2024 INDYCAR Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 - Race 2

this is the ntt indie car series drivers start your engine oh my goodness how that lead evaporated

his car washes up and instead of making contact he tucks into the tire tracks of joseph newgarden

no changes they just reset everything on the car dixon was first off of pit lane didn't appear it

was a good stop for newgarden because he came out in about six picture perfect stop for graham ray

hall's team in new tires on an hour scott dixon goes he started 10 remains dead said the front

end's already starting to go with live flag to flag coverage from milwaukee miles this is the

indie car radio network final award led 133 laps in an action-packed return to the historic

milwaukee mile last night varied pit strategy again led to a number of lead changes among

five

drivers five different teams comprise the top five this is mark james it's a new day and maybe

a new racetrack race number two of the hyvee milwaukee mile 250 let's hear from a very popular

win by a very popular driver let's hear from him pot of awards with michael young it's always great

to hear the fans cheer a winner and they were very boisterous with that win yesterday pot of award

you led more than half of that race will it be the same today how different will this track be

it's indie car racing man it's always going to be the same

difference so today what we can do is just you know learn from what we did right yesterday learn

from what we maybe could have done better and uh just apply it to today you know everybody knows

what they've got under them everybody's made their car better i hope we've made our car better and

then uh just make our way forward we're starting seventh so just uh just one position back than

what we started yesterday so we can we can do some good stuff from there try to bring them

both home best of luck today thank you that's pot of award dj clark down here with our

second place finisher from yesterday will power will an absolutely mega run doing exactly what

you needed to do in the championship this has got to feel good coming into race two

yeah i mean we made some adjustments hoping the car is a little better today

uh be a different condition different wind so um it's hard to say i think it was a fun race

yesterday it really was it's like a lot of lines uh you could take and i don't know i i know what

we have to do simply we simply have to finish ahead of alex but

we need to really win the race all right well we'll be watching and hoping for you well that's

willpower over you michael young scott mclaughlin will start on the outside of road number one

today difference from yesterday and today i know a lot of guys came in early and that was

successful and then guys that came in later found success undercuts didn't seem to really help

yesterday what do you think about today i think undercuts didn't work you say because i think

that the the balances were so different in traffic and and being in clear air so i think you can make

it work it's just a matter of having the best of both worlds being kind of

quick in the clear air and and and being quick in the traffic and if you can find a happy medium

in there i think that's where you'll see the difference today and i think pat i had that

yesterday so it'll be interesting if we can catch him today so your teammate in the points

championship obviously you want to win how does that play into today yeah it's important like you

know mathematically i'm still in it but ultimately it's a tough ass so will's definitely got a bigger

shot we've got to make sure that he stays in front of alex and um and yeah we'll do what's

right for the team best of luck to you thanks man cheers scott mclaughlin let's go over to jake

query

michael connor daily was the story last night coming home for the first podium for hoon coast

hollinger racing you finished third you start 20th today but let's go back to last night first

now that you've had time to kind of reflect upon it that was a popular win in this pad or not win

but a podium in this paddock just your thoughts overall and your thoughts going in now to trying

to do it two days in a row well it's it's nice knowing that we've got a quick car for sure um

you know we didn't really expect that going into it so uh yeah man i

i think today is obviously going to be very different the wind seems to be you know very

very powerful at this track specifically um and it's changed directions today so that could change

people's balances could change people uh you know what they what they have uh and obviously people

have an opportunity overnight to make their cars better so i only can assume that it'll be

more challenging and more difficult race today but and we have a lot of work to do to get up

front again but i think we can do it been a long time since i've seen will power that excited

getting out of the car and that was to congratulate you it was very exciting and i'm very happy to see you

thank you and have a great weekend i'm having fun guys thank you all and i'll see you next week

and a lot of fun so as we wait till we read the next one we'll get to the next question which is

congratulate you it was very popular best of luck in trying to replicate it again today

well thank you he's one of the best in this business so to to see that from him it means

a lot to me because i know he respects this field and um and and he knows how hard it is to to get

up on that podium so i i really appreciated that stay safe be clean today thank you thank you

down here with marcus ericsson marcus obviously not the way you wanted to end the race yesterday

but what positives can you take away from the first race here at milwaukee a lot of them i

think we have one of the fastest cars out there we're running in the top three when when the

incident happened so we definitely had a car to win yesterday and that's a big positive that

we're lucky to get a chance to to try again today all right well we'll be watching for you here

that's marcus ericsson and when we come back we will hear from our driver analyst davey hamilton

the command set for 156 local time top of the hour for the green flag here race number two of

the hyvee milwaukee mile 250.

interesting day yesterday for race number one davey hamilton joins us now and davey the question

is how much do you think this track has changed how different will it be from last evening to

today well we know one thing for sure the sun's out it's definitely warmer there today the wind

has picked up as some of these drivers have mentioned so i feel like the track's gonna be

a little more greasy it's gonna they're gonna slide around a little bit more that will it make

for better racing that it could be because we've seen tired dagg yesterday he's going to be a little

bit more consistent with the way the tires are going to go and the tires are going to be a little

bit more consistent with the way the tires are going to be and i think that's what made it

exciting as those tires started to wear out mark and and the car started sliding around we've seen

a lot of passing then we've seen yesterday i expect the same today on this pit strategy

will it tighten up a little bit and be a little more consistent with who pits early and who pits

late probably but yesterday it was all over the place i mean that i mean people were pitting all

throughout this race so you had fast guys with the slower guys out there with the wore-out tires you

had some people doing it on three some people trying to do it on two some the winners did it

four so we're going to see what happens next week we're going to see what happens next week

it's all about yellows it's all about when they make their pit stops and really that is what

happened with pato i mean he was strong early on no question about it but he really lucked out by

pitting a little bit late putting most of teams and same with connor daly same with will power

uh santino ferrucci they were able to put a lot of the participants down a lap by not pitting early

when that lap or when the yellow came out it really helped him so if that scenario happens

again today it's going to be all mixed up but i tell you it's going to be fun to watch that's for

sure a couple of drivers with interesting days lenis lundquist was very very fast early on matter

of fact he led uh you know a handful of laps he led 49 laps uh and then a pit strategy kind of

bit him but he soldiered back and finished with the top 10 in sixth place and christian loongard

got down a lap early and boy is out to lunch as ray hall letterman lanigan was

he soldiered home of the top 10 yeah and that and that's back to that yellow hitting just right now

talk about um loongard you're right i mean he was fast had to let

let

some laps but what he found out i think they were really going to try to do it on a two-stop

strategy which that's where you go into this race that's what everybody kind of tried to do and

and and and if that didn't work go to the three which was more common and he waited a little bit

too long not just realizing how much an undercut was going to play a part here when those teams

started coming in earlier and getting on fresh tires they were making a massive amount of time

mark and when he when he finally pitted came back out found himself in like an eighth position

they had two pit stops with right rear tire issues they couldn't get the

tire on or off properly so it took some time but then he got lucky at the end and that is they

waited to pit late and then that yellow came out so a little bad luck turned into back a little bit

of good luck so we'll see what happens today and uh once we uh clear the pre-race festivities

trackside ceremonies we'll have a bit of a recap of yesterday's race including comments from potter

ward in victory lane and again when we come back it'll be time to go trackside for pre-race

festivities here race number two of the high v milwaukee monroe race and we'll be right back with

mile 250 believe it or not this weekend marks the 114th and 115th indycar series event here at

the historic milwaukee mile let's go trackside ladies and gentlemen at this time we ask that

you rise and remove your hats as the 128th air refueling wing of wisconsin air national guard

presents our nation's colors

please remain standing as indycar ministry chaplain chuck lessick offers today's invocation

let's pray lord god we just want to say thank you for this absolutely beautiful day you've provided

for today's race here in milwaukee as we celebrate labor day in the american workforce we just thank

you for the prosperity our country enjoys lord we're about to go racing again here in milwaukee

and we ask your steady hand of protection over each and every one of us to get us home safe to

our friends and family

in jesus name we pray

amen

here to honor

here to honor america with the singing of our national anthem please welcome the state fair

favorites the kids from wisconsin

oh say can you see

by the dawn's early light

what so proudly we hailed

at the twilight's last gleaming

whose bright stripes and bright stars

through the perilous

fight

o'er the ramparts we

watched

were so gallantly

streaming

and the rockets red glare

the bombs bursting in

air

Gave

proof

through the

Through the night that our flag was still there,

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Fans, let's hear it one more time.

Welcome back to the historic Milwaukee Mile.

Got a call with that.

First race here in 1939 under AAA sanction.

Babe, Stapp got to victory lane.

It is a very challenging course.

Just a little over a mile in length, a tick or two, that is.

Front straightaway, back straightaway.

Very, very similar.

Four turns, but nothing similar about them.

We were busy last night.

Expect to be busy today.

High at top, turn one to call the action with me is Nick Yeoman.

Yeah, I appreciate that, Mark James.

Really looking forward to this one.

And before I describe the view of what's in front of me,

I want to talk what is behind me,

and that is the state fair atmosphere

that has really created a palpable balance

and a buzz.

I look behind, and I see restaurants and pubs

and lots of race fans that are no longer seated.

