Winners and Losers: Milwaukee 250

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Chris Owens

Christian Rasmussen muscled his way to his maiden IndyCar win in a stunning show of pace and race form on Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile.

Who were the big winners and losers in the penultimate race of the 2025 IndyCar season? DIVEBOMB takes a look.

Winner - Ed Carpenter Racing

Rasmussen pulled off a monumental win for Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR) on Sunday, the team’s first win since 2021.

This race win seemed to be written on the wall for a good part of this year, anyone who has been watching Rasmussen’s performance, especially on oval tracks, could tell you it was only a matter of time before he pulled off his first IndyCar race win.

Sixth place at the Indy 500, a maiden podium at Gateway, sixth and eighth in the Iowa double-header, and finally the win in Milwaukee. Those are Rasmussen’s oval results this season. 

Rasmussen qualified 10th on Saturday, three places ahead of his teammate Alex Rossi. In the race, the pair pitted for fresh tyres towards the end of the race when a caution was called over weather concerns. This call was the one that allowed them both to blaze through the top 10 in the final laps, as Rasmussen charged through to beat out Álex Palou for the win, and Rossi finished just off the podium in fourth.

Combined, the pair brought home the best result ECR has had in years, allowing them to head into the final race of the season on a high note.

Winner - Scott McLaughlin

Credit: Chris Jones

McLaughlin achieved just his second podium of the season in the penultimate race of the year last weekend, trying to cap one of his toughest seasons yet on a high note.

Team Penske’s woes have been one of the biggest storylines of the year, from the penalties at the Indy 500 for a modified rear attenuator to a number of consecutive poor results from the team as a whole. The Penske powerhouse has not been one to watch in 2025 (unless you like watching trainwrecks).

Milwaukee marked just the second time this year that McLaughlin has stood on the podium, as well as the second time he’s finished in the top 10 three races in a row. But his weekend was solid, qualifying fourth and finishing third in the race, holding off a charging Rossi to secure the podium finish.

In a dismal year for McLaughlin and his team, a good result towards the end of the year is exactly what he needs to head towards the off-season and reset for 2026.

Winner - the rumour mill

With the championship locked up last time out in Portland and Pato O’Ward sitting comfortably in second, the talk of the weekend turned to other topics.

The rumours mostly revolved around Formula One, as the biggest talking point of the weekend was the news that Red Bull was interested in signing Palou to partner Max Verstappen. Chip Ganassi has since denounced these as mere rumours, saying he hasn’t spoken to the F1 team at all and has no plans to move from IndyCar, but it certainly came up in many discussions over the weekend.

Another F1 adjacent rumour that occupied conversation was the rumour that Colton Herta could be considering a switch to Formula 2 in order to secure a Super Licence to race in F1. While this rumour has no real foundation, Herta was hesitant to deny it when asked, seemingly content to be the topic of conversation and let the speculation continue.

Couple these rumours with all of the discussion of Will Power’s contract and where he’ll go next year, as well as who could replace him at Team Penske, and it was a busy weekend for the rumour mill. With no championship battle to discuss, there was still no lack of drama to be covered.

Loser - Nolan Siegel

Credit: Paul Hurley

A string of poor results for Siegel continued last weekend in Milwaukee as an unforced error dropped him out of  the race on the first lap.

Ever since his crash in Race 1 at the Iowa Speedway, Siegel hasn’t finished higher than 16th. The young American has had some good qualifying results and two top 10 finishes so far this year with Arrow McLaren, but hasn’t been able to stay consistently on the pace of his two teammates.

Siegel qualified 18th at the Milwaukee Mile, just one place behind Danish teammate Christian Lundgaard, to be fair. But starting in the middle of the pack, he went too low on the track during Lap 1 and lost control of his car, spinning out and ending his race day before it could truly begin.

To add insult to injury, Lundgaard moved up to finish sixth in the race, one place behind O’Ward. On a day where his teammates made the most of what they had, Siegel was taken out by his own mistake, and that won’t go unnoticed by him or the team.

Loser - Meyer Shank Racing

Credit: Chris Jones

The Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) pair of Marcus Armstrong and Felix Rosenqvist have been sneaking their way into the top 10 all year, quietly putting in really good results to be sitting seventh and ninth respectively in the standings going into the final race.

What MSR needed was a solid weekend in Milwaukee to work towards capping off the year with a high points total. But it didn’t quite go their way.

Rosenqvist crashed in qualifying, hitting the wall on one of his laps and putting him last for the start of the race. Armstrong fared better, but not by too much, securing a 16th place start for Sunday.

In the race, Rosenqvist improved but only to 22nd, spending most of his race towards the back of the pack. Armstrong had much better pace, but a poor strategy call stopped him from fighting for the win and relegated him to a 10th place finish. It was a good result for the New Zealander, in the grand scheme of things, but more was clearly on offer had he not been hindered by strategy.

Armstrong now sits seventh overall, tied for sixth with Herta. Rosenqvist is down in ninth. The MSR teammates have both had a strong season overall, but neither had a particularly good weekend in Milwaukee.

Loser - Colton Herta

Herta finished the Milwaukee 250 in 11th place, just outside the top 10 and higher than either of his Andretti Global teammates. Considering he started the race in 26th, that’s not a bad result. But the tale of Herta’s weekend isn’t particularly positive overall.

Herta spun in qualifying, putting him second to last for Sunday. He started just ahead of Rosenqvist, and picked his way through the field in the race to win the Biggest Mover award. He gained a total of 15 places on his way to an 11th place finish. As is often the case, the Biggest Mover award ends up being an award of missed opportunities, a reminder of what a driver could have achieved had they not qualified so far down the pack.

Considering the rumours this weekend that he could make the switch to F2 to get enough points for a Super Licence, a weekend that didn’t propel him up the standings is not what he needed.