Pato O'Ward

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.

Pato O'Ward
Pato O’Ward. (Photo by Joe Skibinski | IMS Photo)

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.

Santino Ferrucci

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.

 

Alex Palou

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