Winners and Losers: Milwaukee Mile
- Morgan Holiday
- 7 hours ago
- 5 min read
IndyCar’s weekend in Milwaukee was complicated, dramatic and championship-deciding. Pato O’Ward took two race wins in a single day after weather delays messed with the schedule, while Álex Palou took home the championship ahead of the season finale.
But those are hardly the only big stories from the weekend. DIVEBOMB takes a look at the winners and losers of a wild weekend in Milwaukee.
Winner - Álex Palou
Palou became a five-time IndyCar champion on Sunday as he clinched the title after the conclusion of Race 1 (confusingly the second race of the day). Four consecutive titles ties him with Sébastien Bourdais for the most consecutive IndyCar titles won, a record Palou will be looking to break next season.
Five titles in six years is a monumental achievement for Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing. He hasn’t just won, he has dominated the series for the past four years. While Palou didn’t win at Milwaukee, a 10th place finish in Race 1 and a fifth place finish in Race 2 was enough to secure him the title as his gap to the driver in second place (now Christian Lundgaard) grew to exactly 100 points. With just Laguna Seca still to go in the 2026 season, that neatly wraps up the title fight.
Encouragingly for the rest of the field, Palou’s performance this year wasn’t quite as dominant as it has been in the past. Still, six race wins in a season is nothing to look down on, and the rest of the grid will still be on the back foot as someone looks to usurp his title in 2027.
While Palou’s weekend in Milwaukee was relatively anonymous, he’ll remember it as the weekend where he clinched the title, easily making him the biggest winner of this trip.
Winner - Arrow McLaren
Arrow McLaren took home both wins at the Milwaukee Mile this past weekend, both of them going to O’Ward.
O’Ward won his first set of consecutive races in his IndyCar career, and coincidentally was able to secure them both on the same day. After qualifying fourth for Race 1, he was able to jump up to the lead before the red flag was flown for weather conditions. Race 2 went ahead on Sunday afternoon before the conclusion of Race 1, where O’Ward started behind Palou.
He was able to grab the win in both races, taking his second and third wins of the season at the Milwaukee Mile.
Another McLaren driver to do well this weekend was Lundgaard, though the McLaren team may be more relieved than anything else that he failed to reach the top step of the podium. As they move on from Lundgaard at the end of the 2026 season largely due to his lacklustre results on oval tracks, had Lungdaard won either race there would have been much speculation about their decision.
But it was a good weekend for Lundgaard despite him narrowly missing out on a win, as he finished sixth in Race 1 and third in Race 2, securing a podium result and moving him ahead of Kirkwood to jump to second in the standings. He’ll be looking for a strong result at Laguna Seca to secure that spot and put out a statement as he continues to look for a seat for next season.
Winner - Rinus VeeKay
Another driver hoping to make a statement to teams for next year is Rinus VeeKay, who scored his first podium of the season this weekend for Juncos Hollinger Racing in Race 1.
VeeKay has finished fourth three times this season so a podium seemed inevitable, and he finally got one in the race that was red flagged overnight in Milwaukee. He qualified 19th for the race which put him on the back foot, but made his way up to 10th by the time the red flag was flown.
That meant he started in the top 10 on Sunday evening after the conclusion of Race 2, putting him in a much better position to capitalise on his starting position.
VeeKay was up to fourth in the closing stages, and made the pass on Scott McLaughlin for the podium with just three laps remaining in the race. He’s had some solid results this year, but as he looks for a better seat for next season (and has been someone that Chip Ganassi Racing has been keeping an eye on for their open seat) a podium is exactly what the Dutch driver needed.
Loser - David Malukas
No one was more upset with their results this weekend than David Malukas, who yet again missed out on a maiden race win.
Malukas qualified third for Race 1 and 14th for Race 2. He improved to fourth in Race 2, a solid and impressive result for the Team Penske driver. But Race 1 was the real heartbreak. He had come from third to the lead (after restarting after the red flag from down in 13th), and was running in first during the final caution of the day. But a brief engine issue on the restart allowed O’Ward to jump ahead and go on to win the race.
Malukas has been chasing his maiden win all season, and seems closer than ever every weekend as victory still eludes him. His frustration was clear after the race as he appeared defeated and displeased with his car and performance this weekend. He is currently, however, still the top Team Penske driver in the standings as he sits fifth just ahead of both of his teammates.
Loser - Josef Newgarden
Josef Newgarden was on for a good result when a small mistake cost him what could have been a podium or even a race win.
Newgarden qualified fifth and finished seventh in the chaotic Race 1, nothing to write home about but a solid result. Race 2 was the better opportunity of the two for the American driver as he had qualified third behind Palou and O’Ward.
He was running fifth in Race 2 when he spun and crashed on Lap 141, the first retirement of the race. In a weekend with surprisingly few crashes, the mistakes stand out all the more.
While Malukas leads the Penske cars in the standings, Newgarden is at the back, sitting seventh behind teammate Scott McLaughlin. It’s been a pretty close season for the three Penske drivers, though Malukas has been the clear frontrunner over the year (though Newgarden is the only one to have won a race in 2026). With increasingly few chances left to outperform his teammates this season, Milwaukee was a missed opportunity for Newgarden.
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