IndyCar Milwaukee: McLaughlin wins wild race two amid woes for Palou and Newgarden

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin stormed to his third victory of the season in a wild second race of the double-header IndyCar weekend at Milwaukee. 

After starting second, the 31-year-old New Zealander was thrust into the lead after an early crash for polesitting team-mate 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 0.4558 seconds 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 so good at the start - the car - and then we just tuned her up and it was awesome.”

Herta led 43 laps and finished third, while AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci was fourth to replicate his finish on Saturday night’s encounter.

The margin between title contenders Alex Palou and Will Power shrunk slightly to 33 points 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-placed finish, with Power slipping on a restart and falling a lap down before fighting back to finish 10th.

There was trouble before the race had even got going after Palou was left stopped on track during the pace laps. He was brought into the pitlane to attempt to get a battery issue fixed while the race started under caution and put him multiple laps down. 

When Newgarden started to bring the field to the green flag on lap five, it was waved off when the back of the pack didn’t form in a timely manner.

However, rookie Linus Lundqvist didn’t get the message from fifth, hitting the back of Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Marcus Armstrong, who in turn clattered into Newgarden and sent him crashing into the inside wall and out of the race. Lundqvist ended up getting a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images)

At this time, Palou’s car was getting towed back into the garage as the team tried to overcome the issue before eventually joining the fray on lap 29 of 250. 

McLaughlin inherited the lead as a result of Newgarden's crashing and soon started to edge clear of team-mate Power. 

But it was not long before Power closed back in and he took the lead in Turn 3 on lap 44. 

Power retained the lead after the opening pit cycles but lost out to McLaughlin after a caution on lap 113 during a caution, in which the majority of the field pitted - Alexander Rossi and Dixon being notable exceptions.  

Rossi continued to lead after two further cautions, the second of which caused by Power losing the back end of his Team Penske entry and spinning, 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 - with Herta and Ferrucci soon also demoting Dixon.

McLaughlin inherited the lead when Rossi stopped, before Herta moved to the front when the Team Penske driver also stopped.

Herta remained out on track, with a goal to extend the stint to only need to pit one more time, attempting to hold until lap 185 based on a radio call.

Herta finally darted to the pitlane on lap 187, giving McLaughlin - who still needed to stop again - the lead. 

Sure enough, Herta cycled back into the lead on lap 200, with a gap of 7.4418s over McLaughlin. 

Yet the former Supercars ace was on a charge and quickly caught Herta. The pair battled side-by-side on lap 215, with McLaughlin appearing to grab the lead before a massive fightback by Herta on the outside to regain the top spot.

It was short-lived, though, as McLaughlin took the lead with a pass in Turn 1 on lap 218 to clearly grasp the top spot. Herta quickly faded to 1.8911s behind just three laps later. 

Another incident for Sting Ray Robb led to another caution, with this one coming on lap 229 after he crashed at Turn 2. 

All the lead lap cars pitted, which allowed Power to get a lap back. Meanwhile, Rossi’s crew delivered a 4.7s stop, after only changing tyres, and therefore cycled to directly behind McLaughlin. 

But Rossi fell to Dixon on the resumption, as he was on the charge and moved up to second on Herta moments later. 

Dixon slowly gained ground on McLaughlin as the laps continued to tick down and the lead dropped to 0.5s with three laps to go. 

But, in the end, there wasn’t enough time left for Dixon as McLaughlin walked off with the win. 

Behind Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson (Andretti) and Rossi completed the top six.

Power was eventually classified 10th, while Palou took 19th.

Milwaukee IndyCar race two result

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Laps	Time	Interval	Mph	Pits	Points	Retirement
1	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3		250	2:06'31.3981		149.548	6
2	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9		250	+0.4558 2:06'31.8539	0.4558	151.277	5
3	C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	26		250	+5.1263 2:06'36.5244	4.6705	148.357	5
4	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14		250	+10.9829 2:06'42.3810	5.8566	144.830	6
5	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28		250	+13.7085 2:06'45.1066	2.7256	145.356	6
6	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7		250	+14.3305 2:06'45.7286	0.6220	141.028	5
7	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21		250	+15.2002 2:06'46.5983	0.8697	143.523	5
8	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27		250	+15.3219 2:06'46.7200	0.1217	143.824	6
9	R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing	77		250	+16.2013 2:06'47.5994	0.8794	143.773	5
10	W. Power Team Penske	12		250	+19.8577 2:06'51.2558	3.6564	142.776	7
11	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60		249	+1 Lap 2:06'53.2242	1 Lap	141.137	7
12	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45		248	+2 Laps 2:06'44.7912	1 Lap	141.882	7
13	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	4		248	+2 Laps 2:06'50.1355	5.3443	142.320	6
14	J. Harvey Dale Coyne Racing	18		247	+3 Laps 2:06'48.2333	1 Lap	142.805	5
15	K. Legge Dale Coyne Racing	51		246	+4 Laps 2:06'51.9006	1 Lap	141.175	5
16	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	20		243	+7 Laps 2:06'41.0040	3 Laps	133.161	7
17	C. Daly Juncos Hollinger Racing	78		230	+20 Laps 2:04'22.7112	13 Laps	140.550	6
18	R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41		221	+29 Laps 1:53'03.4362	9 Laps	136.136	4		Accident
19	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10		221	+29 Laps 2:06'53.7919	13'50.3557	142.042	7
20	L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing	8		215	+35 Laps 1:48'42.8478	6 Laps	135.287	5		Accident
21	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30		181	+69 Laps 1:39'19.4142	34 Laps	103.321	5		Mechanical
22	D. Malukas Meyer Shank Racing	66		126	+124 Laps 2:00'49.3725	55 Laps	67.007	3		Mechanical
23	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15		123	+127 Laps 1:04'51.4228	3 Laps	102.523	3
24	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5		87	+163 Laps 48'52.9685	36 Laps	14.987	2		Mechanical
25	N. Siegel Arrow McLaren	6		24	+226 Laps 22'39.8658	63 Laps	7.969	1		Mechanical
26	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11		6	+244 Laps 4'44.6808	18 Laps	63.870	1		Accident
27	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2		5	+245 Laps 3'47.4774	1 Lap	85.977			Accident
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