By: NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Photo Courtesy INDYCAR)
WEST ALLIS, Wis. (Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024) – Pato O’Ward won the first race of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s on Saturday, and Will Power tightened his NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship duel with Alex Palou with two races remaining this season.
O’Ward earned his third victory of the season in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, beating the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet of Power to the finish by 1.8215 seconds. O’Ward’s seventh career victory came after three consecutive finishes of 15th or lower since late July, effectively removing him from the title race.
“We had a really tough weekend last week in Portland, and this is a great way to bounce back,” O’Ward said. “We have another opportunity tomorrow. The car was fantastic. It was getting a little gnarly there at the end, but glad I could bring it home for the boys. They were fantastic on pit stops. Strategy was amazing.”
Live coverage of the second 250-lap doubleheader race on the 1.015-mile oval starts at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network, Peacock and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Palou will seal his third championship in four years if he wins and leads the most laps. Otherwise, the title race will go to the season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on Sunday, Sept. 15 at Nashville Superspeedway.
Conor Daly finished third Saturday in a stirring drive in the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, his best race since a career-best result of second in June 2016 at Detroit. Daly thrilled the crowd with 51 on-track passes, the most of any driver in a race this season, using every available racing line on the track.
Santino Ferrucci placed fourth in the No. 14 Phoenix Investors Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, with championship leader Alex Palou rounding out the top five in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Palou’s lead to second place Power, which was 54 points entering this race, was trimmed to 43 points.
The top five finishers in Saturday’s race each were from different teams, just the second time that has occurred this season. The other time came at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding in March, also won by O’Ward.
This was a race of varied pit strategies and plenty of action on the lead lap and in lapped traffic as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES returned to the historic oval for the first time since 2015. There were a season-high 667 on-track passes and 326 passes for position – the most on record at the Milwaukee Mile.
Various “undercut” and “overcut” ploys were tested by teams during early stops in hopes that perhaps either fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, racing in less traffic or an opportune caution could deliver a win.
Instead, O’Ward won on pace after starting sixth in the 27-car field. He took the lead for good under caution on Lap 195 when Power made his final pit stop. O’Ward’s last stop came on Lap 186, handing the lead to Power.
Two laps later, the last of three caution periods was triggered when the front left wheel dislodged from Colton Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian when it wasn’t tightened during his pit stop on Lap 185.
Power and a group of three other leading cars had to make their last stop under that caution, and O’Ward cycled to the front, where he would stay. O’Ward led a race-high 133 laps.
After his final stop under that caution, Power cycled into third place behind O’Ward and Ferrucci. Power eventually passed Ferrucci for second, with Daly passing Ferrucci for third on Lap 224.
A thicket of lapped traffic slowed O’Ward, and Power pounced to within .3 of a second on Lap 236. But Power never was able to make a passing attempt for the lead, and O’Ward threaded a needle in 150-mph traffic to pull away from Power over the closing laps.
“It was getting wiggly,” O’Ward said of his car’s handling under pressure from Power. “It was reminding me a little bit of like qualifying, just getting a bit on the nose (loose handling). The car was changing a lot from the start of the race to the end of the race.”
Said Power, who won last Sunday at Portland International Raceway: “The car was all over the place with adjustments as you go through the run. I’m stoked to get on the podium. One more (place) was what we needed, but Pato was super good and strong, and he got through that traffic really well. Alex was super consistent, so it’s hard to drop that points gap, but we’re doing everything we need to at the moment. We’ll keep digging.”
The metronomic Palou rebounded from the 12th starting position for his 13th top-five finish in 15 races this season. He was in trouble early, mired in mid-pack, and just missed a two-car accident on Lap 147 that eliminated Indianapolis 500 winners Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet and Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda of Andretti Global from the race.
But as he seemingly does with the consistency of sunrise and sunset, Palou found a way to drive into the top five despite falling a lap down in seventh when the final caution flew during his out lap after his final stop. Palou and a handful of other drivers got the wave-around during that final caution, returning him to the lead lap.
“A little bit unlucky with that yellow,” Palou said. “We were a bit aggressive to try and get the lead. Not the luckiest of days, but a top five. The car was amazing.
“Looking forward to tomorrow. I’m happy that we got a good solid day. Hopefully we can be a step above everybody tomorrow.”
Results Saturday of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s Race 1 NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 1.015-mile Milwaukee Mile, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (6) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Running
2. (5) Will Power, Chevrolet, 250, Running
3. (25) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 250, Running
4. (19) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 250, Running
5. (12) Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running
6. (4) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 250, Running
7. (3) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 250, Running
8. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 250, Running
9. (26) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 250, Running
10. (17) Scott Dixon, Honda, 250, Running
11. (23) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 250, Running
12. (15) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 250, Running
13. (8) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 250, Running
14. (13) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 249, Running
15. (2) David Malukas, Honda, 249, Running
16. (14) Jack Harvey, Honda, 249, Running
17. (24) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 249, Running
18. (27) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 248, Running
19. (18) Katherine Legge, Honda, 248, Running
20. (21) Graham Rahal, Honda, 248, Running
21. (16) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 247, Running
22. (10) Colton Herta, Honda, 246, Running
23. (20) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 244, Running
24. (9) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 243, Running
25. (22) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 238, Running
26. (11) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 146, Contact
27. (7) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 146, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 123.758 mph
Time of race: 2:03:01.3451
Margin of victory: 1.8215 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 38 laps
Lead changes: 7 among 5 drivers
Lap Leaders:
McLaughlin, Scott 1 – 48
Lundqvist, Linus 49 – 67
O’Ward, Pato 68 – 77
Herta, Colton 78 – 86
McLaughlin, Scott 87 – 118
O’Ward, Pato 119 – 185
Power, Will 186 – 194
O’Ward, Pato 195 – 250
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 514, Power 471, Herta 426, McLaughlin 422, O’Ward 413, Dixon 403, Kirkwood 360, Newgarden 358, Rossi 321, Ferrucci 306, Lundgaard 283, Rosenqvist 282, Armstrong 267, Ericsson 262, VeeKay 256, Lundqvist 245, Rahal 237, Grosjean 224, Fittipaldi 168, Robb 163, Simpson 157, Siegel 137, Rasmussen 133, Malukas 117, Harvey 110, Agustin Canapino 109, Theo Pourchaire 91, Daly 86, Tom Blomqvist 46, Ed Carpenter 45, Toby Sowery 45, Legge 40, Callum Ilott 39, Luca Ghiotto 27, Helio Castroneves 26, Kyle Larson 21, Takuma Sato 19, Tristan Vautier 12, Juri Vips 11, Colin Braun 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay 6, Hunter McElrea 6, Marco Andret
