Pato O’Ward ended up the victor in the NTT IndyCar Series’ return to the legendary Milwaukee Mile.
Championship contender Will Power was able to finish second and is now effectively the only driver standing in points leader Alex Palou’s way to a third IndyCar title in four years. He is 45 points back.
“We got another one, that’s three [wins] in the book for this year,” O’Ward said to NBC Sports in victory lane. “We had really tough weekend last weekend in Portland, this is a great way to bounce back.
“We have another opportunity tomorrow. Car was fantastic, it was getting pretty gnarly there in the end. Glad I could bring it home for the boys.”
“It was very difficult to pass,” said Power, speaking to NBC after the race. “Not impossible, but car was all over the place with adjustments, once you went into a run… a podium… is what we needed.
“Pato was super good and strong. He got through that traffic really well. Alex is forever consistent. We dropped that points gap, but we’re doing everything we need to at the moment, as far as executing good stops and strategies. Keep digging, try and make this a fight to the end.”
The entire complexion of the race changed on lap 188, when Colton Herta lost a tire after pitting.
Herta was able to make it back to pit road, but was given a 30 second stop-and-go penalty after the restart due to “unsafe conduct”.
Only six cars were on the lead lap, due to the caution being during green flag pit stops. O’Ward and Santino Ferrucci had already pit, but due to how the caution fell, they were among the six cars on the lead lap.
15 cars took the ensuring wave-a-round, including Palou in seventh. Palou was able to pass Christian Lundgaard and Linus Lundqvist, but was unable to move past that and finished fifth.
Conor Daly ended up finishing a surprise third place, while Ferrucci finished fourth.
Scott McLaughlin jumped out from the pole to take the lead outright in the early stages of the race.
Lundqvist took the lead while McLaughlin struggled to lap Kyffin Simpson on lap 48. During green flag pit stops 20 laps later, McLaughlin pitted early and used the undercut to get back around Lundqvist, with Herta and O’Ward getting ahead of both with a larger undercut.
O’Ward led before getting passed by Herta briefly for the lead.
The caution came out on lap 84 when Katherine Legge spun out on the backstretch. She didn’t hit…
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