They've made their way to the seats,

but over the last couple hours,

they've really been soaking it in and enjoying,

and it has really, again, created a buzz for this event

and made it a fun atmosphere for everyone involved.

But as I turn and look to the racetrack,

it is a historic one, as you mentioned.

It opened in the early 1900s, was paved in 1954,

has been hosting IndyCar races for decades,

and it is so good to be back.

Happy to report, after yesterday's race,

there were three distinct racing grooves

in turns one and two and three and four.

The preferred groove is right smack dab in the middle.

That's where drivers are going to run

for the majority of the event.

But we saw drivers go down to the darker asphalt,

the patched-up area, where it is slick,

but if you're on fresh Firestone tires,

you can really make hay.

That's where a lot of the fast cars were able to make passes

and put drivers a lap down throughout the course of the event.

And I'm also happy to report that third groove

is plenty racy as well.

At the start of the event, Conor Daly went topside,

passed 11 cars in the first handful,

12 laps.

Santino Ferrucci ventured up there as well.

He made up ground, ultimately ending up with the top five

for AJ Foyt Racing.

Mark, it is a spectacular racetrack.

So happy that we're back at the Milwaukee Mile.

And if today's race was as good as yesterday's,

partner, I think we are all in store for a show

here at the historic Milwaukee Mile.

Thank you, Nick.

Look forward to the call for sure.

Pato will earn his third victory of the season

in the number five Errol McLaren Chevrolet,

topping Will Power to the finish by just under two seconds.

His seventh career victory came after three consecutive finishes

or 15th lower since late July,

effectively removing him from that title chase.

He called it a really tough weekend in Portland

and in victory lane, obviously,

a very happy driver, Pato Award.

The car was in a really good spot.

I have to give it to the guys

because they're the ones that allow me to do this.

Give me the tools and I'll deliver.

So we did it today.

We executed.

And tomorrow we're starting very,

very close to what we started today.

I think it's just one stop behind.

So it'll be it'll be interesting.

Let's see.

It's a different time.

It's not so late.

The track time is going to be high up.

And let's see what's in store.

Plenty of good stories among the top ten.

Again, your podium was Pato Award, Will Power and Conor Daly.

Santino Ferrucci finished fourth.

Alex Pillow completed the top five.

Linus Lundqvist finished sixth.

And again, long day for him.

He jumped out in front.

Led over 40 laps and then fell behind because of pit strategy.

Then was able to get himself back into top ten contention.

Serviceable day for Alexander Ross.

He finished the seventh.

Scott McLaughlin.

He was the pole sitter.

He had some trouble with the pit strategy.

Didn't pan out the way he had hoped.

He came in eighth place.

Christian Lundgaard.

Again, the Rahal Letterman-Lanigan team struggled at the beginning.

But again, creative pit strategy.

Multiple pit stops by Lundgaard.

And lo and behold, you look up and he finished ninth.

Scott Dixon completes the top ten.

Alex Pillow has 514 points.

Will Power, 43 back.

Colton Hurta, 88 points back.

Scott McLaughlin, 92 points back.

And Pato Award is now 101 points back.

In the battle for the Manufacturer's Championship,

Chevrolet had the top four spots yesterday.

They lead Honda now 1,331 points to 1,168 points for Chevrolet.

It'll be time to go trackside for the command.

When we come back to the historic Milwaukee Mile.

About a minute before we go trackside for the command,

bring Nick Gilman back in.

We've already crowned one champion this weekend here at the Milwaukee Mile, Nick.

Yeah, it was a culmination of what's been a dominant campaign yesterday.

The young Englishman, Louis Foster, leading all 90 laps.

His seventh win of the season, Mark.

He clinches the championship.

Did it in dominating fashion.

Last ten races on the podium for all of them.

He'll be moving up to IndyCar hopefully soon.

Indy next.

Next up, they'll be in Nashville to put a close on the season in two weeks.

Yeah, and there'll be some drivers certainly looking at their futures.

Either, again, solidifying deals with their current team or looking to move on.

For now, the focus is on race number two here at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend.

Let's go trackside.

Here to give the command for today's race,

please welcome your Grand Marshal, Governor Tony Evers.

Drivers, start your engines.

Here's today's NTT IndyCar Series starting lineup.

Presented by Advance Auto Parts.

Row 14.

Pietro Fittipaldi, Brazil.

Row 13.

Graham Rahal, United States of America.

Christian Lundgaard.

Denmark.

Row 12.

Kevin Simpson, United States and Cayman Islands.

Christian Rasmussen, Denmark.

Row 11.

Catherine Legg, United Kingdom.

Stingray Robb, United States.

Row 10.

Connor Daly, United States.

Kyle Kirkwood, United States.

Row 9.

Colton Hurta, United States.

Scott Dixon, New Zealand.

Row 8.

Marcus Eriksson, Sweden.

Rines VK, The Netherlands.

Row 7.

Romain Grosjean, France.

Jack Harvey, United Kingdom.

Row 6.

Santino Frucci, United States.

Nolan Siegel, United States.

Row 5.

Alex Ballot, Spain.

David Malukas, United States.

Row 4.

Felix Rosenquist, Sweden.

Patricio Award, Monterey, Mexico.

Row 3.

Alexander Rossi, United States.

Linus Lindqvist, Stockholm, Sweden.

Row 2.

Will Powell, Australia.

Marcus Armstrong, New Zealand.

On the outside of Row 1.

Scott McLaughlin, New Zealand.

And starting on the pole.

Joseph Ugarten, United States.

Today's starting lineup is presented by

Advance Auto Parts, the official checkered flag of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Great stuff from our talented trio of pit reporters last evening.

They're all set up and ready to do it again.

Let's find out who and what.

They will be watching for race number 2 here at the Milwaukee Mile.

Well, welcome back in, DJ Clark.

Well, down in my section, you've obviously got to keep an eye on the number 5 of Pato Award,

the winner from last night.

But I think you've also got to keep an eye on the number 8 of Linus Lindqvist.

As you mentioned off the top of the show, that car had a lot of speed, led some laps early on.

If they can eliminate pit stop strategy errors, I think this could be a good day for Lindqvist.

Over to you, Jake.

Speaking of Linus Lindqvist, DJ,

let's talk about who goes over the wall for him.

On the crew chief and outside front, same person, Brad Wright.

The inside front, handled by Jake Webb.

The outside rear is Luke Severance.

The inside rear changer, Steve Malich.

The air jack is handled by Simon Brown.

Fueling is done by Cameron Harkis.

The tear-off is handled by Bobby Boone.

And Mark Gregory will be the spotter for Linus Lindqvist.

Inside my section, Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Erickson, Colton Hurta, and Scott Dixon, the notables.

Kyle Moyer said with Scott McLaughlin yesterday,

they did the race.

In three stops.

But they hurried one of them, so they may do four.

We shall see what happens.

Michael Young?

We will see what happens indeed today.

As we understand, Alex Palou may have stalled out on the track.

But that, of course, one of the drivers we're watching as this championship unfolds.

If Palou can gap himself from willpower by 55 points,

he will be the 2024 and a back-to-back champion in the NTT IndyCar Series.

Big picture, though.

Joseph Newgarden on the pole.

His teammate, Scott McLaughlin.

They may potentially try to help.

Willpower, if he's still in the hunt.

So, much going on in this race.

Beautiful day.

73, the ambient temperature, track temperature, 107.

Mark, time to do 250 part due here at the Milwaukee Mile.

Look forward to it, guys.

Thanks for all you do, for sure.

Nick Yeoman, you have a bird's-eye view now that the AMR IndyCar safety crew is off the scene for Alex Palou.

Holy smokes, Mark James.

They are there at the rear of that race car.

They're going to try to get him re-fired.

We were supposed to start this race.

But, obviously, Alex Palou's car is in a very...

Dangerous spot there.

That is right at the entrance of turn number one.

They're going to try to get him re-fired.

But, my goodness, Mark.

Our championship leader trying to close out a championship.

Possibly today.

Michael Young, you may have an update.

They're trying to power cycle that car.

Potential issues with the hybrid system.

So, as they try to recycle it and get Alex Palou fired.

We're running out of time as we're getting set to go here.

Remember, this happened to his teammate, Scott Dixon, back at Bed, Ohio.

Let's see what happens.

But, boy, this could be a major implication.

The points championship if they can't get him started.

And, Davey, the laps have started counting now.

And, they will do a double file start once we get to that point.

But, he is now going laps down.

Yeah, that's right.

He's going laps down because the laps have counted.

Bad, terrible day for Alex Palou.

Looks like it's a hybrid system.

Something gone awry for the reason of it's locked into gear.

Something's not allowing that car to get out of gear to where they can fire it up.

Obviously, as Michael just said, same scenario with Scott Dixon at Bed, Ohio.

Puts him last.

Last place on that race that is Scott Dixon we're talking about with very few points coming out of it.

Could be the same for his teammate today, Alex Palou, before this race even gets started.

And, now, Nick Yeoman, it looks like they have got that car on the quick check.

What is it?

Going back to the pit box?

Yeah.

The AMR safety truck is still sitting there.

He is being pushed.

He does have pit box number three, but he is being pushed back there.

They might actually take him behind the wall.

So, what an absolute disaster.

And, what new life.

For Will Power and the rest of this field of the championship.

