A 54-point championship lead that was almost reduced to nothing, one driver delivering a race that might just earn his team $1million, and only one repeat to five-finisher on Saturday and Sunday. Milwaukee’s return to the IndyCar calendar after a nine-year hiatus delivered the goods.
Given so many of the grid hadn’t raced at Milwaukee before and with question marks over how the current IndyCar might race at the venue, there was plenty of uncertainty pre-event, but we were delivered two fantastic oval classics underpinned by strategy gambles mostly induced by heavily degrading tyres.
Here are the winners and losers from an ace weekend, which nicely set up the storylines for the final race of the season in Nashville in two weeks' time.
Loser: Will Power
He had one of the biggest points totals scored of anyone across the two races, but through his own error Power squandered a chance to take the championship lead.
He was a tidy second to Pato O’Ward in race one after fighting past Santino Ferrucci, but having led a lot of the early running on Sunday he spun on a restart - putting him a couple of laps down for some time.
WILL POWER SPINS ON THE RESTART!
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 1, 2024
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Even after the final caution, when he was able to unlap himself, Power actually lost a position in the last stint instead of fighting forward as he had done the day before.
His title hopes aren’t over, but anything other than a win at Nashville will make a third title unlikely to say the least.
Winner: Alex Palou
Having his lead cut from 54 to 33 certainly wasn’t ideal, but given Palou was watching the start of the second race from the pits after a battery issue, only losing 21 points over the weekend was something of a miracle.
His race one was a typically under-the-radar Palou-on-an-oval run to fifth place, but his issues in race two meant he would trundle around just circulating, hoping for other drivers to hit issues. He went from 27th to 19th - such was the rate of attrition - and now a ninth place in Nashville would be enough to secure him a third title in four years.
Not only would his comeback be enough to dampen his rivals’ spirits, the fact he was laughing with strategist Barry Wanser after getting out of the car early on - while facing up to the possibility of losing the championship lead - just shows Palou's steely mentality.
He literally laughed in the face of his misfortune and then got on with the business.
Loser: Josef Newgarden
A crash while fighting Marcus Ericsson in race one and being taken out at the start in race two has now guaranteed Newgarden will have his worst championship finish since joining Penske in 2017.
Other than his Indianapolis 500 win his year has been choppy to say the least and like Scott McLaughlin, Newgarden lost so many points from his St Petersburg disqualification that a fightback was always necessary.
The crash to kick off Sunday's race was interesting because a photo emerged of the light boards showing a green flag while the starter was waving a yellow - although further video footage seems to disprove this being the case.
Anyway, either Linus Lundqvist and/or his spotter didn't react quickly enough, or they saw a green and didn't check up.
Winner: Linus Lundqvist
But overall Lundqvist is one of the winners coming out of Milwaukee - by virtue of being your 2025 rookie of the year.
He was an excellent fifth in race one and that teed up him clinching the rookie honours on Sunday with a round to go.
He’s facing a job search at the moment as Ganassi is set to streamline to three cars, as Kyffin Simpson will join Scott Dixon and Palou and Marcus Armstrong looks the most likely to join Meyer Shank alongside Felix Rosenqvist, leaving Lundqvist on the outside looking in.
In race two, he hit team-mate Armstrong - they collided the last time they were racing in the state of Wisconsin, too, at Road America - into Newgarden in the aforementioned start incident.
A subsequent late crash was unfortunate and cost him a chance to eat into Armstrong’s points advantage in the fight to be third-best at Ganassi.
Loser: Marcus Armstrong
Armstrong is only 30-ish points out of being in a proper fight for the top 10 in the standings - but that’s after a pair of finishes outside the top 20 on a weekend when Armstrong qualified seventh and third on only the fourth oval race weekend of his career so far.
In race one he was undone in part by a strategy gamble to stay out late on, and in race two came that start incident.
It had been a great qualifying for such an oval-inexperienced driver. And it’s a great shame he didn’t get to add more points to what has been a strong run of late, with three top-10 finishes in a row before this event.
Winner: Santino Ferrucci
As the aforementioned only driver to finish in the top five in both races, with two fourths, Ferrucci was one of the stars at Milwaukee.
