Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin stormed to his third victory of the season in a wild second race of the doubleheader weekend in IndyCar’s return to The Milwaukee Mile.
After starting second, the 31-year-old New Zealander was thrust into the lead after an early crash by pole-sitter and teammate Josef Newgarden. McLaughlin remained a contender throughout the 250-lap contest, which featured an intense and late side-by-side battle with Colton Herta to secure the lead. Despite a restart with 11 laps to go and pressure from a charging Scott Dixon, Mclaughlin held firm to win by 0.4558s over his fellow countryman.
“That was the most fun race I’ve had in IndyCar,” said McLaughlin, who led 85 laps on the day.
“That was a blast. So happy for everyone on the Gallagher Chevy, we just stuck with it. It wasn’t quite good at the start – the car – and then we just tuned her up and it was awesome. A lot better in traffic today, which helped a lot. Credit to Colton; we had a blast racing each other. The No. 21 car (Rinus VeeKay), they helped a lot in some exchanges helping me get into the pit box and stuff. So, big thanks to Team Chevy and that teamwork that we have. Yeah, burned the house down today. I’m pumped.”
Herta led 43 laps and finished third to join McLaughlin and Dixon on the podium.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci finished fourth to replicate his finish on Saturday night’s race, while Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson squeezed out a fifth.
The title race between Alex Palou and Will Power shrunk slightly to 33 points (525-492) heading into the season finale in two weeks after both drivers encountered trouble. Palou’s woes happened at the start and left him with a lowly 19th-place finish, with Power slipping on a restart and falling a lap down before fighting back to finish 10th.
The Race
There was trouble before anything even got going after Palou was left stopped on track during the pace laps. Despite assistance from the AMR Safety Team, he was brought to pit lane to get serviced while the race started under caution and put him multiple laps down.
When Newgarden started to get going to bring the field to the green flag on lap 5, it was waved off when the back of the field didn’t pack up in a timely manner. However, rookie Linus Lundqvist didn’t get the message from fifth, hitting the back of Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Armstrong, who then hit the back of Newgarden and sent him crashing into the inside wall and out of the race. Lundqvist ended up getting a drive thru penalty for avoidable contact.
At this time, Palou’s car was getting towed back into the garage as the team tried to overcome the issue.
McLaughlin inherited the lead as a result of Newgarden crashing out and brought the field to the restart on lap 16. By lap 25, McLaughlin held a 1.4387s lead over teammate Power.
Meanwhile, Palou returned to the cockpit of his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda as the team got the issue situated, apparently, preparing him to go back out several laps down. He rejoined the race on lap 29.
Power began to put heat on McLaughlin on lap 35 as he caught the rear wing of his teammate and started to make a few looks on the outside lane.
Power finally took the lead in Turn 3 on lap 44 and stretched the gap to 0.8542s a lap later. It extended to 1.6432s by lap 50.
Pit stops started on lap 52, with Power and McLaughlin coming in on lap 55. The cycle of pit stops saw the likes of AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci and the No. 51 Dale Coyne Racing Honda of Katherine Legge take the lead temporarily.
Power reassumed the lead after Legge pitted on lap 58.
A caution came out on lap 62 as Meyer Shank Racing’s David Malukas slowed along the frontstretch, with the top five at the time showing to be Power, Rossi, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward and Ferrucci.
The race resumed on lap 71 with Power leading as McLaughlin took over second.
On lap 87, O’Ward, who won the first race of the weekend, started to suffer issues and pitted, eventually retiring with gearbox issues.
Power continued to lead, but relinquished it to pit on lap 97 and handed off the top spot to Ferrucci. Ferrucci pitted on lap 100, with Power taking the lead back over on lap 101. While the lead for Power was up to 1.1542s over McLaughlin on lap 105, it shrunk to 0.4304s by lap 112.
The caution returned on lap 113 after Sting Ray Robb spun in Turn 2, but fortunately made no contact with anything. This led to pit stops following for a majority of the field on lap 116, where McLaughlin jumped Power. Rossi was among those to not pit, along with Scott Dixon, leaving them running 1-2 ahead of McLaughlin.
While the race resumed on lap 124 with Rossi leading, it was quickly halted with another yellow flag the following lap after contact between Graham Rahal and rookie Christian Rasmussen led to the former crashing in Turn 3. Rahal climbed out and delivered a gesture to Rasmussen as he drove by under the caution laps.
Power’s title hopes take a hit
Rossi led the field the green flag on lap 131, but it was quickly put back under caution after Power lost the backend of his No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet and spun, tapping the wall but enduring minimal damage.
Power eventually pitted as the initial restart was waved off, but he fell down a lap anyway as the race resumed on lap 137.
While Rossi was solidly out front, McLaughlin managed to make an outside pass on Dixon to take second on lap 156. Herta followed with a move by Dixon moments later, along with Ferrucci.
Dixon pitted from fifth on lap 162, with Rossi pulling off from the lead for service the following lap; McLaughlin inherited the lead, with Herta and Ferrucci running second and third, respectively.
Then, on lap 165, McLaughlin pitted to hand off the lead to Herta.
Herta remained out on track, with a goal to extend the stint to only needing to pit one more time, attempting to hold until lap 185 based on a radio call. During Herta leading, Rossi’s fresher tires came into play as he got around Herta to un-lap himself from the pit stop.
Herta finally dove to pit lane on lap 187, setting him up to not have to possibly stop again while also giving McLaughlin – who still needed to stop again – the lead.
McLaughlin’s lead was 6.7357s over Rossi on lap 195.
Rossi pitted from second on lap 197, with McLaughlin diving in from the lead on the next lap. The cycle gave Herta the lead back, with a gap of 7.4418s over McLaughlin on lap 200.
The lead for Herta dropped to 4.2377s just five laps later, with it falling to 1.1723s by lap 210.
McLaughlin vs. Herta and Dixon
McLaughlin caught Herta as the two battled side-by-side on lap 215, with the former appearing to grab the lead before a massive fight back by Herta on the outside to regain the top spot. It would be short-lived, though, as McLaughlin took the lead with a pass in Turn 1 on lap 218 to clearly firm the top spot. Herta quickly faded to 1.8911s behind just three laps later.
Another Robb incident led to another caution, with this one coming on lap 229 after crashing in Turn 2.
All the lead lap cars pitted, which allowed Power to get a lap back. Meanwhile, Rossi’s crew delivered a 4.7s pit stop with a tires-only pit stop, cycling directly behind McLaughlin.
McLaughlin led the field to the restart on lap 239, with Rossi falling to Dixon, who was on the charge and moved up to second on Herta moments later. The gap for McLaughlin widened to 1s with nine laps to go as the battle was clearly between him and Dixon.
Dixon slowly gained ground on McLaughlin as the laps continued to tick down.
The lead dropped to 0.5s with three laps to go for McLaughlin.
In the end, there wasn’t enough time left for Dixon as McLaughlin walked off with the win.