And, now, as it stands, Davey Hamilton, Will Power is now just 16 points behind Alex Palou.

That's right.

If it ended the way it did right now, by the way, that's Will Power in that fourth position.

Means that if Alex Palou comes in last, Will finishes fourth.

There you go.

16 points.

And, there would be one race left.

It would be a fight to the end at Nashville in a few weeks.

Michael Young.

Yeah.

Alex Palou.

Alex Palou is trying to get the team to fire the engine.

They have the starter underneath the car.

Palou trying to get that in neutral.

Trying to get the car started.

He is frantically waving his hands.

The crew are looking inside the cockpit, trying to figure out what's wrong.

Again, they haven't tried to fire it again.

Still issues.

And, now, the engine counting will come off.

Disaster for Alex Palou.

Wow, Davey.

This is an unbelievable set of circumstances for points leader Alex Palou.

Yeah.

Best case scenario that they even get it fixed.

You know what I mean?

You can recall Scott Dixon at Mid-Ohio saying,

Hey, team.

They took it to the garage.

He went multiple laps down before they got it fired up.

He did get back on track.

They're trying to fire it up.

You can see the car is locked into gear.

They're turning it over right now.

Still does not work.

Does not fire up.

And, they cannot get the car out of gear.

That's the problem.

Can't disengage that gearbox to where they can start it when he's on the ground.

So, unfortunately, man, it's a long day right now.

And, two already.

Two laps down.

He's going to be multi-laps down by the time this green flag comes out.

And, we'll have plenty of work to do.

Although, Davey, you know, if you go to multiple pit stops,

if they can even get this thing restarted, he's got to start in the rear.

But, as we saw yesterday, you can get creative with those stops

and maybe get a couple of laps back.

But, boy, that's a big roll of the dice.

Yeah.

I'm going to tell you with the engine coming off,

it's going to be green next time by, Mark.

By the time they get it going, he'll be 20-plus laps down, I think,

in the best-case scenario.

So, at this point, it's just his only hope is they can't get it going

as the people start falling out of this race,

make up some spots.

Pace car, the pace quickens off of turn number two.

It'll report to turn number three.

Nick Yeoman, give us the roll call as we're just about ready to complete

lap number five and go green for the first time.

Yeah, all eyes are certainly on that front row,

but maybe that car's starting fourth as well.

That's Will Power.

He's lining up alongside Marcus Armstrong.

It's Scott McLaughlin, Joseph Newgarden on the front row.

Here they come, Mark, at a turn four.

Fans are on their feet.

All eyes on the starter stand, and it looks like the yellow flag flies.

Davey might have been a little too.

Too slow coming off of turn number four.

Oh, and the pole sitter just got dumped.

Joseph Newgarden got hit from behind by Marcus Armstrong,

and in the ultimate bit of irony,

the driver who caught so much heat for the restart at St. Louis a few weeks ago

gets dumped with a slow start here in Milwaukee.

Joseph Newgarden's snap-on machine with some heavy front end

and right rear damage.

He sits right in front of the fans here on the front straightaway.

Michael Young.

Alex Pillow, the engine is fired.

The crew.

The crew is quickly buttoning that car back up.

Alex Pillow is in gear, and what a fate of circumstances.

Alex Pillow able to get out with us not even getting this race underway.

Crazy beginning to our second race here in Milwaukee.

And Davey Hamilton, you had a chance to look at the replay on the start.

Yeah, I really don't know why that was a callback.

I think the, actually, I'm going to tell you that I wasn't in favor of Newgarden's start in St. Louis.

I think that he, you know, it was a disaster start that he did.

This start, I think, was pretty good.

The speed was up.

It looked like a good, clean restart, or a start coming off.

And why they called, I'm not sure what happened.

But Newgarden, once they called it a no start, he slowed down.

But the cars behind him did not slow down.

Ran into, it's actually Lungard, or Lungquist, ran into the back of, of, who was that that hit him, actually?

Lungquist was, I know, involved.

Maybe Rossi actually involved with that McLaren car.

So, what a disjointed start.

Alex Pillow, your points leader, is five laps down.

And Joseph Newgarden out of Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250, race number two.

We pause ten seconds for stage identification.

This is the IndyCar Radio Network.

All right, what a start.

Nine laps complete here at Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250, race number two.

The 250 at Davie Hamilton.

We expected things to be different today.

Just not this time.

Yeah, wow, what a mix-up here.

You know, and I can say that start, actually, to me, I don't know why it was called back,

but it looked pretty good to me.

The speed was up.

It's the best we've had for a while.

So, unfortunate for Newgarden.

And if I'm not mistaken, Nick Yeoman, just off of turn number two,

it looks like a car has stalled once again at about the halfway point of the back stretch.

Oh, and wouldn't you know it, it is that bright yellow and red DHL Honda of our points leader, Alex Pillow.

So, the issues that they felt like they got fixed clearly have not.

And he is indeed.

At the attention of a couple AMR safety crews, as well as a wrecker.

What a disaster continuing for Alex Pillow.

Davie, another look at the restart as we speak.

Yeah, it looked really good.

You know, it looked good.

I don't know why it was called back, but what happened is everybody was on the gas.

Newgarden, they said no start.

He slows down.

And then right behind him was Marcus Armstrong.

But then what happened, his teammate, Lungard, was able to get in.

Actually, Lungquist got into the back of him.

Turned in both of them sideways.

Into each other.

The only one in the wall was Newgarden.

But I'll tell you what, that Armstrong car, it's tore up big time, as well.

Yeah, it's an unfortunate start, for sure.

And we see the car of Marcus Armstrong.

He has made his way into the pit box, Davie.

And I guess at this point, the crew may be hoping they can get that thing behind the wall.

And make some repairs back in the paddock.

Maybe get him out for a handful of laps.

But there's no break at the wall from start to finish, Davie.

You've got to push it all the way to pit out to get it behind the wall.

Yeah, no, you're right.

No break whatsoever.

So, you think about this with Newgarden.

He didn't even make a lap from last night's crash.

I mean, he had an accident last night.

They got the car fixed.

He comes out, sitting on the pole, you know, hoping for a better day.

And crashes before he gets one lap in.

And Nick Yeoman has an update on the fate of points leader, Alex Pillow.

I mean, just a crazy visual, Mark.

I'm watching two wreckers enter the infield.

And they are carrying two damaged wreckers.

So, one damaged race car of Joseph Newgarden's and the car of Alex Pillow's.

That clearly did not get fixed with the hybrid system.

Both of those cars being towed back to the paddock.

Their days are done.

So, Alex Pillow out of the car.

And Jake Query, you just saw him running through the paddock.

You're waiting to talk to Joseph Newgarden.

But you had a visual on Alex Pillow.

That's correct.

Standing just outside the Indiana University Health Medical Unit.

And the AMR safety car that had given Alex Pillow a ride did it the back way.

He got out.

And immediately sprinted past this area back to pit road.

So, we will try to catch up with Alex Pillow once we have word with Joseph Newgarden.

So, a flurry of activity here involving some of the main players in the IndyCar Series at the Milwaukee Mile.

And Nick Yeoman, give us an update now that our focus could go away from the back stretch.

How about the scene of the accident along the front stretch?

Yeah, everything's been cleaned up.

There were some scrapes along the wall.

But all the bits of carbon fiber that came off of either Joseph Newgarden's car or Marcus Armstrong's car

have been picked up so the field can safely roll through the entrance of turn number one.

So, the cleanup's been effectively done, Mark.

And I think we're set to go racing here momentarily.

Jake Cleary described that sprint through the infield by Alex Pillow.

We see he has arrived at his pit box.

He is up on the stand.

And we can only assume, given the circumstances, they're going to do what they can to try to make repairs to that car

and hopefully get him back in the race.

We'll see.

But Davey, as he stands right now, will power trails by just eight.

Eight points.

And Scott McLaughlin's only 44 back.

Yeah, how about that?

Unbelievable.

I mean, Alex Pillow actually has a little grin on his face, kind of laughing at this guy.

He's not happy, of course.

But they are going to do what they can to try to get back on track and try to get ahead of a few of these drivers.

So, when we restart, it'll be Scott McLaughlin, P1, then Will Power, then Linus Lundqvist, then Rossi and Award, the top five.

Rosaquist, Malukas, Siegel, Ferrucci, and Harvey, top ten.

Back to Jake Cleary.

And Alex Pillow's car has now been brought in.

Brought by the wrecker, not to pit road, but rather to his garage area back here in the paddock, back paddock area.

So, it is still hanging on the wrecker, Alex Pillow's DHL machine, as they continue to try to assess whether or not they can get it back out on the track.

Pace car has parked in its usual spot, turn number three.

And the field sets sail out of turn number four with Scott McLaughlin leading him into turn one.

Finally, finally, we're racing here at Milwaukee.

And Alexander Rossi's looking dicey in that third spot, trying to get to the inside of Linus Lundqvist.

Can't get it done.

Here comes his teammate, Pato Award.

He's going to dart to the inside, looking for that fourth spot.

And this was the spot where his car wasn't handling well early in the run, turn number three.

Rossi didn't really pitch him up and didn't give him a lot of room to get to the bottom of the racetrack.

So, he has to settle for fourth for now.

