Oilpressure

Even the the biggest skeptic would have a hard time arguing that Sunday’s Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 was not a tremendous success. Considering the event had been trimmed down from two races in 2024, to one single race for this season – the crowd was very impressive. If the NTT IndyCar Series keeps putting on shows like they did yesterday; and the crowds keep showing up – I think this reboot of IndyCar at The Milwaukee Mile might actually have a chance of sticking this time.

I was fairly critical of Penske Entertainment for their seemingly nonexistent effort at Iowa that brought two embarrassing crowds over the double-header weekend. But they redeemed themselves this past weekend. I heard from a few friends that were on the grounds this weekend. After a few missteps last year, they all reported a much-improved operation by Penske Entertainment this past weekend.

The weatherman cooperated, after flooding put the track underwater just a couple of weeks ago. Temperatures were mild and the sun was shining for most of the weekend. The weatherman even provided a timely brief sprinkle, that was just enough to bring out a caution – allowing drivers to come in for fresh tires late in the race. That was a move that changed the course of the race, as several drivers – other than the Top-Three – opted for the fresh Firestones.

As it turns out, those Top-Three cars were sitting ducks. Many of those that pitted moved up to the front quickly. But no one benefited more than Christian Rasmussen, who combined fresh tires along with skill and bravery to pass race-leader Alex Palou with fifteen to go. Not only did Rasmussen collect his first IndyCar victory, but he prevented Alex Palou from an historic accomplishment. Had Palou won, he would still have a shot of tying AJ Foyt and Al Unser with ten wins in a single season. With one race to go, Palou is still stuck on eight wins this year. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but it takes a little luster off of the shine of his special season.

Not only was this a great race, but the whole weekend held a few surprises. Many (including myself) were predicting a first-time winner, but many of us thought it would come from the Foyt camp, with either Santino Ferrucci or David Malukas making their first visit to Victory Lane. However, Ferrucci was a non-factor straight off of the truck and things never improved. He was 22nd quick in the Saturday morning practice session and qualified 23rd. Malukas, on the other hand, just barely missed sitting on the pole. He sat through several attempts from top contenders, but no one bumped him off – that is, until Palou made the final run of the day and took the top spot away from the young driver.

Other top drivers sort of laid an egg in qualifying. Colton Herta spun coming out of Turn Two on Lap One of his qualifying run. He finished the run, but had a qualifying speed of 112.717 mph. The next fastest qualifier was Callum Ilott with a speed of 156.460 mph. Finishing the run paid off because another pole-contender, Felix Rosenqvist, crashed on his run. With grid penalties to Kyffin Simpson and Louis Foster, Herta ended up starting 24th.

Nolan Siegel lost control of his car and crashed into the Turn Four wall, just as most of the field was completing Lap One. After the race re-started on Lap 8, About a lap and a half was completed before Graham Rahal lost control in Turn Two, but was able to save it without hitting anything. Still, the yellow came out quickly (as it should have) and the field gathered itself back up after not even running three complete laps. I was concerned at that point that we may be in for a long day. After fourteen laps, only two were completed under green. Things settled down after that and ninety-one straight laps were run under green.

Shortly after the second restart, Malukas passed Palou for the lead and actually checked out for a while. But he got held up by slower traffic and Palou passed him back on Lap 41. Malukas stayed right with Palou up until the second round of pit stops, just before the caution caused by Will Power hitting the wall on Lap 105. Palou had just entered the pits just before the caution, adding to his amazing run of timely good luck. This was also when disaster struck for Malukas, who was pitted just ahead of Palou. The air gun for the right-front tire-changer failed, and they had to dig for a back-up gun. By the time Malukas got going again, he was a lap down to Palou. His day was done for the most part, although he did fight back to finish eighth.

Except for cycling through pit-stops, Palou had the field covered. He led for a total of 199 laps out of 250. But he did not lead the last fifteen laps. Rasmussen made a gutsy pass on Palou on Lap 235. and didn’t look back. He passed two lapped cars to put them between himself and Palou, and won by almost two seconds. His spotter was actually trying to slow him down in the last few laps, fearing the second-year Danish driver was going to throw away his first career win.

This was a popular win among fans, if not the paddock. Rasmussen has rubbed a few drivers the wrong way this season, as they have claimed he was flirting with disaster. He and Conor Daly had a dust-up two weeks ago at Portland, and Daly caught the worst of it. They talked it out the following week and agreed to disagree on their viewpoints of the incident.

The paddock may not appreciate Rasmussen’s driving style, but the fans love it. Palou may drive with the calculated precision of a surgeon, but not many tune in to watch a surgeon at work. While Palou may be a master at his craft, Rasmussen is an unpredictable gunslinger. It’s worth the price of admission to watch him duel it out with much more established stars. But for the past few weeks, we have been witnessing a star in the making in Rasmussen.

TV Coverage: Either I am getting more used to the FOX telecast, or they are getting better. The glitches that plagued their timing and scoring seem to be gone. They’ve even started timing the pit-stops, which was a terrible omission at the start of the season. Best of all, the two booth analysts seem to be forming good chemistry with lead announcer Will Buxton.

Either Buxton has toned down some of his flowery rhetoric in recent weeks, or I am getting more accustomed to him. It still makes me cringe when he describes a good pass as a “lovely move”, but overall – he seems to be getting more comfortable in his role.

