IndyCar's Race 1 at Milwaukee postponed, set to resume Sunday

Saturday’s Snap-on 250 at the Milwaukee Mile has been postponed until Sunday at 8 a.m. local, 9 a.m. ET.

The decision was made after rain triggered a caution on lap 65, which went red on lap 90, and with heavier rainfall in the hours that followed, attempts to dry the track in time to resume racing before sunset at 7:30 p.m. were unsuccessful, which led to the overnight pause.

At the time of the stoppage, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward was in first place, with Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist in second and ECR’s Alexander Rossi in third. IndyCar has applied impound rules, which in this case means teams can work on the cars, but must use the same tires and fuel levels as they went into impound.

The major wrinkle to consider is rain is expected to arrive overnight and continue into late morning, which would make completing Race 1 an impossibility at 8 a.m. Race 2, which is scheduled for another 250 laps, is meant to start at 12:20 p.m. If rain washes out the morning, IndyCar president Doug Boles says the plan will be to focus on getting Race 2 in and completed, and once that’s done, to wait approximately three hours and run the rest of Race 1.

“Let's just hope that the rain doesn't get in the way again tomorrow,” O’Ward said. “If we're going to be able to complete the whole thing, there will be two strategies going on, but it's hard to say. On the final 50 laps or so we were thinking about getting in, I wasn't planning on pitting, save some fuel perhaps and stretch it. It's what it is, and we'll come back tomorrow and keep digging from there.”

In the championship picture, Kyle Kirkwood is set to restart in seventh and Alex Palou will roll away in 14th. At the time of the red flag and while in those positions, Kirkwood reduced Palou's 91-point title lead to 81 points.