Meanwhile, the leader sets sail for turn one.

And that leader is Scott McLaughlin.

He's opened out about a six-car length advantage over Will Power.

Power getting pressured by the rookie, Linus Lundqvist.

They're about eight car lengths ahead of those Arrow McLaren cars battling for the fourth spot.

And we see Felix Rosenquist picking up a spot.

He's looking a little racy early on.

Meanwhile, back up front, the battle for second appears to be unfolding.

Will Power has it.

Linus Lundqvist wants it into turn one.

How about a two-car length disadvantage for Lundqvist?

And then he's got to run down Will Power.

Yesterday, in the first green flag stint, Linus raced his way all the way to the top spot.

Power finds a little breathing room out of turn two.

A little further back, Santino Ferrucci is the meat in the Meijer Shank Racing Sandwich.

Rosenquist, six.

Ferrucci, seven.

David Malukas currently running in the eighth position.

Leaders off of turn number four.

Yeah, Santino Ferrucci, a lot of fun to watch on this restart, Mark.

Initially, he went to the top side of the track, past a handful of cars.

Then he went to the bottom to get around David Malukas in turn number three.

And boy, it looks like Malukas is going to get past again.

That's one of the Hoop Coast cars darting out of turn two.

It was Conor Daly that was on the charge yesterday.

Today, it's Romain Grosjean.

He is now plus seven now as he's worked his way into the top ten.

Romain Grosjean with that eighth position.

He has David Malukas, Santino Ferrucci running on either side of him

as McLaughlin, Power, and Lundquist set up for turn two.

Yeah, and a little breathing room and some separation

as the front three have checked out on the rest of the field.

Fourth place running, Alexander Ross.

He sits about six car lengths ahead of Pato Award, Marcus.

That's the top five in the three and four.

Dolan Siegel was strong early on, faded a bit toward the end,

but he's in a pretty good battle right now for that tenth position, Nick.

You'll see Erickson, then Siegel, then Colton and Herna,

who's looking for a good run today.

Yeah, we'll watch the rookie, Dolan Siegel,

as he darts into turn number one.

He's following Marcus Erickson,

who is coming up on the side of where he had an accident yesterday.

Siegel looks to the inside, about a car length behind,

and it's turn number two.

Twenty-two laps complete this time by your top five,

McLaughlin, Power, Lundquist, Rossi, and Award.

And, Davey, it looks like we've settled into a race pace here,

about five laps into this green flag run.

Yeah, we sure have.

And what's going to happen with all these early yellows,

it does change the pit strategy somewhat.

We may see these cars go to, like, the 70 mark

instead of the 60 mark for a pit stop,

which could change it all at the end of this,

as we see Plo trying to get back in his car right now.

Obviously, Grosjean, as you said,

moved up seven spots right now,

Hurton up six.

I'm sorry, Erickson up seven, Grosjean six, Hurton six.

So those are the cars that move right now.

And race control has issued their assessment

of the issue at the start of the race.

Linus Lundquist coming to pit lane right now, Davey.

A drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.

Yeah, well, you know, it wasn't a start of race.

I don't know how it's avoidable when they stop it

and the guy stops.

It slows down, but it is what it is.

I mean, he was on the gas.

They were going for a green flag, looked good,

and then when they pulled it, a lot of times,

you need to call a no start down the back straightaway

where everybody has time to get it slowed down.

They piled up on that restart for sure.

1.7 seconds to lead for Scott McLaughlin,

who's looking awfully strong very early on.

Power, Rossi, Award, Rosenquist, the top five.

Then it's Ferrucci, then Grosjean, Erickson, and Malukas.

Hurta completes the top ten.

11th is Harvey, 12th is Scott Dixon,

13th VK, 14th Kirkwood, 15th Daly,

Rasmussen, 16th, Rob is 17th, Legg is 18th,

Christian Lundgaard is 19th, 20th Simpson,

21st Rahal, 22nd Fittipaldi, 23rd Lundquist,

Nolan Siegel with an issue, DJ, he's on pit road.

He is down in pit lane, and the team is taking off

the rear cowling of the car.

They're looking at what they can find out right now.

I'll try to get a better answer,

young rookie here, having a rough day early on.

Early trouble for him, and let's go to the infield care center

with Jake Query.

The good news is that Joseph Dugard is okay,

but obviously a massive disappointment.

What was your vantage point at the start?

I don't know, just got, you know, I mean, I could only see forward,

so after that we just got run into, and yeah,

I don't even know what happened.

I just, they go yellow, and I get run into.

It appeared as though, obviously, they go yellow,

and you've got to slow up, and then obviously

the group behind you gets your 40, and it almost feels,

like, damned if you do it, damned if you don't,

if you go back a few races.

Does that have to enter your mind?

I don't even know what to say.

I mean, you know, I don't know why we,

I don't know why we went yellow, and it's okay that we did.

I think it's all right that we went yellow, but it just, yeah.

It's just been a tough year.

Tough year, man.

I know it's been a rough weekend as well.

We'll see you in Nashville.

Joseph Dugard, Mark.

Michael Young, how about enough to go down the slope?

Yeah, Mark, Jay, they've just wheeled him to pit out.

They have the car fired.

They feel like they have everything repaired on them.

The car.

So what a crazy beginning to this race for the points leader

coming into race number two of the weekend.

They will quick jack that car down.

Kevin Blanch, Rocket, the technical director,

is making sure the crew makes it out on the track.

You hear him peeling out.

Alex Pillow has returned.

And Nick Yobin, they waited until the traffic was a bit cleared

before they got him and released him back out onto the racetrack.

But that's tough to do on a one-mile oval.

There's no doubt, especially as tight as the pit exit is here at Milwaukee.

It runs parallel.

Almost to the racing groove.

And why is it so important to get Alex Pillow back on the racetrack?

Well, think of who was already out.

Joseph Dugard is out of this race.

Marcus Armstrong has had problems.

And Nolan Siegel's car sits disabled on pit lane.

Get Alex Pillow out there on the racetrack, Mark.

Those are valuable handfuls of points that he can pick up.

A frustrating season, Davey Hamilton, for Joseph Dugard in totality

because he doesn't have a shot for a championship.

And he's had more than his shares of DNFs.

But I think when all is said and done,

he will have the warmth of another.

Maybe bored to keep him in.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, he did.

It's a tough season in the regular season.

But then he has the crown jewel.

He won the second Indy 500.

Obviously, that makes up for a lot.

And that right there, I have to say, you know,

I didn't like to say in St. Louis, I felt like he was way too slow.

Caused a bit of havoc there.

But in this situation, I'll be honest with you,

I think the speed was up.

They learned it from yesterday that you're going to have to speed up.

They're not going to throw the green.

But they had to speed up and still didn't throw the green.

So I'm not really sure what went on there,

what race control scene to call that off.

Marcus Erickson, David Malukas.

It's trying to get interesting.

That's the battle for the eighth position of the start-finish line.

It certainly is.

David Malukas got passed by Erickson laps ago.

Now it looks like Malukas' car is coming back to life.

He jumps to the inside as he's going to make that pass around Marcus Erickson.

Meanwhile, Mark, the leaders, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power,

they have caught lap traffic into turn number one.

So things tightening up up front.

Four-tenths of a second, the lead now.

Three-tenths of a second for Scott McLaughlin.

And as...

Yes, we pointed out, Nick just pointed out,

that there's some lap traffic, Dave.

You've got to figure into the proceedings again today.

That happens quickly.

It happened quickly yesterday.

It's going to happen today.

And right now, those struggling is the Rahal cars again.

Finn Apalti in 23rd, Lundqvist in 22nd, Graham Rahal in 21st.

That's going to be the first cars that he's going to approach right now.

And it's all Rahal, Letterman, Lannigan cars.

So still struggling today as well.

And Will Power is coming.

He's had it down to three-tenths of a second.

Then it got down to a tenth of a second in turn number one.

Scott McLaughlin is stuck behind Pietro Fittipaldi off of turn number four.

And Scott McLaughlin admitted yesterday his car was simply not good enough in traffic.

And it is the same story here today.

He cannot get past that car of Pietro Fittipaldi.

And it's allowed Will Power to close right on the back bumper.

Will took a look down the front straightaway.

He'll get back in line at a turn two.

Will started to make a move to the bottom of the racetrack and tried to hold that line.

That caused a bit of an erratic move at the apex of the turn.

Number two, he lost a couple of tenths.

It's back to three-tenths of a second now as they exit turn four.

Yeah, that really got bunched up in turn four a lap ago.

But McLaughlin had a good enough speed into turns one and two to hold Will Power off.

He'll do it again, Mark, as they round their way around turns one and two.

Top ten update with 36 laps complete.

McLaughlin, Power, Rossi, O'Ward, and Rosequist.

Ferrucci, Grosjean, Malukas, Hurta, and Eriksson, the top ten,

as the leader continues to battle lap traffic.

And he does so, Scott McLaughlin, with his teammate Will Power,

two-tenths of a second back into turn one.

McLaughlin got a good run out of turn number four,

but just not fast enough to get alongside Pietro Fittipaldi

and force the issue to put him a lap down.

He'll ride. McLaughlin, that is, one car length behind Fittipaldi,

about three more back to power.

Let's get an update on Marcus Armstrong with Jay Query.