I’m also a fan of the sophisticated graphics FOX has introduced throughout this season. The ghost car is very useful in qualifying sessions, and their breakaway Dallara has helped explain some of the mechanics of an Indy car, that I never fully understood before.

As for the pit reporters, we may be seeing the best trio at work since Jack Arute, Gary Gerould and Dr. Jerry Punch. Kevin Lee is a consummate professional that still shows passion along with his knowledge and experience. Georgia Henneberry proved herself long ago, and just keeps getting better. Jack Harvey has improved leaps and bounds since his stiff and nervous debut at St. Petersburg less than six months ago. He wasn’t awful that first weekend, but the social media crowd was brutal towards him. The fact that he has silenced the mob, tells you just how much he has improved. He has a great sense of humor and people are seeing it now. He will only get better and better and has proven to be a nice addition to that team.

To end this praise on a negative note, there was some miscommunication somewhere between the booth and the pit-reporters on Sunday. Buxton threw it to Jack Harvey when the leaders began to come in for pit-stops. We heard nothing from Harvey, so he threw it Henneberry. We heard nothing from her, so Buxton ended up improvising and calling the stops from the booth. I’m not sure what happened, but it was a little awkward at first until Buxton did a nice job of recovery.

Team Improvement: In the offseason, Ed Carpenter brought on a partner, Indiana businessman Ted Gelov, who brought a large infusion of capital and sponsorship. They dropped Rinus VeeKay from their lineup and signed high-profile driver Alexander Rossi. But it has been Christian Rasmussen that has been getting the headlines for most of this season, culminating with Sunday’s win.

But don’t sleep on Rossi. It has taken a few months to gel with his new team, but he is quietly putting together a solid close to the season, with a fifth at Portland and a fourth Sunday at Milwaukee, it appears Ed Carpenter Racing may have quite the 1-2 punch in 2026.

Possible Reversal?: We’ve all seen Zak Brown and Arrow McLaren in action. Unless it is a driver that is breaking the contract, Brown tends to treat contracts as nothing more than suggestions. That’s why I am wondering how safe Nolan Siegel is after almost a season and a half at McLaren. Shortly after the Indianapolis 500, Brown proclaimed that their driver lineup for this season will all return in 2026. After Siegel failed to complete a single lap before crashing yesterday, I just wonder how much patience Brown has left.

Yes, Siegel brings funding to the No. 6 car from his family, but it’s not like Arrow McLaren is clipping coupons (look it up if you are under 45) to stay afloat. Siegel has only two Top-Tens this season – a ninth at Barber and an eighth at Road America. There are also nine finishes lower than eighteenth, along with a DNS at Iowa (Race Two).

With a driver of the caliber of Will Power probably becoming available next week, you have to wonder how loyal Brown will be to his statement that all three drivers will be returning. Remember, he signed Théo Pourchaire to a multi-year contract last summer. Pourchaire drove six races altogether – five in the No. 6, and one in relief in the No. 7 late in the season at Toronto. We’ve not heard from him since.

If I’m Nolan Siegel, I’m not buying green bananas for the Arrow McLaren break room. He may not be around to see them ripen.

Confusion Continues: Will Power did not help his cause on Sunday. He went wide, while trying to pass Kyffin Simpson and ended up brushing the Turn Two wall, before putting it harder into the wall in Turn Four. His day was done and he finished 26th.

If David Malukas had a clause that said if he won a pole or a race, he would step into a Penske car in 2026 – he didn’t help his cause either. He may or may not have won the race yesterday, but a faulty air gun ended that discussion. It wasn’t his fault, but lots of drivers have poor results for something that happens out of their control.

The saga will continue to next weekend’s season finale here in Nashville. Personally, I think Power is out regardless of what he or Malukas do next weekend. But all indications are, we will know Power’s fate a day or two after the season is over.

Drive of the Day: Most of the time, I award this prestigious honor to a driver other than the winner of the race. But this time, I am giving the nod to Christian Rasmussen. Not only did he earn fis first career IndyCar race, but he did so in impressive fashion. Yes, he started ninth, so technically he only had eight cars to pass. But he was penalized for a pit speed violation – almost halfway through the race – and was sent to the back of the field for the restart. In the second half of the race, he went from the back of the field to take the lead on Lap 235 and stayed there to earn his first win. He can now add the Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day to his trophy case, along with the winning trophy.

All in All: Sunday’s Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 was a rousing success, and has quickly become my favorite race of this season thus far. The action was good, the racing was intense and I loved the result. It was good to see Alexander Rossi being the first to greet Rasmussen in Victory Lane, before either of them had even removed their helmets. I understand they are more than teammates, and they have quickly become good friends.

The crowd was much better than I anticipated. My friend Mike Silver (of The Pit Window) texted me after the race, asking how the crowd looked on television. I said it looked great, but I asked if that was just some nifty camerawork. He said it was a legit crowd and they even opened up more seating for sale yesterday morning.

It appears that Milwaukee will be on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule for a while now. As the race started, I was regretting not going this year, since we had such a good time last year. Susan and I may have to work Milwaukee back into our shortened schedule next year.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 25, 2025 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.