IndyCar Milwaukee: O’Ward keeps Power at bay for victory, Palou fifth

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward won the opening race of IndyCar’s double-header weekend at The Milwaukee Mile, beating Team Penske’s title challenger Will Power.

After starting sixth, 25-year-old O’Ward surged forward and controlled the race for 133 of 250 laps in the first IndyCar race staged at the track since 2015.

“We had a really tough weekend last weekend at Portland, and this is a great way to bounce back,” said O’Ward after taking his third victory of the season by 1.8215s.

“The car was fantastic; it was getting a little gnarly in the end, but glad I could bring it home for the boys.

“They were fantastic on pit stops, the strategy was amazing. We worked on the car really hard yesterday to really have something to fight with today.”

A late caution during a pit cycle shook up some of the frontrunners, including Conor Daly, who ended up on the podium and gave Juncos Hollinger Racing its best-ever finish in third.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was fourth, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in fifth, with Power closing his points lead to 43 points as a result (514-471). 

While the initial start was waved off, polesitter Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) was able to quickly gap the field once the green flag waved on lap 2. The biggest mover out of the gate was Daly, who used the high lane to take several three-wide passes and charge from 25th up to 15th in the opening 10 laps. 

The frantic start quickly settled in, with McLaughlin holding a 0.9095s lead over Linus Lundqvist (Ganassi) on lap 20 while David Malukas (Meyer Shank Racing) ran third as they began to catch backmarkers. 

Deeper in the field saw Josef Newgarden, who qualified second but dropped nine starting spots as a result of penalty for an engine change, advance past Marcus Ericsson.

The continued navigation of backmarkers saw McLaughlin’s lead continue to accordion over Lundqvist, before the Swede moved ahead with a Turn 1 pass on lap 49.

The lead for Lundqvist expanded to 4.6209s over McLaughlin by lap 61 as the first pitstop cycle began, Lundqivst pitting a lap later than McLaughlin and Malukas on lap 66. 

The green flag pit stops wrapped up on lap 71, with O’Ward leading by 0.6525s over Colton Herta, McLaughlin cycling out third with Lundqvist in fourth. 

Herta took the lead shortly before a caution on lap 83 was necessitated by Katherine Legge spinning in Turn 2. McLaughlin then went off-strategy in electing not to pit, so led the field the lap 95 restart as Herta and O’Ward battled for second.

O’Ward pushed past McLaughlin with an inside pass into Turn 1 and began to pull away before the next round of stops, resuming with the lead this time over an early-stopping Newgarden.

But his promising race came to an end after contact on lap 147 battling Ericsson for second, with the Swede spinning to the inside and taking Newgarden with him into the barriers. Following closely beind, Palou squeaked by without incident. 

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet, pit stop

Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images

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O’Ward led the field to the restart on lap 157, with Palou in second, followed by Power. The positions were unchanged until the next caution was triggered by Herta losing his left-front tyre during the next pit sequence.

Power briefly became the new the leader, ahead of Daly, Lundqvist and O’Ward, until he pitted from the lead on lap 195. With Daly and Lundqvist following in for service, O’Ward assumed the race lead, Ferrucci slotted into second and Power resumed in third. 

O’Ward brought the field to the green flag on lap 203 an was untroubled by Ferrucci, who was shuffled back two spots when Power dived to the inside with 28 laps to go as Daly also got by. 

Palou too momentarily passed Ferrucci, before he fought back and reclaimed fourth.

O’Ward’s advantage over Power dipped as low as 0.3s with 13 laps to go, but the Mexican never faced a serious challenge before taking the flag.

IndyCar Milwaukee Race Results