Marcus Armstrong's car sits in the garage area just on the other side of the wall

with massive attention being done to the front left side,

the toe link and the wing on that where the damage took place.

With that opening lap incident that involved Joseph Newgarden.

Now, the nose of the car is off. Armstrong is not in the car.

Once they get it repaired, keep in mind, Nick Yeoman had mentioned,

the fact that Alex Pillow is in a points chase.

He is many laps down, but wants to make up as many spots as he can.

Some of it could be due to attrition.

One of those cars that would factor into that if they come back out

is Marcus Armstrong, who happens to be a teammate of Alex Pillow.

So that's one thing that you have to keep in mind.

But Alex Pillow's number 11, Roots High.

Right now, sits on the opposite side of the wall of where it should be

as they take a look at the front left side of that race car.

Finally, some breathing room for Scott McLaughlin and Will Power, Nick Yeoman.

But that relief may be short-lived as they're encountering even more lap traffic off of turn number four.

Yeah, that's the beauty of having a 27-car field.

Although, I guess we're down to about 25 at this point with some early attrition, as Jake pointed out.

But there is still tons of lap traffic for Scott McLaughlin to deal with.

Next car up is going to be the car that was running third.

That's Linus Lundqvist after serving that penalty.

He's now hanging on ahead of Scott McLaughlin.

And that's what may make it tough for them to get around Linus Lundqvist, Davey,

because he clearly has a fast race car.

He does. He has a fast race car.

He had one yesterday as well, and we'll see what happens.

Now, you know, strategy's going to start playing a fact right now.

We're lap 41, marked last yesterday or last night.

We've seen lap 60 was kind of the number for these cars to come in.

But you've got to remember, we've had a good 10 laps under caution.

It's going to stretch that out just a little bit.

Seems like they have a pretty good pace right now.

25.51 for the leaders.

And Fittipaldi, actually 25.77, only a couple of tenths off the pace.

Makes it hard to pass.

42 laps complete.

Full field rundown now.

Scott McLaughlin, Will Power, Alexander Rossi, Patoa Ward, and Felix Rosenquist in top five.

Ferrucci is sixth.

Grosjean, seventh.

Eighth is Malukas.

Ninth is Hurta.

Tenth, Erickson.

Eleventh, Harvey.

Twelfth, Dixon.

Thirteenth, Fike.

Fourteenth, Kyle Kirkwood.

Fifteenth, Cotterdaly.

Raspius in sixteenth.

Stingray, Rob, seventeenth.

Catherine Legg is eighteenth.

Christian Lundgaard is nineteenth.

Twentieth is Simpson.

Twenty-first is Rahal.

Twenty-second is Lundquist.

Fittipaldi a lap down in twenty-third.

Out of the race, twenty-fourth, Dolan Siegel.

Alex Pillow, twenty-fifth.

Twenty-eight laps down.

Twenty-sixth, Marcus Armstrong.

Twenty-seventh, Joseph Newgarden.

Again, forty-three laps complete at the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250, race number two.

Now, forty-seven.

Two laps complete, Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250, race number two.

Nick Yeovin, we have a new leader.

Not only do we have a new leader, but, Mark, as we run, we have a new points leader.

Will Power just made a move around Scott McLaughlin.

Got a good charge using that lap traffic down the back straightaway.

It was a daring move.

Jumped to the inside.

Scott McLaughlin gave him that spot, and Will Power has moved to the race lead here at the Milwaukee Mile.

Let's go to pit lane and Michael Young.

Time for a Honda engineering update with Joe Capelli, engineer on this Honda program.

And, Joe, that was certainly frustrating for that team, the number 10 car.

Do you know what happened at the beginning of the race?

We're not 100% sure what actually has gone on, but our engineers worked through the issues and got that car back on track.

We know the championship's not going to be handed to us, and we're going to respond through what happens and keep pushing and keep trying.

Race isn't over.

Nothing's over yet, and it's how you respond under adversity is what really counts.

The big key is he's back out turning laps right now.

It's anybody's guess what will happen.

The remainder of this race.

Yeah, we've still got a whole race.

Who knows what's going to happen?

Lux, yellows, all kinds of stuff is going to happen, and we'll just see how it plays out.

But we're going to keep working on our computers, working our valves, working our pistons, and making things sure.

Run and give him the best product that he can go out and win what he needs to win.

We'll wish you the best the rest of the way.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you.

That's Joe Capelli, engineer supervisor for HPD, and that's your HPD Honda engineering update.

And again, Davey, with that position switch and the issues.

As for Palou, Will Power now leads by three points, but luck with his 57 points back.

Unbelievable.

I mean, what's the chance of that happening?

It actually looks to be the hybrid system potentially that's cost that Ganassi team so much this year with Scott Dixon not being able to go out in mid-Ohio and now put Palou way back in that 25th spot right now.

Now, he's going to gain one more spot because Siegel has pulled out.

He's going to catch up one more spot, but is that going to help that points championship?

It may only put him two points back, but right now, Palou behind by three points.

Traffic issues for Will Power, but the good news is he has a lead of two seconds over Scott McLaughlin.

Tried to check out and had some success doing so, but Nick Yeoman, Linus Lundqvist is first as they exit turn number four.

Yeah, and Will Power is struggling to get around Linus Lundqvist as it looks like the pit sequence is starting.

Alexander Rossi coming on and off pit lane, but Power is stuck behind those two Ganassi cars.

Trying to handle it.

Trying to hang on to a lap with Kiffin Simpson about four car lengths ahead.

Lundqvist right in the mirrors of Will Power.

Oh, and Davey, we have every reason to believe they're just going to move over and let him go by, right?

Oh, yeah, sure, right.

Absolutely, right?

Everybody has to earn it.

I mean, the positions here are so hard to get, and the competitor in front, as the pit window has opened,

it has to be a little earlier than I expected.

This could be four or five stop strategies right here.

But, yeah, they're not going to let him go by with ease.

They know it's going to be tough to get by a person, and he's going to do all they can to hang on, not to go laps down.

Trying to do all they can.

Trying to help their teammate, even though he is 28 laps down.

Talking about Alex Pillow.

Updates of pit road with DJ Clark.

Alexander Rossi and David Malukas both came down into pit lane.

Neither driver made any changes to the car, just four fresh tires and shell fuel.

DJ Query.

The same is true of Marcus Erickson.

Came in, decided that 54 laps was enough.

Routine stop.

Marcus Erickson was down and away.

Michael Young.

Kirkwood, his first stop of the day.

Krood going in a lap earlier than Will Power, who is now the point.

Leader Will Power will hit his mark.

Slides it a little deep into the pit box.

Still hits his marks okay.

The crew doing a fantastic job thus far.

A very quick stop.

Will Power down and away, 6.8 seconds.

Back to Jay Query.

Two quick turns for Scott McLaughlin.

Adjustment on that front right wing.

He took four tires and fuel.

Routine stop otherwise for Scott McLaughlin, who's down and away.

DJ.

It was mass confusion down here for Felix Rosenquist.

The stop itself was fine.

They told him to go, and then they told him to stop, and they weren't sure why he needed to.

Stop.

He's going to go back out and on his way, but that's going to cost him a few laps.

Let's go to Michael Young.

Santino Perucci, first stop of the day.

Not complaining of anything wrong with that car.

Pretty clean thus far.

They will put a full turn in that front wing.

A little stall at the end, but still a good stop.

7.2 seconds for Perucci.

Jack Harvey with a stop.

Christian Rasmussen comes to the attention of his crew.

We're waiting on Pietro Fittipaldi to arrive at his pit box.

We see Linus Lundqvist on his way out of the pit lane.

Let's go back to DJ Clark.

Yeah, it was a left front tire.

They were worried about it being loose.

That's why Rosenquist came in and out.

He came back into pit lane, and they fixed it right back up.

Back to Jay Query.

Pietro Fittipaldi, you just mentioned.

They were waiting on him.

They brought him in.

Slight hiccup upon release, but got him back out of that five-hour energy machine.

Other thing of note, Kyle Moyer had told me before the race,

the wind is substantially different than yesterday,

and the track temperature might be a little bit warmer even than yesterday.

And you can see, I think some of these cars,

didn't go as long on step number one.

That grip was starting to go away, and with that wind, that was an issue.

That's why some of the leaders decided before lap 60 to go ahead and take new rubber.

Updates for the pits brought to you by Shell,

the official fuel of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Davey, speak to Jake's point on the difference between the pit strategy yesterday

to what we've seen as a change already today.

Yeah, you know, I think what happened is these drivers and these teams

have looked at the data and seen how much time lost on track

with the wore-out tires, with the tire dag.

And they said, hey, let's just plan on, let's do the four-stop strategy.

About every 50-plus laps, we're going to come in and make that pit stop.

And that, make a pit stop, that would put her in a four-stopper.

Looks like that's what everybody's kind of got on that same pace to do.

Other than, I think, Catherine Legg was the last one.

I think she's pitting right now to do the same strategy.

Yep, she's exiting the pit box as we speak.

And the winner, if there was one, Nick Yeoman, on that round of stops,

Alexander Rossi, who's leapfrogged over Scott McLaughlin.

Yeah, he was one of the first cars to pit, and he leapfrogged a ton of cars.

