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
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