His first IndyCar pole the weekend prior showed what he could do on road courses, but returning to the ovals he delivered another masterclass of aggressive driving in this discipline. He particularly nailed the ‘slide job’ move, by carrying much more speed on the inside of the corner to pass opponents, letting the car wash up the track and then getting back on the power.
He did this while still being able to take care of his tyres.
Ferrucci's Milwaukee showing consolidated his 10th place in the standings, but he can still mathematically finish as high as seventh - which would be an outstanding result for the AJ Foyt driver.
Winner: Scott McLaughlin
A very assured victory in race two to go with his slightly disappointing eighth place in race one makes McLaughlin the only other driver nominally in championship contention behind Palou and Power - even if those title hopes will vanish, mathematically, as long as Palou takes the start at Nashville.
It’s a case of what could have been for McLaughlin. You only have to change a couple of results - being taken out by team-mate Power while in the top five at Toronto, some silly mistakes in Detroit, a gearbox issue at Long Beach - and that’s the points lead and maybe a first championship heading his way. And that's without the St Petersburg disqualification factored in.
It’s the kind of outcome that would haunt anyone, but McLaughlin has established himself as a bona fide championship threat going forward. How he handled debuting on a tricky old-school IndyCar oval shows just how comfortable he is in this series now.
It feels like it won’t be long before we forget he was a touring car driver originally.
Winner: Conor Daly
A first podium for Juncos Hollinger Racing boosted Daly’s #78 car in the entrant points, going from outside the top 22 to a potentially lucrative 19th that as it stands will earn Juncos an extra $1million.
A mechanical issue ruined his second race, which was frustrating, but didn't really take the shine off the weekend.
The #78 is ahead of cars being driven by Sting Ray Robb, Pietro Fittipaldi and David Malukas in the points now, and has a crucial 15-point buffer to 23rd.
Leaders’ Circle fight
19 Juncos Hollinger #78 (Daly) +15
20 Meyer Shank #66 (Malukas) +13
21 Rahal Letterman Lanigan #30 (Fittipaldi) +3
22 AJ Foyt #41 (Robb) +1
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23 Ed Carpenter #20 (Rasmussen) 174
24 Dale Coyne #51 (Legge) -15
25 Dale Coyne #18 (Harvey) -38
Loser: Sting Ray Robb
Entering Milwaukee, Robb was coming off his most impressive display as an IndyCar driver - his ninth place at Gateway - and a not-terrible 18th at Portland, which was also enough to outscore of a lot of his Leaders’ Circle rivals.
But with a 23rd and a crash and 18th in Milwaukee, Robb’s gone from 15 points clear of the danger zone to sitting only one point clear in 22nd.
And the car that is now outside looking in, the #20 Ed Carpenter car, has been boosted by Christian Rasmussen taking over from his eponymous team owner and scoring well at Milwaukee. Continue that form at Nashville and Rasmussen will put Robb out, even if Rasmussen's aggression was a little concerning at times.
Robb is already clearly not at the standard of many of his rivals, but if he finishes outside of the top 22 and his team-mate ends up in the top 10 his future with AJ Foyt will be very precarious indeed. Especially as Foyt has signed Malukas for next season already.
Speaking of Malukas, it was a tough weekend for Meyer Shank and its #66 car is only 13 points clear of the drop. That’s dangerous territory if you’re involved in an incident or mechanical issue.
Winner: Pato O'Ward
Despite a gearbox issue putting him out of the second race, you can't deny that -given a pre-race war of words over a lack of an IndyCar race in Mexico - O'Ward's win on Saturday was a perfectly timed riposte.
NASCAR confirmed a race in Mexico in the week leading up to Milwaukee, which led to O'Ward and his fellow competitors lamenting IndyCar not getting there first.
Mark Miles, the CEO of IndyCar's parent company, did not help when he mentioned that O'Ward wasn't as famous as Adrian Fernandez while caveating that with the observation that O'Ward was "actually on some billboards now".
Miles later engaged in damage control, emphasising that O'Ward was a genuine star.
It was clear that O'Ward had been deeply unimpressed by that initial suggestion, though. He then went out on track and sent the loudest message possible, pulling off one of the most popular wins of the season (and his and McLaren's third of 2024).