Just saw one of the Juncos cars.

Very slow down the back straightaway.

That was Conor Daly, and he is creeping his way into his pit box,

that pit box number one, and coming to a stop mark.

So it looks like yesterday's podium finisher, Conor Daly, has some issues.

Yeah, for sure, not a routine stop for Conor Daly.

Davey, that crew taking their time, poured over that race car.

Yeah, unfortunately, something wrong with that car.

And also, just seeing an onboard camera with wheel power.

By the way, leading points, leading this race by, you know, fairly good margin.

Actually, 2.1 seconds over Rossi.

Completely sideways off of turn two.

So even the leader, the fastest car on the track right now, the guy in control,

he still has his hands full.

I mean, he almost lost it in turn two on corner exit a few laps ago.

You know, question for you, as we got to the end of that stint,

and the leader started to pull up on Nick Elman.

We got a car very slow up against the outside wall.

That is David Malukas.

He is keeping it up against driver's right.

It's going to bring out the yellow flag.

Not sure if it's a mechanical issue or if he hit the wall.

Does a good job to keep it high, as everybody roars.

The inside, but he was probably going 40, 50 miles an hour down the front stretch.

Not safe at all.

It's going to bring out a yellow here at the Milwaukee Mile.

Second caution of the day.

Power, Rossi, McLaughlin, Award, and Ferrucci, the top five.

Erickson, Hurta, Grosjean, Dixon, and Kirkwood, the top ten.

63 laps complete.

Hy-Vee, Milwaukee Mile, 250, race number two.

We're under caution.

Single car incident involving David.

David Malukas, we've completed 65 laps.

Your top ten will power.

Rossi, McLaughlin, Award, Ferrucci, Erickson, Hurta, Grosjean, Dixon, and Kyle Kirkwood, the top ten.

An update on Marcus Armstrong, Jake Query.

Been a long, long afternoon for him already.

The long afternoon apparently now is complete because the word from the pit stall here is that Marcus Armstrong's day is over.

They will not return that car back into the race.

Yeah, frustrating start to the day for a lot of drivers, Davey, that we normally see in the top ten.

Yeah, this race has been crazy, right?

I mean, yesterday, what a great day for Connor.

Now it looks like he has the same situation where that car's stuck in gear.

They can't get it out of gear to get it fired.

Not sure if that's tied to the hybrid system, but I think it is as we have Palou going to make another pit stop with just 66 laps completed.

More on that from Michael Young.

Yeah, fresh tires for Alex Palou, and I did confirm with Barry Wanzer it was a hybrid issue for the ten cars.

So trying to make up as much ground as they can.

As we had said, guys, so much can happen in this race since we saw last night that a caution comes out.

Anything can really happen, so they're doing everything they can to stay within the striking distance of Will Power.

Updates for the pits brought to you by Shell, the official fuel of the NTT IndyCar Series.

While we have time, let's give you a full field rundown.

Will Power's your leader.

Alexander Rossi is second.

Scott McLaughlin is third.

O'Ward fourth.

Ferrucci fifth.

Erickson sixth.

Colton Hurt is seventh.

Robon Grosjean is eighth.

Scott Dixon is ninth.

Kyle Kirkwood is tenth.

Reedus VK, eleventh.

Jack Harvey is twelfth.

Christian Raspi is in thirteenth.

Linus Lundqvist is fourteenth.

Shona Laptown, from here down, they're a lap down.

Fifteenth, Rahal.

Sixteenth, Simpson.

Seventeenth, Lundgaard.

Eighteenth, Rob.

Nineteenth, Legg.

Twentieth, Fittipaldi.

Twenty-first, Rosenquist.

David Maluk is currently 22nd, listed as out of the race.

Connor Daly, they continue to work on his car on pit lane.

Nine laps down is Connor.

Alex Belot is 24th.

He is 27th, laps down.

Three cars listed as out of the race.

Twenty-five.

Twenty-fifth is Dolvin Siegel.

Twenty-sixth is Armstrong.

And twenty-seventh is Joseph Newgarden.

Colton Hurt is plus 11 on the day.

Graham Rahal, he's plus 11.

Marcus Erickson, plus 10.

Christian Rasmussen is plus 10.

And Kyle Kirkwood is plus nine.

Scott McLaughlin has led 39 laps.

Will Power has led 20.

He won.

And, you know, Power is mindful of the fact that it would certainly help the cause, Davey,

if he could walk away from here having led the most laps

because that gives you a precious bonus point in that championship chase.

Yeah, every point is going to count, isn't it?

Right now, McLaughlin with 39 laps led.

Teammate Power, 22, as you said.

That point, every point counts.

He's now just two ahead.

But I'm just blown away that we're talking about a points change between Pelot and Power.

I think he was so far back, we thought, hey, it's going to be a good race in the last race.

With no idea that it could potentially be Power the one leading going into that final event.

It wouldn't be a bad thing all at all just for exciting the level of excitement and interest for it to be a two or three point margin.

I think it's been a while since it's been that thin in the final race, huh?

Yeah, it's been quite a while, to be honest with you.

So it makes it exciting, no question about it.

And you look down, and I'm going to do it once the year's over.

You look down and you look at everybody's races that were up in that top five and see how many good races, how many bad.

And how many wins, who was the most consistent, because that really makes a difference.

And to win championships, you need to look at stats like that just so you have confidence going into the next year.

It looks like the pace car has pulled off, Mark, as Will Power goes into turn three.

Nick Yeoman, give us the roll call.

There are some cars that are a lap down that are running among the top ten.

Yeah, first three in line will be battling for the race lead.

That's Power, Rossi, McLaughlin as they accelerate.

Next four are a lap down before you get to Pottaward running in fourth.

McLaughlin's on the buck into turn number one.

Take a peek underneath Alexander Rossi.

Took a peek, but quickly got back in line to watch Alexander Rossi.

Now McLaughlin gets back in the throttle.

He'll charge to the outside.

What a move, popping to the top side.

And Scott McLaughlin has that second spot for now.

He'll clear Alexander Rossi into turn three.

His momentum carried him to the rear wing of the leader, Will Power.

And then he had to lift a little bit.

And that has allowed Rossi to come charging back into turn number one.

Yeah, Rossi had a head of steam down the front straightaway as he's going to try to get that second spot back.

Doesn't look like he'll do it.

He'll fall back in line.

In fact, McLaughlin's going to set his sights on Will Power.

Further back, Mark Santino, Ferrucci, making moves.

He got around Pottaward Ward.

He's dicing up the lap traffic.

Ferrucci into the fourth spot.

Yeah, trying to get up there and play with those front runners, the top three.

By the way, Connor Daly returns to the fray, but he will do so 12 laps down as the leader set up for turn two.

It's Will Power by about three car lengths over his teammate Scott McLaughlin.

About five back to Alexander Rossi.

They'll stay nose to tail, single file down the back straightaway.

Ahead of the lap car of Lundqvist.

Santino Ferrucci has settled a little bit.

You look a little further back of the pack.

All these cars are a lap down.

But Stingray Rob at 18th.

Felix Rosenquist, 19th.

Catherine Legg at 20th.

They're all involved in pretty good battles.

Now is the exit turn number four.

And behind Kiffin Simpson, Nick Yeoman, is a whole gaggle of cars sliced and diced.

Scott Dixon in the middle of that.

Yeah, a lot of jumbled up cars, no doubt.

Dixon running in the eighth position.

He went to the inside of Stingray Rob.

Those two came very close to making contact.

Dixon flying.

It's back in line.

Can't get around Stingray Rob as they set up for turn three.

And I'm sure, Davey Hamilton, that just above us, Scott Dixon's spotter, Robbie Fast,

is plenty busy with Scott dealing with that lap traffic.

Yeah, he absolutely is.

As you said, he was dealing with Stingray Rob, who is a lap down that 18th spot.

Dixon slowly crawled his way up.

He's gained nine spots since the start.

And so doing better than yesterday.

Seems like that car's going to go better as he got hurt in front of him next.

Things got a little dicey in that battle for second, Nick Yeoman.

But we're about four laps back.

Back under green flag conditions.

And it looks like the front three have settled out a little bit.

Yeah, I mean, all these guys think they're heroes on fresh Firestone tires.

And then, as you mentioned, things settle down usually after four or five laps.

And that's exactly what has happened up front.

Even separation from power back to McLaughlin, back to Rossi in third.

I see at the halfway point of the back straightaway, Santino Ferrucci now knows that Pato Award would like to have that position back.

We say that.

Ferrucci gets a good run into turn number three.

But here comes Pato Award storming back off at turn number four.

Yeah.

Ferrucci runs that middle line.

Pato Award kind of straddles the bottom groove.

A lot of times putting those Firestones down in the darker asphalt.

And he gets a little bit better corner entry and exit.

Ferrucci, though, pretty strong off of turn two.

Battle for the fourth position.

That is just behind them.

Erickson, Hurta.

That's a pretty good battle.

Scott Dixon now has cleared that lap traffic.

And he wants to get back up into the fray now and battle among the top eight positions.

He's currently riding in the eighth spot.

The leader set up for turn number three.

Yeah, they're roaring down the back straightaway.

Will Power by six car lengths over Scott McLaughlin.

Eight back to Alexander Rossi.

