WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Pato O’Ward became the first NTT IndyCar Series driver to win two races in the same day since Rick Mears did it at Atlanta in 1981 by winning two races at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday.
And more history was made as Alex Palou clinched his fifth championship since 2021, his fourth-straight championship with Chip Ganassi Racing.
All Palou needed to clinch the championship was to leave this race with a 54-point lead over second place. He finished Sunday’s race with a 100-point advantage Christian Lundgaard after finishing 10th in the race.
O’Ward’s victory in the resumption of the Snap-On Makers And Fixers 250 came on the same day he won the Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 earlier in the day.
Ironically, that was supposed to be the second race of the doubleheader as the Sunday evening race was actually the completion of a race that started on Saturday before it was postponed because of rain.
O’Ward joins six other drivers who have won two IndyCar Series races in the same day. Al Unser did it three times, Mario Andretti twice and Bobby Unser, Dan Gurney, Johnny Rutherford and Mears did it one time each.
“I’ve dreamt of weekends like this before, having the doubleheaders a couple times in my career and we got to win both in one day,” O’Ward said. “I’m just so happy to get back on our oval form. What a way to end our 2026 season after some challenges.”
That was an historic day for O’Ward, but Palou’s championship run is half-a-decade of excellence as the IndyCar Series champion. The only year he did not win the championship since joining Chip Ganassi Racing was in 2022.
“It’s incredible, I don’t know what to say,” Palou said. “I owe everything to this team at Chip Ganassi Racing. Incredible. So proud of this team. Today was a really bad race for us. It was great, man. Great to have another championship and ready for the next one.
“I’m very excited for next weekend. My favorite weekend of the year and that beautiful livery in memory of Alex Zanardi. I’m working on doughnuts to honor him.”
O’Ward had an incredible restart with 24 laps to go when he passed Team Penske’s David Malukas and drove away to win by 1.7535 seconds. Rinus VeeKay of Juncos Hollinger Racing was
“David was so quick, he was so good in traffic,” O’Ward said. “I was just going to have to wait for something like that to happen. He had a similar gear issue in Race 1. It’s a Chevy 1-through-7. I’m pumped for Chevy and happy to give them two winds today.”
Malukas was once again left in frustration.
“We are just cursed,” Malukas said. “I literally believe we are cursed. That really let us down.”
Pato O’Ward qualified fourth fastest but started on the pole because the top three cars in qualifying all had nine grid-position penalties for engine changes over there season allotment. That included pole winner Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou and David Malukas.
O’Ward led the first 21 laps, fighting off an early challenge from Newgarden. But Newgarden was unable to hold off the charging Felix Rosenqvist, who passed him for second place and then later passed O’Ward for the lead on Lap 22.
Rosenqvist drove away from O’Ward, building a lead of 6.0 seconds on Lap 40. Palou, who had to start 11th because of his penalty, was up to ninth.
Kyle Kirkwood was the first to pit when he came in on Lap 44. Kirkwood entered the race 91 points behind Palou in the battle for the IndyCar championship. Palou could clinch the title if he had a 108-point lead over second place at the end of this race.
Kirkwood had a fast car on Friday but crashed with Christian Rasmussen during Friday evening’s practice session. Andretti Global decided to fix the damage instead of prepare the backup car and the result was a slow car for Kirkwood, which meant he would have to go off strategy to make up the difference.
Newgarden pitted on Lap 50 as green flag pit stops continued. Palou was next followed by Rinus VeeKay. Palou pitted on Lap 51 and the leader, Rosenqvist, pitted on Lap 53. That moved Will Power into the lead as the pit stop sequence continued.
Power pitted one lap later moving Dennis Hauger into the lead followed by Dale Coyne Racing teammate Romain Grosjean and Nolan Siegel.
Hauger pitted as the leader on Lap 58 and Grosjean was the in the lead followed by O’Ward. But he was falling off pace and that put O’Ward back as the leader.
O’Ward led Rosenqvist by 1.023 seconds on Lap 65 before rain returned and the caution flag waved to slow the field.
Kirkwood and Rossi were the two big winners by using the undercut strategy as they moved up in the field. Kirkwood was seventh and Rossi third.
By Lap 90, the Red Flag came out, and the cars were brought down pit road and stopped as another large weather cell was moving in from the West.
During the stoppage, Rossi spoke about the strategy that helped him get to third.
“I think the car is a good window,” Rossi said. “The conditions are much different than yesterday, but the car is in a good window, and we look forward to going again.”
Rosenqvist also spoke during the Red Flag as he was sitting in the second-place car.
“My groove is on the bottom, and the track is changing a little bit, but still a long way to go,” Rosenqvist said. “We’re looking pretty good here and if we get going again, I think we can be pretty sporty.”
After about 15 minutes, the drivers got out of their cars as heavier rain was about to arrive.
Kirkwood, who started 21st, was up to seventh when the red flag came out.
“It’s big risk for reward,” Kirkwood said. “Not a lot of cars were passing there, so there was that opportunity. But if the yellow doesn’t come out at the right time, it won’t work out. But it worked out well for us.”
Another driver who looked good before the Saturday stoppage was Lundgaard.
“I feel like we are extremely strong on the first stint,” Lundgaard said. “I believe we are strong at the end of the stint and will use that to our advantage. I’m learning as much as I can and having fun out there.
“I never feel that uncomfortable. The cars are moving around a lot. It’s a matter of being the fastest slow driver out there.”
Palou was in third place before the Red Flag stopped the race for a full day.
“I was comfortable, there were a couple of cars that were really fast and I was a bit stuck there, we pitted on the yellow to see if the strategy would work,” Palou said. “Once we get started again, it will be fun.”
Despite efforts to get the race in on Saturday, persistent rains kept that from becoming a reality. So, this race got stuck in a time warp while the entire second race of the doubleheader ran start to finish on Sunday.
Three hours after O’Ward won that race, he was back in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet as he attempted to become the first IndyCar Series driver since Rick Mears won two races in one day at Atlanta in 1981.
