milwaukee race last season, six teams took a grid penalty for going beyond the four-engine limit. Four of those six penalties were to Chevrolet teams. There were no grid penalties ahead of the second Milwaukee race. There were five grid penalties taken at last year's Nashville finale, four of which were for Chevrolet teams.
Indy Lights
We are down to two races remaining in the 2025 Indy Lights season, and only two drivers are alive for the championship, but there is a good chance the title could be decided in Milwaukee.
Dennis Hauger scored his sixth victory of the season at Portland with Caio Collet finishing second, and this has Hauger on 523 points, 54 points ahead of Collet. If Hauger leaves Milwaukee 54 points ahead of Collet, he will clinch the championship with a race to spare. Essentially, all Hauger needs to do at Milwaukee is finish ahead of Collet and the championship is his.
While Collet has won three times this season, Hauger clinched the tiebreaker with his sixth victory at Portland. Collet has finished in the top five in ten consecutive races. His only finish worse than fifth this season was 19th at Barber Motorsports Park when throttle issues forced the Brazilian to retire. Hauger has finished outside the top five twice this season. He was eighth in the first race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and early contact in the second Laguna Seca race left the Norwegian in 16th.
This will only be the third oval race of the season. At Gateway, Hauger led early, but faded and Lochie Hughes took the victory ahead of Myles Rowe, Collet, Salvador de Alba and Hauger. At Iowa, Hauger again led early, but Rowe passed him and scored his first career Indy Lights victory. De Alba rounded out the podium while Collet was fourth.
Things are spread out beyond the top two in the championship. Lochie Hughes is third on 401 points, 22 points ahead of Rowe. Josh Pierson rounds out the top five on 337 points with de Alba 16 points behind Pierson.
Callum Hedge has used three consecutive top ten finishes to lift him to seventh in the championship, and Hedge is only seven points behind de Alba. There is a 70-point gap between Hedge and Niels Koolen, who has finished in the top six in three of the last four races.
Koolen will be fighting off Jack William Miller for eighth. Miller is only six points behind the Dutchman while Jordan Missig is another six points behind Miller in tenth.
Indy Lights will race at 11:35 a.m. ET on Sunday August 24. The Indy Lights race is scheduled for 90 laps.
Fast Facts
This will be the 13th IndyCar race to take place on August 24, and the first since Takuma Sato won at Gateway in 2019.
Four previous Milwaukee races were held on August 24. In 1941, Rex Mays led all 100 laps from pole position, in what was the second IndyCar race held at the Milwaukee Mile. In 1947, Ted Horn won with 21 laps led as Emil Andres dropped to fifth despite leading 79 laps and leading with 11 laps to go. In 1952, Chuck Stevenson scored his first career victory from 11th on the grid, leading 95 of 200 laps. IndyCar's most recent visit to Milwaukee on August 24 was in 1958. Rodger Ward was victorious.
There have been five different winners in the last five Milwaukee races.
Álex Palou won at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in June. The most recent driver to win at Road America and the Milwaukee Mile in the same season was Michael Andretti in 1996. Andretti also swept the Wisconsin races in 1991. Andretti is the only driver to win at both tracks in the same season.
This will be the ninth Milwaukee race scheduled for a 250-lap distance.
Only once in the last six Milwaukee races did more than 12 cars finish on the lead lap.
The most lead lap finishers ever in a Milwaukee race was 15 in the 2015 race.
The average starting position for a Milwaukee winner is 4.513 with a median of third.
Eleven of the last 14 Milwaukee races have been won from a top five starting position. Two of those Milwaukee races were won from 11th, and Patricio O'Ward won the first race of the doubleheader from sixth.
Thirteen of 115 Milwaukee races have been won from outside the top ten.
Seven of the top ten finishes in the second race of last year's Milwaukee doubleheader started outside the top ten with four of those drivers starting outside the top fifteen.
The average number of lead changes in a Milwaukee race is 4.714 with a median of five.
The second race of last year's doubleheader had 13 lead changes, the most ever for a Milwaukee race.
Five of the last six Milwaukee winners led the most laps.
Ryan Hunter-Reay led all 250 laps in the 2004 Milwaukee race.
The fewest laps led by a Milwaukee winner is nine. Joe Leonard led the final nine laps in the June 1970 race.
The average number of caution laps in a Milwaukee race since 1972 is 3.983 with a median of four. The average number of caution laps is 29.372 with a median of 28.
There have been two caution-free races at Milwaukee, in June 1976 and June 1982.
Predictions
This is the weekend where Josef Newgarden avoids all bolts of lightning, and he wins with over 175 laps led. Patricio O'Ward will finish ahead of Álex Palou. Will Power will have another top five, and Andretti Global has a top five finisher, but one Andretti Global driver will have a costly pit stop that loses them many positions. Marcus Armstrong will not hit anyone from behind, especially on a restart. Along with Newgarden, another driver outside the top ten in the championship will lead at least 40 laps. The first caution will not come before the first round of pit stops, and there will be no cautions in the middle of a pit cycle. At least one driver gets his first top ten finish on an oval. Sleeper: Alexander Rossi.
