The first race of the NTT IndyCar Series’ double-header at The Milwaukee Mile took place on Saturday.
Returning to the nearly flat oval track for the first time in nearly a decade, nobody was quite sure what to expect when the drivers were tasked with racing 250 laps late Saturday afternoon.
What resulted was an intriguing battle that encompassed fuel strategy and chasing car setups. Multiple grooves presented themselves throughout the evening, allowing passes high and low if a driver had the car to move around.
READ MORE: IndyCar Milwaukee – Full Race 1 Results
Pato O’Ward came out on top at the end of 250 laps, holding off all challengers as his car looked dialed in on the cooling track.
O’Ward crossed the line 1.8215 seconds ahead of his rivals, and earned his first oval victory since Iowa in 2022.
Will Power crossed the line in second, not quite able to pass O’Ward in the final run. He was close multiple times, but each time O’Ward seemed to be able to pull away by sheer will.
Power closed the championship gap to 43 points on Alex Palou, who overcame a poorly timed caution in the middle of a pit stop cycle to finish fifth.
Conor Daly rounded out the podium, giving Juncos Hollinger Racing its first ever podium in IndyCar by climbing from 25th on the grid and making 51 on track passes.
Both driver and team have been battling hard against the rest of the field for multiple years and it felt like each was deserving of a podium after the work they have put in.
It is the first podium for Daly since 2016, and he was greeted with a very loud cheer from the stands when he climbed onto the third step of the podium.
Santino Ferrucci finished fourth, continuing a truly amazing run for the AJ Foyt Racing driver that sees him stay in the top 10 in points.
There were a few cautions, and the first of the day was for Katherine Legge who spun on the back stretch just after the first pit stop cycle.
She did not hit anything and was able to continue without any trouble, eventually climbing back up to 19th.
The second caution came just after the midway point in the race and was for a crash involving Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson.
The two were side by side into Turn 1 and did not give each other any room. The result was a touch and sent both spinning in the outside wall, ending their days.
Colton Herta brought out the third caution when his left front wheel came loose and was rolling around the track on its own.
The 24-year-old was penalized with a stop and hold penalty for unsafe actions regarding the loose wheel, and he finished multiple laps down in 22nd.
There was nearly another caution when Kyle Kirkwood was squeezed between Romain Grosjean and Christian Rasmussen, ripping the steering wheel out of the hands of the Andretti driver.
He was able to recover before sliding into the wall, amazingly, but Grosjean was forced to pit for repairs.
There is no time to rest, as the second race of the double-header takes place in less than 24 hours. The green flag is set to wave at 2:00 PM central time on Sunday.
