By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
Milwaukee, Wisconsin- Indy Car has returned to the Milwaukee Mile for the first time in several years and Team Penske was the favorite. Someone forgot to tell Pato O’Ward who led three times for 131 laps, takes home the checkered flag.
Checkered Flag
Pato O’Ward started the HyVee 250 in the sixth starting position and slowly inched toward the front and pounced after his first pit stop and the Lundqvist pit stop on lap 86. O’Ward tumbled to third after the Katherine Legge spinout and finally timed McLaughlin with a clean pass to take the race lead on lap 119. O’Ward recertifies his lead on the restart following the Newgarden/Ericsson 146 incident and takes the green flag. In all, O’Ward leads the HyVee 250 Race One three times for 131 laps. This is his 7th career victory. Also, in 24 oval starts, O’Ward has two wins, seven runner-up finishes and 17 top-five results, including a second-place finish at both the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and the Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart on July 13 at Iowa Speedway. O’Ward is very happy after a tough week at Portland. “Yeah, I mean, it’s all about what are we missing, right? We’re not going to get it right all the time.But specifically this year has been really, really tough just to feel like I have something to fight with. I feel like I’ve had it in numerous races along the year, but there’s been some where it’s just been really, really tough in a lot of different angles, I would say.”
Podium- Second Place
Will Power loves the Milwaukee Mile. Besides winning this race more than once, he has finished in the top four, four straight times entering the race. Power qualified fourth and he sneakily layed in the weeds until lap 96 taking his first lead after a caution. Power stayed in the top five coming down the stretch of the race and slowly moved up to second place. His runner-up finish in race one of the HyVee 250 gives him five races in a row in the top four. Power is 43 point behind Alex Palou and will will the NTT Championship for the second year in a row. Power has two races to prove he still has much more racing in his future. When asked about the Milwaukee Mile, Power lit up. Yeah, I do. I think we got to really build these events up. It’s important to have a full crowd. Looks great on TV. Looking forward to our TV package next year, all on network at the same time, at a good time.”
Podium- Third Place
Conor Daly has only raced five times in 15 races in 2024. Finishing the schedule for Juncos Hollinger racing, Daly is racing to have a job in 2025 and will visit the podium in this HyVee race. Daly started the race in 25th place out of 27 cars and earned this podium. He came into the race with a lone top ten finish this year. Daly has no idea if he has a ride in 2025. ” I mean, I’d love to think so. In the end, the finances are very difficult to make happen in this world. But I feel like I have a lot that I still want to do in this world. The last couple years have been obviously really difficult for me, in the situation that I was in.”
Stayed in the Mix- The Rookie Linus Lundqvist
Linus Lundqvist has had a productive summer as a rookie on Team Ganassi racing. He has both top five performances in the last spell of races and he qualified fourth at the Hyvee Race 1 at the Milwaukee Mile. He used a pick to pass pole sitter McLaughlin and raced all over the track to build a four second lead over the #3. He nearly collided with Sting Ray Robb who was pitting but was slow entering the pits. Lundqvist pitted on lap 86. He slid to outside the top ten until the Herta tire mishap saw the rookie move his way to third. Track position became a problem as the race finished and LL just missed finishing in the top five in the sixth position.
Stayed in the Mix – 2 Scott McLaughlin
Scott McLaughlin won his fourth pole of the season for the first race at the Milwaukee Mile coming off his first career oval win at Iowa and second victory of the season. McLaughlin has six top five finishes this season….. but still entered the HyVee Race one 88 points behind NTT leader Alex Palou. McLaughlin led the first 49 laps of the race when Linus Lundqvist used lapped traffic as a pick to bump the #3 from the lead. Hanging back, McLaughlin took the lead following the Katherine Legge contact with the infield wall and several leaders pitting. Down the stretch, he lost track position and he finished eighth.
Surprise Finishers
Colton Herta, like O’Ward used lap traffic to set up a pick to take away the O’Ward lead to become the fourth leader of the day. Herta fell to third after the Legge spinout and then held third past the midway point of the race when he pitted trying to make it his final stop of the race. .Herta’s pit stop on lap 197 turned into disaster for him as his left front was left loose and it came off on the track causing a full field caution. Herta has had hard luck in 2024 and a driver with a chance to win an oval race went down the drain. Herta finished in 22nd place, three laps down.
Better Luck for Race 2 on Sunday
Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson had high hopes entering the HyVee Saturday race. Neither driver was able to make much headway and then they crashed on lap 146. Both blamed each other for the crash. Newgarden said Ericsson came up the track and Ericsson said Newgarden came down. Replays showed Newgarden came down slightly. Indy Car took a look at the incident and ruled no action should be taken. Newgarden has had great success in Milwaukee. He will try to turn his fortunes around on Sunday.
Finishers- HyVee 1
WEST ALLIS, Wis – Results Saturday of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s Race 1 NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 1.015-mile Milwaukee Mile, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (6) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 250, Running
2. (5) Will Power, Chevrolet, 250, Running
3. (25) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 250, Running
4. (19) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 250, Running
5. (12) Alex Palou, Honda, 250, Running
6. (4) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 250, Running
7. (3) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 250, Running
8. (1) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 250, Running
9. (26) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 250, Running
10. (17) Scott Dixon, Honda, 250, Running
11. (23) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 250, Running
12. (15) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 250, Running
13. (8) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 250, Running
14. (13) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 249, Running
15. (2) David Malukas, Honda, 249, Running
16. (14) Jack Harvey, Honda, 249, Running
17. (24) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 249, Running
18. (27) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 248, Running
19. (18) Katherine Legge, Honda, 248, Running
20. (21) Graham Rahal, Honda, 248, Running
21. (16) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 247, Running
22. (10) Colton Herta, Honda, 246, Running
23. (20) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 244, Running
24. (9) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 243, Running
25. (22) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 238, Running
26. (11) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 146, Contact
27. (7) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 146, Contact
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 driver