Alex Palou's Rivals Hope To Create Double Trouble at Milwaukee

Last year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES race at the Milwaukee Mile went so well, officials opted to do it twice this year.

OK, that’s likely not the motivation for this weekend’s doubleheader, but fans of the sport will be the beneficiary as they experience double the fun with a pair of 250-mile races.

SEE: Milwaukee Event Details – Race 1 / Race 2

If either the Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 or the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 is as thrilling as last year’s race, excitement will reign. Christian Rasmussen’s late charge through the field capped the two hours of wheel-to-wheel entertainment. The victory was Rasmussen’s first in the series, and he earned it at the expense of reigning series champion Alex Palou, who led 199 of the first 234 laps. Rasmussen led the final 16.

The action behind the leaders was just as good, and it intensified with a late caution. Rasmussen restarted from the seventh position, using fresh Firestone Firehawk tires to lead Ed Carpenter Racing to victory lane for the first time since Rinus VeeKay won for the team in 2021 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Milwaukee Showed Series Balance Last Year

Last year’s top-five finishers reflected the competitive balance of this series.

Following Palou, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin finished third, tying his season-best result. Alexander Rossi came home fourth as ECR placed two drivers in the top four for the first time all season. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five.

Taking new tires for what proved to be the final shootout certainly was the right call for most teams, although without them McLaughlin only fell from second to third while Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden dropped from third to seventh. Of course, Palou lost the lead. Those three drivers each made their final stops 15 laps earlier than Rasmussen and others, and that proved decisive.

Six teams placed drivers in the top 10, with four teams (Ed Carpenter Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Arrow McLaren) each landing two in the group.

Next Up: Several Drivers Appear Ready

Rasmussen’s maiden series victory came in his 30th start (photo, top), and he became the series’ newest first-time winner since fellow Danish driver Christian Lundgaard won in Toronto in July 2023. Rasmussen became the 299th driver in history to win a series race.

So, which driver gets to be No. 300?

The list of contenders starts with Team Penske’s David Malukas, who has been exceptional at short ovals in his five-year career. He has had two top-three finishes at World Wide Technology Raceway (2022 and 2023), and he has qualified in the top three on seven occasions (three times at WWTR and twice each at Iowa Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile, including last year). He finished eighth in last year’s Milwaukee race for AJ Foyt Racing.

Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian (photo, above) also keeps knocking on victory lane’s door. This season, he has eight top-eight starting positions and netted top-five finishes at Phoenix Raceway and in the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Saturday’s race will mark Malukas’ 77th series start and Armstrong’s 62nd. They were both top-10 finishers in last year’s Milwaukee race, with Malukas eighth and Armstrong 10th. Malukas ranks fourth in the point standings this year, Armstrong 15th.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson is another driver seeking his first series victory. He is coming off a fifth-place finish in last weekend’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C.

Title Pursuit ‘Somewhat’ Tighter

Even with a disastrous result in Washington, Palou holds a commanding series points lead and can secure his record-tying fourth consecutive season championship and fifth in six years with even modest results this weekend.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver will clinch the title if he comes out of the doubleheader with a 53-point lead (he owns the tiebreaker, which is most wins in the season). In reality, he only needs to be in front by 48 points so long as he starts the season-ending race Sept. 6 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca as all starters are assured five points.

Palou’s advantage over Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood is 91 points, which feels a bit anxious given that he lost 41 points in Washington. But that took a worst-case scenario, which rarely happens among frontrunners. Kirkwood grabbed 53 of the 54 possible points as the race winner with Palou only scoring only 11 as the NTT P1 Award winner (worth one point) and the 20th-place finisher.

Palou needs 71 points over the final three races to clinch the title. That equates to an average finish of 8.0, which is below both his season average of 6.3 and his two-year average of 5.1.

Officially, Lundgaard, Malukas and O’Ward also are mathematically eligible to win the championship, but all three hopefuls are 110 points or more in arrears of Palou. They’ll essentially need Palou to have three results like in Washington while they run the table. Kirkwood almost needs that, too.

To sum: Palou is still in control, has proven he can win on a short track (Iowa in 2025) and has won three of the past four Laguna Seca races, including the past two from the pole. Remember, he essentially holds a two-race lead with three races remaining.

Andretti Global Eyes Hat Trick

With Kirkwood winning last weekend’s race (photo, above), Andretti Global became the third team this season to win consecutive races. Marcus Ericsson won the Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham on Aug. 16.

Palou gave Chip Ganassi Racing two wins in succession on two occasions, and Arrow McLaren won at Road America and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in consecutive races with Lundgaard and O’Ward, respectively.

Palou had a personal three-peat of race wins last year, and he contributed to Chip Ganassi’s team winning the final four races of the 2023 season (Scott Dixon won three, Palou one). Palou also won three straight racers earlier in that season.

It has been 14 years since Andretti Global won three races in succession. That was Ryan Hunter-Reay’s victories at Milwaukee, Iowa and Toronto in 2012 when the organization was known as Andretti Autosport. To open the 2013 season, Michael Andretti’s team won three in four races with James Hinchcliffe (two wins) and Hunter-Reay (one).

Weekend Schedule

This will be a three-day event, but it will be a compacted on-track schedule with practice, qualifying and two 250-mile races in the span of 45 hours.

The weekend’s only regular practice will be at 6 p.m. ET Friday (FS1). Qualifying for both NTT P1 Awards are set for 11 a.m. ET Saturday (FS1) followed by Race 1 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

Race 2 will be at 1 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX.

FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls also will carry the live action.