O'Ward makes it a Sunday sweep with IndyCar Race 1 win at Milwaukee

The final 160 laps of Saturday’s Snap-On 250 at the Milwaukee Mile were successfully completed Sunday evening, and once it was over, the IndyCar Series had a repeat visitor to victory lane as Pato O’Ward went back-to-back in a matter of hours with the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevy.

"It's unbelievable,” O’Ward said. “What a weekend it's been for us, Arrow McLaren, Team Chevy, sweeping the weekend. It's obviously first for me in a really long time since junior formula. What a weekend. I'm glad that we were able to get two full races for you guys. I know one of them was kind of just a few laps yesterday. Thank you for coming out and for sticking around, and hopefully, the show was amazing for you all.”

His win came at the expense of Team Penske’s David Malukas, who took charge of the race and appeared to be on the way to his first win but dealt with a stumble in the No. 12 Chevy on the final restart that allowed O’Ward to power by and hold a lead he never relinquished.

Penske almost had a 2-3 result with Scott McLaughlin, but Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay fired by in the No. 76 Chevy to earn his first podium for the team. McLaughlin was fourth in the No. 3 Chevy ahead of ECR’s Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Chevy and Christian Lundgaard in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevy; Penske’s Josef Newgarden took eighth to give Chevy a remarkable 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.

Beyond the rout by the Bowtie, a new IndyCar champion was crowned as Alex Palou placed 10th in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, which was more than enough to clinch the title prior to the season finale at Laguna Seca.

“I don’t know what to say, man,” Palou admitted. “I owe everything to this team and everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda, DHL, all of our partners, but especially Chip and everybody behind me. It’s so incredible, man. Just so proud of this team. Today was a really bad race for us. Like, we were suffering all the time, but I’m like ‘Just keep focus, keep on, keep on going.’ It was great. Great to have another championship and ready for the next one.”

After a slight delay for sprinkles, Race 1 got under way at 2:35pm local and O’Ward led the first lap from Josef Newgarden.

Lap 5 and O’Ward leads Newgarden, Rosenqvist, Power, Lundgaard and Hauger. Palou is P10 and Kirkwood is P20.

Lap 14 and Rosenqvist takes P2 from Newgarden.

Lap 20 and O’Ward leads Rosenqvist by 0.5s and Newgarden by 2.6s.

Lap 22 and the championship outlook has Palou in P9 and Kirkwood in P20.

Lap 35 and Rosenqvist has charged into the lead and holds 6.8s over O’Ward and 7.2s on Newgarden.

Lap 40 and Power is dropping back; he’s given P4 to Lundgaard.

Lap 44 and Kirkwood pits from P20.

Lap 48 and Lundgaard takes P3 from Newgarden.

Lap 49 and Malukas pits.

Lap 50 and Rosenqvist leads O’Ward by 3.5s and Lundgaard by 6.3s. Newgarden pits.

Lap 51 and Ericsson and Palou and VeeKay pit.

Lap 52 and O’Ward pits.

Lap 53 and Rosenqvist pits from the lead. It wasn’t the fastest stop. Lundgaard pits as well.

Lap 55 and Power pits.

Lap 57 and Hauger and Grosjean are 1-2.

Lap 58 and Hauger pits.

Lap 60 and O’Ward leads Rosenqvist, Rossi, Grosjean, Newgarden, Lundgaard, and Siegel.

Lap 65 CAUTION for rain. The leaders are O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Rossi, Newgarden, Power and Kirkwood. Palou is P10.

Lap 80 and the field continues to circulate behind the pace car.

Lap 90 and RED FLAG for increased rain.

Lap 90 and it’s 3:37pm local and drivers have been pulled from the cars.

Lap 90 and it’s 4:24pm and cars and drivers are back at their haulers. It’s continuing to rain.

Lap 90 and it’s 7:05pm and the race has been postponed until Sunday at 8am.

Lap 101 and the race restarts at 5:07pm local. O’Ward leads Rosenqvist, Lundgaard, Newgarden, Possi, Power, VeeKay.

Lap 103 and Palou is up to P12 from P14. He’s one of few on new tires and full fuel.

Lap 104 and Palou is up to P9. Kirkwood is P13.

Lap 105 and VeeKay takes P6 from Rossi.

Lap 110 and O’Ward leads Rosenqvist by 1.5s and Lundgaard by 2.5s. Palou is P9 and Kirkwood is P14.

Lap 117 and Kirkwood pits.

Lap 119 and VeeKay pits.

Lap 120 and O’Ward pits along with Rosenqvist.

Lap 121 and Lundgaard, Power, and Newgarden pit.

Lap 122 and Palou pits.

Lap 124 and Lundgaard passes Rosenqvist.

Lap 132 and VeeKay takes P7 from Newgarden.

Lap 133 and Newgarden is struggling; he’s down to P15.

Lap 140 and Ericsson takes P9 from Palou.

Lap 143 and Malukas pits from the lead; O’Ward returns to P1.

Lap 151 and O’Ward leads Lundgaard by 2.9s.

Lap 152 CAUTION for Mick Schumacher, who got hit by Hauger and spun exiting Turn 4 but didn’t hit anything. Kirkwood was pitting and had to drive through without taking service.

Lap 155 and the field pits.

Lap 158 and the running order is Malukas, O’Ward, Lundgaard, Power, Armstrong, Rosenqvist, VeeKay, Ericsson, Palou, and McLaughlin.

Lap 164 RESTART and Power takes P3 from Lundgaard.

Lap 167 and VeeKay takes P7 from Armstrong. Palou loses P8 to McLaughlin.

Lap 168 and Rosenqvist takes P4 from Lundgaard. Kirkwood is a distant P14.

Lap 177 and Malukas leads O’Ward by 2.9s, Power by 7.8s, Rosenqvist by 8.4s and Lundgaard by 9.4s. Palou is down to P11 while Kirkwood is P14, but has fallen to third in the standings behind Lundgaard.

Lap 197 and Rosenqvist takes P3 from Power.

Lap 190 and Malukas leads O’Ward by 5.0s and Rosenqvist by 8.3s.

Lap 194 and Power and Palou and Rosenqvist and Lundgaard pit.

Lap 195 and O’Ward pits.

Lap 196 and Malukas pits.

Lap 200 and CAUTION for Power, who kisses the wall and bends his suspension.

Lap 202 and the running order is Malukas, O’Ward, McLaughlin, Lundgaard, Siegel who needs to pit, Rosenqvist, Armstrong, Ericsson, VeeKay, Kirkwood and Palou.

Lap 211 RESTART and Malukas streaks away.

Lap 214 CAUTION for Collet who crashed in Turn 4.

Lap 227 RESTART and O’Ward takes the lead from Malukas.

Lap 230 and the running order is O’Ward, Malukas, McLaughlin, VeeKay, Rasmussen, Lundgaard, Armstrong, and Newgarden. Palou is P9.

Lap 235 and O’Ward leads Malukas by 0.7s and McLaughlin by 1.9s.

Lap 238 and O’Ward leads Malukas by 0.8s and McLaughlin by 1.9s.

Lap 250 and Pato O’Ward wins twice in a matter of hours. VeeKay took P3 off of McLaughlin to earn his best results for the team in P3 behind Malukas.

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