The penultimate race of the NTT IndyCar series saw the driver take on the Milwaukee Mile for the second time this weekend. IndyCar’s second double header weekend of the year would go a long way in deciding the championship race at Nashville Superspeedway.
Saturday’s race saw plenty of lead changes and saw Pato O’Ward tie the series high of three wins on the season. The second 250 lap race of the weekend saw Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin on the front row with championship hopeful Will Power starting fourth.
Scott McLaughlin Bounces Back From Saturday’s Struggle to Win.
Saturday was not kind to McLaughlin at the Milwaukee Mile. Starting on pole, McLaughlin looked very fast at the beginning of the race but fell off the pace, winding up 8th. He rolled off the grid second and was determined to make up for Saturday’s poor showing.
Josef Newgarden getting wrecked off the start gave McLaughlin the lead coming to the official start of the race (the start where Newgarden was wrecked was waved off). Although McLaughlin would surrender the lead to teammate Will Power in the early stages, he remained consistent throughout the race. After a couple cautions back to back, McLaughlin was able to beat Power off pit road and took control of the race.
The only competition from then was Colton Herta, making a risky strategy call to try and stretch fuel and tires to make it to the finish, which did not pan out for Herta. A late restart added some drama but nobody was able to challenge McLaughlin who secured his third win of the season, tying him with Will Power and Saturday’s winner, Pato O’Ward.
Palou Has Engine Issues to Start Race But Rebounds to Hold Championship Lead.
Saturday’s race saw Palou finish fifth and although Power was able to cut into the lead, Palou’s strong race minimized the damage. Sunday’s race would turn out to be a disaster for Palou and would see Power close the gap even more. Palou will be happy to put the Milwaukee Mile in his rear view mirror.
Palou’s issues started before the drop of the green flag. An engine issue caused his car to stall and he did not take the green flag to start the race. As the laps went by, all Palou could do is sit by and watch his team try to get the car back into the running. Palou would rejoin the race 27 laps down and dead last on the grid.
Sunday’s race was a war of attrition which saw several drivers have engine issues and have to retire from the race. Although Palou did not take the green flag, each driver who retired gave him another spot on the track. At the checkered flag Palou would secure a top 20 by finishing in 19th. The silver lining in all of this is that due to issues with championship rival Will Power, Palou still holds a 33 point advantage. With one race left on the schedule, Palou just needs to not replicate todays misfortune to walk away from Nashville with his third title in four years.
Will Power Cannot Capitalize on Bad Day for Palou.
Before Sunday’s race went green, Power was in a very advantageous position with Palou’s aforementioned issues. With a win, Power could’ve gone to the series finale with the championship lead. Unfortunately for Power, he could not capitalize on Palou’s misfortune and goes into Nashville needing to cover a 33 point gap.
The start of the race could not have gone better for Power. Due to an accident off the start, pole-sitter Josef Newgarden would wreck out and would move both McLaughlin and Power one spot up on the grid. Power and McLaughlin would battle for the lead with Power taking first away for the first stint.
Unlike Saturday, most teams were looking at a four stop strategy instead of attempting a three stop strategy. An untimely caution and slow pit stop put Power fourth on the restart behind Alexander Rossi, Scott Dixon, and Scott McLaughlin. After a caution on a restart, Power would make a mistake on the next restart, spinning and making light contact with the wall. This caused Power to have to pit twice under caution losing a lap.
Power would rebound to finish on the lead lap in 10th but he still sits 33 points back from Palou. While that number is not insurmountable, he will need a win or more poor luck by Palou’s team to have a shot at his second title in three years and third career title.
Storylines Going Forward:
- Josef Newgarden’s bad luck at the Milwaukee Mile continues on Sunday. Josef Newgarden cannot get out of Milwaukee fast enough after an absolutely miserable Saturday and Sunday. His struggles on Saturday have been mentioned previously, and Newgarden was looking to turn his pole position on Sunday into a successful day. He would not even get to take the green flag. After the start of the race got waived off, rookie Linus Lundqvist make contact with teammate Marcus Armstrong who got into the back of Newgarden, wrecking him out of the race. Lundqvist would receive a penalty for the incident but I imagine that is not much of a consolation for Newgarden.
- Santino Ferrucci was carving up the field, divebombing everyone he could. Ferrucci has a reputation for being a very aggressive driver and that often works to his detriment. Today, it benefitted him greatly as he made several aggressive dives into turns, both for position and against lap cars. This aggressive style of racing is reminisant of a dirt track style of racing and was quite entertaining to watch.
- Engine/electrical issues plague many drivers in the field. At least five of the 27 starters suffered engine or electrical issues which ended their days. We did not see this many failures during yesterday’s race, but the sheer number of failures may be concerning to teams that are in need of a strong finish to their season. Alex Palou was the biggest beneficiary of all these failures as each spot got him more of a points cushion over Will Power.
