Drivers of the NTT IndyCar Series tackled the historic Milwaukee Mile for the second consecutive day, with a bevy of action filling the 250 lap event.
When the chaos calmed down enough to allow the race to reach its conclusion, it was Scott McLaughlin that emerged as the winner.
McLaughlin earned his third victory of the season with his strong run around the 1.015-mile oval, but it did not come easy. He battled against Colton Herta in a back and forth battle that lasted multiple laps near the end of the race.
READ MORE: IndyCar Milwaukee – Full Race 2 Results
The Team Penske driver’s pace was unbeatable, however, and he was able to finish off his strong weekend on a good note.
Scott Dixon crossed the line in second, running a typically mistake-free race throughout the day on Sunday.
His podium was the 142nd of his illustrious career, and allowed him to break the all-time record in the process. Just another record that The Iceman now holds all to himself.
Herta ended up crossing the line in third, with his battle against McLaughlin resulting in him losing another position shortly after.
Santino Ferrucci capped off a fantastic weekend by finishing fourth. The AJ Foyt driver was able to drive high and low as needed, and was one of the most exciting drivers on the track.
Also able to drive the high line at will was Marcus Ericsson, and he used that ability to drive from 16th up to fifth by the end of the day.
There was side by side racing for much of the day, and for much of the weekend across both races, putting aside fears that the track could produce boring racing.
Boring was definitely not the word of the day, and fans looking for close racing joined fans looking for accidents and crashes in having an enjoyable day.
The race did not even get started before major consequential events took place. On the second formation lap, well before the green flag was set to fly, Alex Palou pulled to the apron with no drive.
The safety crew could not even roll his car away because the #10 was stuck in gear, necessitating a trip to the garage area for the championship leader.
After making sure the hybrid system was working well, the Chip Ganassi crew eventually diagnosed a 12 volt battery issue. A replacement battery allowed him to return to the track, 28 laps behind.
The damage was already done to his championship ambitions, however, and he lost some of his hard-earned advantage over Will Power.
Palou started the race 43 points ahead and ended the day with a 33 point advantage, still a sizable margin but definitely smaller than he would prefer.
When the race was actually set to begin, on lap five due to Palou’s stopped machine, there was a second major event that took place before everyone got up to speed.
Race control called off the start of the race last second because the field was not lined up correctly, but Linus Lundqvist did not back off the throttle quickly enough to match the rest of the field’s sudden slow down.
The Swede ran into the back of Marcus Armstrong, who then turned into the pole sitter Josef Newgarden and sent both spinning into the wall.
Armstrong and Newgarden were both forced to retire on the spot, making for the strange situation where the first and third qualifying driver did not even begin the race before being knocked out.
The retirements meant that Scott McLaughlin was able to lead the field to green for the second day in a row, although race control deemed that it would be a single file start in order to finally get the race underway on lap 16.
Multiple other retirements spelled disaster for drivers up and down the order, including for Saturday’s winner Pato O’Ward.
The popular Mexican driver was forced to retire with a gearbox issue before the halfway point, resulting in a 23rd place finish.
His team-mate Nolan Siegel also retired with gearbox problems early in the race, pointing to a possible pattern among the Arrow McLaren team.
David Malukas also retired due to mechanical issues, stopping on track and bringing out the caution in the process.
Graham Rahal also retired from the race before halfway, but his problems resulted from contact with rookie Christian Rasmussen that sent the RLL Honda into the wall.
The veteran was easing in to Turn 3 in order to stay away from a dense group of traffic, but Rasmussen entered aggressively and tagged the back of the #15 machine.
Rahal was less than impressed with Rasmussen’s driving, giving him a gesture to use his head as he drove past the crash scene.
Drivers now have a weekend off to rest and recover before the season finale, which takes place at Nashville Superspeedway on September 15.
