Random Thoughts on Milwaukee
Races 16 & 17 of the NTT IndyCar Series season are now both in the books, but not in that order. That serves as a reminder of what a disjointed weekend the Snap-on IndyCar Double-Header Weekend was. It’s no one’s fault, and was probably handled as well as it could be. That’s what happens when you race on ovals. Sometimes it rains and you can’t do a thing about it.
Susan and I were both in attendance in Milwaukee this weekend. We drove up on Thursday and picked up our credentials that afternoon. All of the teams were still setting up their rigs in the paddock for the weekend when we made a quick trip through the infield. It’s always fascinating to watch all of the teams, suppliers, vendors and partner hospitality tents be put together with such familiar precision. There’s a reason it’s called the traveling circus. There is no telling how many IndyCar transporters and luxury motor coaches that show up on any given weekend. It is estimated that as many as three thousand people associated with or employed by IndyCar will travel to each race. Sometime I’ll write about all of the IndyCar logistics of going from rave to race. It’s actually mind-boggling.
It was dark when we left the track last night, and we saw all of the same people going through the same drill tearing everything down for transport.
Thursday night Susan and I went to a great little local spot, if you like old-fashioned smash burgers. It is called Archie’s Flat Top. They serve burgers, hot dogs, fried bologna sandwiches and a few variations of polish sausage sandwiches. They also have a small but decent beer menu, but we were tired so we just had Coke. In another room, they sell about fifteen flaovors of their homemade ice-cream. We told some friends of ours at the track about it on Friday and they went there and loved it. If you ever go to a race at The Milwaukee Mile, I highly recommend it.
After a relaxing day at the track on Friday, the one IndyCar practice finally got underway at 5:00, and went to 6:30. We met some friends of ours at a place we loved from when we went to Milwaukee two years ago – Paulie’s, right across the street from Turn One. We had such a nice experience there in 2024, but Friday night was awful. I think had we had a different server, things would have been much better. She clearly did not want to be there, and she took her anger out on us.
OK…enough about our travel experience. Practice on Friday saw two incidents involving three cars. Nolen Siegel backed his car into the wall early in the session on only his second lap. That was a sign of what was to come for him throughout the weekend. Christian Rasmussen and Kyle Kirkwood got together later in the session, heading into Turn Three. Kirkwood’s car was terrible through qualifying, but he was able to salvage fifteenth in Race One and a solid sixth place finish in Race Two. If you want to read about what happened in each race, I suggest you go back and read what I posted last night.
TV Coverage: I did hear some of the post-race coverage of both races on Sunday, as I went into the media center immediately after each race. I could hear most Will Buxton talking. Quite honestly, I coujld pick up that they sounded as tired as everyone else on site. I’m not sure if that was picked up by anyone else at home, but I think they were like the rest of us. We had all reached the point that we were all just wanting to get the weekend over and done with.
The End of Double-Headers? I heard several people say they hope that the craziness of the weekend would show the series that double-header weekends need to go. Not so fast! I’m not a fan of double-headers, but they serve their purpose. IndyCar only visited five oval tracks this season. While double-headers are cheating a little bit, they were able to give us six oval races in an 18-race season. I like one-third of the season being ovals, even though oval races 5 & 6 were scheduled back to back, one day after another. It ended up that they were just a few hours apart. Without the ability to host double-headers, who knows where we would be. Next season, Nashville Superspeedway may be off of the schedule. What will the series do for more ovals then? If we get more ovals, we can eliminate double-headers on the schedule. But with ovals where IndyCar is welcome is getting so scarce, it’s nice to know that we have that option.
Time to Cheer Up: This take will not be popular with many. I said my piece about David Maluskas sobbing after the Indianapolis 500. I’m not big on watching drivers cry over a result, but given the magnitude of the situation – I went easy on him. Then last week, after he crashed at the Freedom 250; he have Kevin Lee a very bizarre interview where he publicly questioned what his problem was, nit knowing if it was mental, physical or both. He wasn’t crying, but he seemed to be in the verge. I’ve always been a big believer in the old saying never let them see you sweat. You don’t air your personal feelings for your competition to use against you. If you have self-doubts, work them out internally.
On Sunday, he did it again as he finished second in Race One. On a restart with twenty-four laps to go, Malukas had been leading for twenty-six laps. Pato O’Ward made a move on him going into Turn One, and took the lead from Malukas and never looked back. During his post-race interview, he mostly whined about how he must be cursed to have another second-place finish, and blamed his poor restart on the car not having enough power on restarts. I saw him in the media center, and he was moping like Eeyore the Donkey as people were congratulating on finishing second. I realize after a while, finishing second gets old when you haven’t scored that first victory. But I don’t think many of his fellow drivers are going to sympathize with Malukas complaining about have four second-place finishes just this season. When you see the Victory Lane photos that Susan took yesterday, you can clearly see by his body language that Malukas is letting this thing get to him. Be mad underneath and learn from it. I think his moping and sobbing when he doesn’t get the results he wanted, is going to start wearing thin.
Double Duty: Everyone should take the time to think how rare what we witnessed yesterday really is. It was totally due to circumstances with the weather, but seeing Pato O’Ward win two IndyCar races on the same day, less than six hous apart is truly unique. The last time it was done was by Rick Mears in 1981 at Atlanta. That was eighteen years before O’Ward was even born. He had fun with it and it will give him a springboard going into next season, when the complexion of his team will change immensely.
Who Says? The rap on Christian Lundgaard was that he couldn’t drive on ovals, so much so that it cost him his job at Arrow McLaren. On Sunday at Milwaukee, he finished on the podium in one race, and finished sixth in the other one; proving that he is still capable of learning. Most everyone is convinced that Lundgaard is headed to the No. 9 car at Chip Ganassi Racing next season, but nothing has been announced yet. If Chip Ganassi was holding off on his decision to see how wel he did on the remaining ovals, Sunday may have been the deal clincher.
Drive of the Day: This will be short and sweet like last week’s was. When a driver wins two IndyCar races in the same day, I don’t care where he started that’s quite a feat. It gave Pato O’Ward the coveted Oilpressure.com Drive of the Day.
All in All: It is rare when I spend a day at the race track that is not fun. Saturday was one of those rare times. It was tiring and frustrating to sit around all day, only to be told around 7:00 pm to come back tomorrow. It wasn’t just me, everyone in the media center was getting grumpy. Sunday morning started with another postponement, and it looked like Sunday was going to be a repeat of Saturday. But once the sun came out, the track dried and the first race of the day got going – all seemed right with the world. We ended up getting both races in at their full scheduled distances. By the time the day was over, Susan and I were walking back to our car talking about how the two races salvaged the entire weekend. Had things gone off as planned, it would have been a great weekend of racing on the famous one-mile oval. As it was, it was the racing that saved the weekend. After all, we were at a race track – an historic one at that.
George Phillips
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