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

Friday’s doubleheader was eventful for the Brewers. They had an extra innings game, a 10-run inning, an injury scare, and a streak of 14 scoreless innings by the pitching staff. Now, they have to follow that up in game three of the series against the Reds.

After rolling his ankle in the first game of yesterday’s doubleheader, Jackson Chourio is back in the lineup today. Before the game, he told reporters that he’s not feeling any pain after waking up this morning. Curt Hogg also reports that Brewer Hicklen has a locker in the clubhouse. With no transactions announced before tonight’s game, he appears to be one of the two September callups. DL Hall was returned to Nashville but is eligible to be called up tomorrow. He is not subject to the minimum 15 days in the minors since he was a 27th man for a doubleheader.

Frankie Montas will face his former team in tonight’s start. He faced some rough calls that went against him in his last start against the Athletics. On the other side is Fernando Cruz. This will be his second start of the season, and he likely won’t pitch very long. In his last start against the Athletics on Wednesday, he pitched just three innings and threw 42 pitches.

It’s a pretty normal lineup for the Brewers. Brice Turang, Chourio, and William Contreras lead the lineup, with Jake Bauers fourth and Willy Adames in his usual fifth spot. Sal Frelick gets the day off as Blake Perkins makes a start in center tonight, and Rhys Hoskins slides back down to the seventh slot. Garrett Mitchell and Joey Ortiz round out the lineup.

Tonight’s game is on Fox but it’s the secondary game with Braves-Phillies occupying the main slot. Both games are important as the Brewers and Phillies are currently tied for the second-best record in the NL. The Dodgers play the Diamondbacks later tonight and have a 1 ¹⁄₂ game lead.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — With the 2024-25 season right around the corner, former Milwaukee Bucks forward Jae Crowder still hasn’t signed with any NBA franchise.

While there is still time left for a team to sign the former Marquette star to a deal to join them for training camp, the odds are slim with each passing day. Once a valuable rotational ”three-and-D” player, Crowder’s value has greatly depreciated since spending a year and a half with Milwaukee.

Less than two seasons ago, Crowder was one of the hottest names when it came to trade talks. The Bucks wound up giving five second-round picks and a trio of players for Crowder in a four-team deal with the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers and Phoenix Suns at the deadline.

There was a time over the past year and a half that the Milwaukee Bucks thought bringing in Crowder could make a real difference.

That time is long gone.

Shipping off five second-round picks as well as three players for Crowder was viewed by many as a huge swing that ultimately landed flat.

Instead of going down in Bucks history as a player who made championship-level impact such as P.J. Tucker, who was traded to the Bucks ahead of the deadline before helping the team win the 2021 NBA Championship, Crowder never found his footing.

After a solid season in 2021-22 with the Phoenix Suns, where he averaged 9.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.4 steals over 28.1 minutes per game over 67 games, Crowder’s numbers took a steep dive in Milwaukee.

Since joining the Bucks during the middle of the 2022-23 season, Crowder went on to average 6.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.7 steals in 18 games. He followed that up by averaging 6.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.8 steals per game last season in 50 games played during his final season with Milwaukee.

Crowder’s performance was especially bad in the postseason. Through two payoffs trips with the Bucks, Crowder averaged a mere 2.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per contest. It’s certainly not the production Milwaukee envisioned when unloading the haul of picks and players for the NBA veteran.

As a result of his poor showing in Milwaukee, Crowder remains a free agent now. His chances of joining a new team remain slim as each day continues to pass. In hindsight, the Bucks could have used their package of second-round picks better somewhere else.

Despite looking like a terrible trade in retrospect, there’s no faulting Milwaukee’s front office for trying to take a big swing on a well-known commodity that, at the time, looked like he could be an excellent addition as a rotational piece.

At the same token, there’s no denying this trade was a huge mistake as evident by Crowder’s availability this deep into the offseason.