And you've got a couple lap cars.

And that battle for fourth continues to be a good one, Mark, with Ferrucci.

About a four-car length advantage over Pato Award as they bend it to the left to turn three.

Back to D.J. Clark.

David Malukas' day goes from bad to worse.

After making contact with the wall, he was able to bring it back down into pit lane.

But the team is going to have to take that car behind the wall and back into the garages.

They're hoping to get him out there and get those valuable leadership circle points.

Car 15, currently shown 15th.

The lap down, that's Graham Rahal.

Santino Ferrucci gets a run on him.

And he will look strong underneath him.

Graham has to lift a little bit.

And he really has to tiptoe through three and four.

That opens the bottom of their e-track from Pato Award.

I mean, that was a straight-up slide job by Santino Ferrucci on a Saturday night in a short track.

He dove it in and just drove up across the nose, knowing his car was strong enough to get around Graham Rahal.

And as you mentioned, Mark, Rahal's momentum was gone.

That allowed Pato.

Pato Award to slip inside as well.

So, Davey, we've seen Santino strong to the high side in one and two,

strong to the bottom of the racetrack in three and four.

Obviously, that race car hooked up again today.

Yeah, it looks really good.

Actually, it had on board with Pato Award, just like kind of willpower,

coming off a turn four in the lap before.

Completely sideways, complete correction of that wheel.

Looked like he was on a dirt track, Pato Award, that is, and lost some ground.

But you've got to remember, that's the car that won yesterday.

And he's still, like I say, these cars, even though they're up front, even though they're fast,

one-on-one yesterday, they still are very difficult to drive.

Pace is continuing to be a quick one for sure.

Santino Ferrucci has stepped away a bit from Pato Award.

And next for Marcus Erickson is Graham Rahal, Nick.

He's currently running in the sixth position.

Yeah, and as Graham Rahal stacks him up out of turn number two,

Marcus Erickson sees a Rahal that had been landing a car ahead of him and behind him

in about six car lengths back.

He's got his teammate Colton Hurd looking to rebound him

after losing a left front tire in the race yesterday.

Yeah.

Rahal is 15th a lap down.

Lundgaard is in 16th a lap down.

And Hurd would like to clear Lundgaard so he can chase down Marcus Erickson.

He can't do it yet, Nick.

Well, and Colton Hurd wants to get on his horse to race away from Scott Dixon,

who, as you mentioned, starting to show a little strength after the first pit sequence.

Dixon sits about five car lengths back.

He's trying to run down Hurd as well into turn three.

And if you mention him, we might as well go ahead and throw Romain Grosjean into that mix.

He's carrying the banner right now.

And for Hoonkos Hollinger Racing, Nick, he's running into the ninth position.

Yeah, and a shout-out to that Hoonkos Hollinger Racing team.

As yesterday, Mark, they got their first podium as a team.

And it was Connor Daly, of all people, who did it.

So Romain Grosjean going to get up on that horse,

try to replicate that as he's running down the back stretch trying to catch Dixon.

I wanted to ask you earlier, Davey, what it's like when these leaders catch up to lap traffic.

A caution interrupted that discussion.

What does that dirty air feel like for that leader when he pulls up on that slower car?

Yeah, what happens, Mark, is that normally,

it just takes the air off the front of these cars.

And now, we talked about this yesterday.

This track, it's really being mechanical dependent.

We do have aerodynamics.

We have the wings.

We have all the underwings to get grip.

But the most important thing is mechanical grip to get these cars to stick.

But once you get behind a car, that little bit of aero that you're counting on leaves your car.

So it means you wash around, you're sliding around.

And a lot of times, it just makes it difficult to get that grip that you had before.

And the pit window is starting to open up.

Yeah.

The reason he was able to do that is because Fittipaldi decided it was time to come to the pit lane.

And now, DJ Clark, you say there might be an issue for yesterday's winner, Pato Award.

Yeah, they're bringing the number five in early.

They've been debating about what's going on.

I'm not sure what the problem is in the car, but the orders are to shut the car off.

They are going to go underneath the rear cowling.

Disaster here for Pato Award.

This crazy day gets crazier, Danny.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness, unbelievable.

We've seen some handling issues, but not mechanical issues.

He was, speed-wise, he was keeping up with Ferrucci, just couldn't get by him.

And now with the counting coming off, tells me something internal is not good.

Engine counting is off the car.

Yesterday's winner, Pato Award, with 88 laps complete.

Power, McLaughlin, Rossi, Ferrucci, Erickson, the top five.

Hurta, Dixon, Grosjean, VK, and Kirkwood, the top ten.

Hy-Vee, Milwaukee Mile, 250, race number two.

Lap 93 of 250 complete.

Power, McLaughlin, Rossi, Ferrucci, Erickson, the top five.

An update from the pit lane with Jake Query.

Standing here watching Scott McLaughlin's team, and I turned around,

and there walked Nolan Siegel in his street clothes.

He told me it's a gearbox issue that has terminated his race.

They weren't able to determine exactly what the cause was,

but he said the gearbox was such they just couldn't get the car to go.

So Nolan Siegel's day is done.

One other note, Mark, on Scott McLaughlin.

I mentioned at the beginning, yesterday they went three stops instead of going to four.

As a result of that, that means they have fresh tires, an extra set they did not use yesterday.

So, good news for Scott McLaughlin later in this race is each time he comes in,

he's going to have brand new Firestone Firehawks to go out on.

That may not be the case for all if they made an extra stop yesterday.

And Michael Young, how about an update on the new points leader, Will Power?

He's so far so good. He really likes the car.

And actually, with this being a nicer day, something I haven't heard all weekend,

he has a little oversteer, that car loose on him.

They will adjust that when they come in on this second stand,

but they keep telling him about how Alex Pillow is about a straightaway ahead.

So, they're keeping the championship in mind and allowing Will Power to dig

here at about the midway point of this race.

E.J. Clark.

Down here in the pit box of yesterday's winner, Pato Award.

Pato is out of the car.

It is another gearbox issue for the Arrow McLaren team that has ruined the number five's day.

Updates from the pits brought to you by Shell,

the official fuel of the IndyCar.

NTT IndyCar Series.

I want to thank these stations for carrying the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 today.

106.3 the game.

WYDS in Decatur, Illinois.

Classic Country Radio 92.1.

WYAM in Williamson, North Carolina.

And our flagship station in Indianapolis, 93.1 WYDC.

We just saw Alexander Rossi make his way onto pit road.

Will Power, Scott McLaughlin coming to pit road.

Let's go first to Jake Query.

So, Scott McLaughlin will be behind his teammate, Will Power,

but he is the first in his stall.

He waits now.

As Scott McLaughlin's car, no change made to it.

Down and away, Michael Young.

Will Power, the leader, and good stuff with this crew.

No changes, even though he complained it to be loose.

6.8 seconds.

He'll beat McLaughlin out by at least a second and a half.

And not a surprise, Davey, because that Firestone Pit Performance Award,

$25,000 up for grabs.

Will Power's team has amassed 539 points to 387 on the season by Alexander Rossi.

It's been a solid season for that pit crew for Will Power.

Yeah, for sure.

Another good stop, too, and a good pit position.

He's won the season's pit two, so easy out for him.

Michael Young.

So, once everybody comes, or at least once they see someone come,

everybody else follows suit.

Romain Grosjean just came in.

No changes to that car.

Good stop for that crew.

They were down and away in 6.2 seconds, and Kyle Kirkwood comes in.

He will nearly hit the gearbox of Scott Dixon.

That crew will go to work for Kyle Kirkwood.

It's brand-new Firestone Firehawks.

No changes thus far to that car.

Good stop for the crew as they do end up taking a full round out of the front wing.

Jake Query.

Michael, you had mentioned Scott Dixon.

He was on release because he had just made a routine stop right in front of Marcus Erickson,

who was held up just for a split second when Dixon came in.

Routine stop for the 9 and 28, but Marcus Erickson did have a slight hiccup upon exit.

And Santino Ferrucci is headed to the pit box.

He is to the attention of his crew, waving him into pit box number one, Michael Young.

Now, great pit box for Santino Ferrucci and his crew, excited and a bit spot on all weekend long.

Santino says the call.

It's fantastic.

Although they'll take a half turn out of that front wing.

6.1 seconds.

Wow, great stop for the Foyt crew.

Yeah, good clean stop for the Foyt crew for sure for Santino Ferrucci and Davey.

And look at the bottom of the scoring pylon.

You see David Belucas, 24th.

You see Nolan Siegel.

You see Marcus Armstrong, Joseph Dugard, Alex Belot, Pato Award, Connor Daly.

What a day this has been.

Yeah, how about that?

20 cars.

They're all that's left on.

We usually finish most every car, maybe one or two with a little bit of something going on.

But when you have all...

Only 20 on the track out of the 27, 7 of them being out.

Just not something we normally see.

But this second day is hard on everybody.

Two days in a row on this track.

Very difficult.

I think it's fun.

It's good.

It seems like, you know, just a plague on everybody.

And by the way, Blow is still out there, just laps down.

And I see Blow in that 23rd spot.

Rare of the field.

They go three wide into turn number one, Nick Yeoman.

Catherine Legg in the middle of that.

