WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Pato O’Ward can celebrate a rarity in NTT IndyCar Series history. By winning Sunday’s Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250, the second race of a doubleheader, he scored a win in one race while leading another at the same time.
That’s because Saturday’s Snap-On Makers And Fixers 250 was red flagged after 90 laps and will be restarted at 6 p.m. ET Sunday.
The Arrow McLaren driver made a big move on his final pit stop as he beat Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin out of the pits on Lap 192 and that gave him the lead. Once out front, nobody could touch O’Ward’s No. 5 Chevrolet as he drove to his second win at The Milwaukee Mile since 2024.
The driver from Monterrey, Mexico celebrated in victory lane with his trademark Sombrero after scoring his 11th career NTT IndyCar Series win.
“We were feeling really good yesterday,” O’Ward said after climbing out of his race-winning Chevrolet. I believe it’s an all Team Chevy podium. That’s amazing. We like Milwaukee.
“Yesterday, the car was feeling really good. I can’t say I wasn’t struggling a little bit in the race; I definitely was. It took me little bit to find a rhythm. The track was hotter today and it definitely makes these things a little bit more on the edge. I used it up when we needed. We had the car and power to do it.
“We had a little bit of a bad first pit stop, but I was confident with what was under me that we could find our way forward and keep making it better. It’s a long race.”
O’Ward led the final 55 laps of the race and defeated McLaughlin by 0.7916 seconds. Arrow McLaren teammate Christian Lundgaard was third and David Malukas of Team Penske fourth, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the top four positions.
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing finished fifth and will have to wait until Sunday’s conclusion of Race 1 of the doubleheader to clinch his fourth-straight IndyCar championship, fifth overall. He has a 97-point lead over Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, who finished sixth.
Palou needed a 108-point lead after this race to clinch the championship with two races remaining.
“We were going for the win today and didn’t really have enough pace,” Palou said. “We kind of battled with the leaders there and I felt good at the beginning but kind of fell off at the end. Good opportunity tonight to get that championship. We know it’s going to be tough, but we’re going to try and fix the car a little bit and try and see if we can make it faster.
“It was tough, man. These races are tough. It was long. We kind of battled a little bit at the beginning, and I felt OK. I think there was a lot of fast drivers and cars out there that kind of struggled a lot in traffic, man. I just couldn’t do it as good as some others. But yeah, we’re going to try and fix the car a little bit, see if we can be better in a couple hours.
“I guess everybody’s on the same page. The wind gust, it was making it very unstable in like middle of one and two, entry of three. We’re just going to have to work on overall grip if we can.”
Palou led the most laps in the race with 115. O’Ward was next with 55.
McLaughlin finished second after making only four pit stops to everyone else in the race, who made five.
“It was difficult, because you save a set of tires there, but we just wanted to track position because we had a fast car fast car,” McLaughlin explained. “I’m proud of the PPG Chevy, I was frustrated I couldn’t get through the lap traffic fast enough. Really thought we had something there for Pato-congrats to him and his team. But I wanted that bad. So, we’ve got another shot now. reload and go again.
“As the track gripped up, we were better. You know, we got faster and faster. I think the track’s coming to our car, but we’re going to need a little bit more, I think.”
Lundgaard’s third-place finish came after a brilliant drive as he closes out his time at Arrow McLaren.
“I feel like the car’s been good really since, since qualifying,” Lundgaard said. “We made some changes going into there. Obviously, Race One, the first half was, was good. We drove our way from seven to third. We had a few bobbles on pit stop, and pit lane today, which was very unfortunate. The guy’s been awesome all year. I think that just proves how good we were today, still getting a podium out of it.”
Lundgaard explained what he learned in Sunday’s race that he can utilize for the conclusion of Race No. 1 later in the evening.
“Stay in it,” he said. “It’s a long race. It’s going to be a little shorter this afternoon, but just happy we’re out there. We’re scoring points, so the guys we need to score points on, and getting hardware at the same time.”
