IndyCar News: O'Ward holds off Power to win at Milwaukee

Mexican driver Pato O’Ward led 133 of 250 laps in his Arrow McLaren Chevy to hold off the Penske Chevy of Will Power by 1.8215s to win the first leg of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 doubleheader.

Conor Daly took the final podium position in third after a spirited drive for Juncos Hollinger Racing, 2.4s behind O’Ward, making 51 on track passes.

Santino Ferrucci was 4th for AJ Foyt Racing, 16.7s behind O’Ward.

Ganassi Honda driver Alex Palou got screwed by an untimely caution and lost a lap, but recovered to finish 5th and still hold the championship lead over Will Power (514 to 471) with two races remaining.

The Spaniard also received a monetary penalty for Hitting Another Teams Equipment, Will Power’s air hose.

Polesitter Scott McLaughlin had to settle for 8th in his #3 Penske Chevy.

The race was green most of the way. On Lap 83, Dale Coyne Racing’s Katherine Legge spun in Turn 2 but made no contact. The British driver got back on track and finished the race 19th tonight.

On Lap 147, the yellow came out again for an incident involving Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson and Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden when Ericsson lost his car and collected the American in Turn 2. They were battling for second place at the time but both cars were retired after the incident.

On Lap 187, Andretti Global’s Colton Herta lost his left front tire on the backstretch after a bad pit stop. The young American led nine laps earlier in the race but was issued a penalty for Unsafe Conduct and had to sit in the pits for 30 seconds. He finished the race 22nd.

Will Power

Power smirks — Power Shrinks Points Lead

Will Power led nine laps of the race during the yellow flag laps 187 through 194. The Aussie was happy to finish second and now trail behind Palou by 43 points in the championship.

“Yep, the lead shrinks a little more. Another 10 points would have been great. Almost had him (Palou) there, but just too good.”

“I am closing the gap. Palou is a serious contender, man. Nothing can rattle that guy. Very tough to go head-to-head with him.”

Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 1 Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Behind	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	5	Pato O’Ward	250	0.000s	0.000s	133	6	Chevy	413	Arrow McLaren
2	12	Will Power	250	1.8215	1.8215	9	5	Chevy	471	Team Penske
3	78	Conor Daly	250	2.4039	0.5824	0	25	Chevy	86	Juncos Hollinger Racing
4	14	Santino Ferrucci	250	16.6898	14.2859	0	19	Chevy	306	AJ Foyt Enterprises
5	10	Alex Palou	250	18.7079	2.0181	0	12	Honda	514	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	8	Linus Lundqvist	250	19.2430	0.5351	19	4	Honda	245	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	7	Alexander Rossi	250	20.3497	1.1067	0	3	Chevy	321	Arrow McLaren
8	3	Scott McLaughlin	250	21.0736	0.7239	80	1	Chevy	422	Team Penske
9	45	Christian Lundgaard	250	21.5712	0.4976	0	26	Honda	283	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10	9	Scott Dixon	250	21.8753	0.3041	0	17	Honda	403	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	20	Christian Rasmussen	250	22.9117	1.0364	0	23	Chevy	133	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	27	Kyle Kirkwood	250	23.1309	0.2192	0	15	Honda	360	Andretti Global
13	60	Felix Rosenqvist	250	26.2308	3.0999	0	8	Honda	282	Meyer Shank Racing
14	21	Rinus VeeKay	249	1 LAPS	14.9074	0	13	Chevy	256	Ed Carpenter Racing
15	66	David Malukas	249	1 LAPS	6.4954	0	2	Honda	117	Meyer Shank Racing
16	18	Jack Harvey	249	1 LAPS	6.0834	0	14	Honda	110	Dale Coyne Racing
17	6	Nolan Siegel	249	1 LAPS	0.7364	0	24	Chevy	127	Arrow McLaren
18	30	Pietro Fittipaldi	248	2 LAPS	15.1058	0	27	Honda	168	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	51	Katherine Legge	248	2 LAPS	4.3677	0	18	Honda	50	Dale Coyne Racing
20	15	Graham Rahal	248	2 LAPS	9.7205	0	21	Honda	237	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	11	Marcus Armstrong	247	3 LAPS	1.8213	0	16	Honda	267	Chip Ganassi Racing
22	26	Colton Herta	246	4 LAPS	1 LAPS	9	10	Honda	426	Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian
23	41	Sting Ray Robb	244	6 LAPS	2 LAPS	0	20	Chevy	163	AJ Foyt Enterprises
24	77	Romain Grosjean	243	7 LAPS	15.5495	0	9	Chevy	224	Juncos Hollinger Racing
25	4	Kyffin Simpson	238	12 LAPS	5 LAPS	0	22	Honda	157	Chip Ganassi Racing
26	2	Josef Newgarden	146	Contact	8.6596	0	11	Chevy	358	Team Penske
27	28	Marcus Ericsson	146	Contact	0.0908	0	7	Honda	262	,Andretti Global

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 Andretti 5

Lucille Dust reporting live from the Milwaukee Mile