Christian Rasmussen puts an end to the Palou show, and wins his first NTT IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile!
Welcome to the Milwaukee Mile! 2025 champion Alex Palou starts on pole in the hunt for 10 wins in a season but first win hopeful David Malukas isn’t far behind. Who will stand victorious after the 250 lap thriller at the oldest oval in the US?
1 down, 249 to go
27 drivers fire away around the 1-mile Milwaukee oval! The race almost immediately falls under caution, as Nolan Siegel catches the inside yellow line and makes hard contact with the wall. Caution on Lap 1 in Milwaukee.
Connor Daly and Colton Herta made up the most positions prior to the yellow flag, 4 and 7 places respectively.
Green flag running in Milwaukee resumes on Lap 9 of 250. However, a puff of smoke from the car of Scott Dixon and a spin from Graham Rahal sends the race right back under a yellow flag. Rahal managed to regain control of his No. 15 car, and the field settled behind the pace car while order was regained on track.
Green flag waved again on Lap 15.
With a stunning move on the outside high-line, David Malukas takes the lead in Milwaukee from Alex Palou. The 23 year old Chicago native was quick to pull a 1.9 second gap over the 2025 champion. Lap 41 saw the lead of the race fall back into the hands of Alex Palou. The Spaniards car seeming far more suited to running in dirty air than the car of Malukas.
Strategy comes into play
Strategies are split for the drivers, will they take the easier 4 -stop or risk a 3-stop? It all depends on how the drivers can manger their tires, as the first pit window opens. A brief bit of drama on pit lane as 58 lap tick away in Milwaukee, as Scott Dixon almost goes into the back of Scott McLaughlin as he was released from his stop.
With 67 laps down, the top-3: Palou, McLaughlin, Malukas.
The 4-time champion carved through the field following his first pitstop, with an almost 9 second gap back to McLaughlin. However, lapped traffic is backing the fast charging race leader up, allowing for both McLaughlin and Malukas to cut that gap down by seconds. With 100 laps down, Palou, McLaughlin and Malukas still make up the top-3 with over half the field being 1 or more laps down.
The second pit sequence open up chaos at the Milwaukee Mile. David Malukas has issues with his stop, losing time on pit lane due to a tire gun issue. He exits the pits a lap down from Palou. Additionally, Will Power runs high into the wall at Turn 2 after losing it on tire marbles on the high-line. Power brings out the third caution of the race on Lap 104. Luck continues to go the way of the No. 10 champion as he leads from his CGR teammate, with just over half race distance to go.
Racing resumes in Milwaukee on Lap 118.
Cautions and strategy fumbles
Josef Newgarden takes advantage of a clean high-line to rapidly pass Rossi and Lundgaard for P4. The Penske driver continues to find his stride as he flew past Pato O’Ward to find his way into the podium places.
Alex Palou continues to be perfect on the throttle as he leads by almost 6 seconds from Mclaughlin, with 110 laps to go at the Milwaukee Mile.
Callum Ilott brings out caution number 4 as he comes into his pit box with smoke pouring from the back of his Prema machine on Lap 140.
Marcus Armstrong led the field back to green on Lap 153. However, he dropped like a stone through the field on old tires to 14th once racing kicked off again. A strategy fumble by MSR. Contact between Palou and Marcus Ericsson sees slight damage to the rear tires of the No.10.
The final pit sequence sees Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden pit last out of the front runners. Those who pit have to make those tires last 53 laps, on a high tire degradation track. Alex Palou once again exits the pits just ahead of Scott McLaughlin, who managed to cut Palou lead to 1.3 seconds.
50 to the checkered flag
One car sits between Palou and McLaughlin as slick track conditions bright a caution as rain began to fall with 40 laps to go. Most of the field took advantage of the caution to pit. However, the front runners of Palou, McLaughlin and Newgarden chose to stay out on track. Those who chose to pit will have the advantage regarding pace and tire life as the race entered its closing laps.
29 laps remaining sees the field go back to green, as Alexander Rossi dives past Pato O’ward on the restart to gain P3. Rossi quickly found himself in fight for second with Newgarden. Christian Rasmussen quickly joined his teammate in climbing through the field, as he dumps Scott McLaughlin for P2.
After running side by side with Palou for half a lap, Christian Rasmussen gains the lead in Milwaukee with 15 laps to go after a stunning outside move.
In a stunning show of moves on the outside line, Christian Rasmussen wins his first NTT IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile, stopping Alex Palou’s run for history in its track! The Danish driver wins his first race after just 30 starts.
Final Race Classification:
- Rasmussen
- Palou
- McLaughlin
- Rossi
- O’Ward
- Lundgaard
- Newgarden
- Malukas
- Dixon
- Armstrong
- Herta
- Kirkwood
- Daly
- Ferrucci
- VeeKay
- DeFrancesco
- Foster
- Shwartzman
- Ericsson
- Simpson
- Abel
- Rosenqvist
- Robb
- Rahal
- Ilott
- Power
- Siegel