I mean, there's been hornets that's all over the racetrack.

But yeah, that was Renis VK jumping all the way to the bottom to get around Catherine Legg.

She was stuck in the middle with Pietro Fittipaldi.

And all of this happens right in front of the two leaders.

Will Power, Scott McLaughlin.

They'll navigate that lap traffic right now in three and four.

And they're working on it through three and four.

Scott McLaughlin, another one going to the high side.

I believe that was the car of Stingray Robb that went to the bottom of the racetrack.

So Scott McLaughlin doing all he can to work his way through traffic.

Looks like Will Power has cleared it for now.

Yeah, I'll tell you.

There's been some really dangerous moments with some of these drivers that stay out and go long.

They are so slow on the racetrack.

They're watching drivers start left and right to try to get around them.

McLaughlin goes to the high side of Catherine Legg.

He'll put her another lap down to the front two.

Back onto the front straightaway, Mark.

Power and McLaughlin narrowly avoiding lap traffic accidents.

Nine tenths of a second is the lead for Will Power.

So now that we've shuffled through the pit stops, as Catherine Legg says enough,

it comes to pit road.

Your top ten, Power, McLaughlin, Rossi.

Now Santino Ferrucci.

Jack Harvey currently running in the fifth position.

But Harvey, Lundqvist.

And those two guys last pitted on lap 56, Davey.

We expect to see them soon.

Yeah, should be.

Right now, you're right.

Harvey in that fifth spot.

And Lundqvist in sixth.

They're going to be coming in momentarily.

That'll move Erickson up.

Matter of fact, Lundqvist on his way in now.

It looks like Harvey's going to be there momentarily.

Then at least Hurta is going to move up a few spots in that sixth spot.

Good run by Hurta today, actually.

He's up.

What is he up?

11 spots, Mark.

Pretty good start.

Colton Hurta is plus 11 on the day.

Christian Lundgaard did a great job yesterday, Davey.

Improving positions.

I mean, he was really off the pace in qualifying.

Really off the pace at the start.

But credit his crew for multiple pit stops that got him inside the top ten.

That was an incredible run for Christian Lundgaard.

Yeah, absolutely.

And they did hit the yellow just right.

Everything came together and needed that finish.

And by the way, you know, he is a lap down in that 14th spot.

But he seems to have won in that Rahal-Lanigan team.

Continuing to fight.

Trying to make it the most out of it.

Where his teammates, Rahal in 16th and Fittipaldi in 20th.

Alex Polak.

Oh, in the middle of a three-wide battle going into turn number three.

Colton Hurta was part of that.

Hurta's car is absolutely on rails, Nick Yeoman.

In the midst of about six race cars going into turn one.

They're all trying to get around Pietro Fittipaldi,

who's going about 30 miles an hour slower than everybody.

And it just about stacked up there in turn number three.

Colton Hurta passed two cars all the way at the bottom of the racetrack.

Now he's looking to get around Jack Harvey as Hurta's on those fresh tires.

Trying to dice it up through the lap traffic.

Again, Jack Harvey last pitted on lap 50.

Six.

And so you can bet that the grip has all been gone on his Firestone Firehawks.

Marcus Erickson, Robod Grosjean among those able to clear.

So Hurta and Erickson Ferrucci run sixth, fifth, and fourth

as we see Alex Polak now coming onto pit road, Davey.

And Michael Young, let's see what's up for the DHL crew

as they work on the car of Alex Polak, 28 laps down.

Trying to keep that pace and obviously salvage whatever they can in this day.

Another good stop.

One of the best.

Crews on pit lane.

They will take a full turn out of that front wing.

Good stop.

Alex Polak away.

And let's face it, Davey, with the attrition that we have seen,

as you mentioned, 20 cars still running,

you know that he might minimize the damage if he continues to go out there

and simply run laps.

He's going to reach a point here very, very soon

where he's going to start picking up a valuable point or two.

Yeah, that's right.

Because right now 23rd.

Pato Ward's at 22nd.

We know Pato's out of that car.

He's going to gain that one spot.

Still three points behind in that.

Yeah, three points behind.

Under the championship, every point's going to help.

So everybody, every spot that he can gain is going to be an advantage.

But that means a lot of people are going to need to fall out of this race.

Well, he's completed 82 laps.

Ward has completed 87.

And Connor Daly has completed 96.

That's when it gets dicey for him because Fittipaldi is up to lap 107.

Catherine Legg, 109, and so on and so forth.

That's right.

That means other cars are going to have some big problems.

As we see again, we're Jack Harvey just struggling to keep up to speed right now.

Harvey's still, last time he pitted, 56.

Lap time, 27.0.

Car in front of him, Dixon, 24.6.

So about three and a half seconds quicker is Dixon than Harvey.

Now, Felix Rosenquist, Linus Lundquist, those guys involved in a pretty good battle.

We've got trouble in turn two.

And it looks like maybe an issue for the 41 machine, Davey.

He's to the inside of the exit at turn number two against the inside retaining wall.

And I don't think, I think he just spun, Mark.

I don't see any contact.

It looked like he was going to keep a run and then stalled it right there at the last minute.

Unfortunately, going to bring out that yellow.

But the good news for Stingray Rob, I don't see any damage to that car.

Just looks like a simple spin, got down low, no contact.

Hopefully fire him up.

What they will do, though, Mark, is they're going to clean the top of this racetrack off one more time before another restart.

113 laps complete, a full field rundown for you.

Will Powers, your leader, Scott McLaughlin, second.

Alexander.

Rossi is third.

Santino Ferrucci is fourth.

Marcus Eriksson, fifth.

Colton Hurta is sixth.

Scott Nix at seventh.

Romain Grosjean is eighth.

Jack Harvey is ninth.

Reedus VK is tenth.

From 11th on back, at least a lap down.

Kyle Kirkwood, 12th.

Christian Rasmussen, 13th.

Christian Lundgaard, 14th.

Linus Lundquist, 15th.

Felix Rosenquist, 16th.

Graham Rahal, two laps down at 17th.

Kiffin Simpson, two laps down at Catherine Legge in 18th.

19th, three laps down.

Now Stingray Rob.

We'll see.

We'll see if he gets restarted.

Four laps down at 20th.

Pietro Fittipaldi, Cotter Daly, 14 laps down at 21st.

Pato Award out of the race at 22nd.

Alex Pillow is in 23rd, 28 laps down.

Following drivers out of the race, 24th, David Belucas, 25th,

Nolan Siegel, 26th.

Armstrong at 27th.

Newgarden Powers led 63 laps.

McLaughlin, 39.

Ferrucci, sixth.

Newgarden, four.

Catherine Legge has led a couple laps.

Colton Hurta, plus 12.

Christian Lungard, plus 12.

Marcus Erickson, plus 11, along with Christian Rasmussen.

Scott Dixon, plus 10.

114 laps complete.

Hy-Vee, Milwaukee Mile, 250.

Race number two.

We pause 10 seconds for state identification.

This is the IndyCar Radio Network.

Under caution, pit stops by the leaders, most of them anyway.

Let's get recaps, starting with Michael Young.

That was a good stop for Will Power, our leader,

but not good enough.

Scott McLaughlin actually beat him out on pit lane for Santino Ferrucci.

He had a bit slower stop.

Actually, three cars got around him on pit lane,

so that'll drop him back from fourth into probably the seventh or eighth position.

It all depends on who else stayed out, but, Mark,

it was a race down here at the exit of pit lane.

Big query.

Scott McLaughlin made no adjustments to the car.

Six-second stop, top off with fuel, and then keep in mind,

we mentioned the fact that they do have an extra set of tires to use.

Renis VK.

By the way, came in just behind him.

Nine-and-a-half-second stop.

They did make a wing adjustment for Renis VK and sent him out.

Pietro Fittipaldi has also come in,

but that number 30 MyJack five-hour energy car,

now not under power as if they had taken the rear cowling off

to examine what's wrong with the car, Pietro Fittipaldi.

One of two frontrunners that chose not to pit is now the leader,

Alexander Rossi.

DJ Clark with more on that.

I was down ready in Alexander Rossi's pit lane

as his crew got ready to service the number seven,

just as your leaders came in.

Rossi's crew came back over the wall.

They may have sold him a little bit of a dummy.

Some head games coming on here in pit lane.

Michael Young.

And another update on Will Power.

As I was watching the Santino Ferrucci stop,

Santino just got into his box.

He was in the box, but the back end of the car was right there,

so when Will Power had to exit,

he really had to crank the wheel hard to the right

and miss that right rear tire changer on his exit from the pit box.

So that cost him just enough,

and that car bobbled just enough

to allow Scott McLaughlin to beat him off pit lane.

And again, Davey, our multi-view gives us a good shot

of overhead of Santino Ferrucci's stop,

and that right rear tire changer had some trouble

getting the new tire on

and had trouble getting that thing locked down.

Yeah, what happened is, if you look,

there's a wheel that's laying on the ground.

It's not even in his gun.

Usually they stick it in the gun.

He doesn't catch it.

The thing was laying on the ground.

He had to grab another one to put it on,

and that got him going.

So yeah, from fourth place down to seventh.

But look, you know,

a lot of people got lucky on that, too.

How about Harvey?

He hung it out.

He was 50.

You know, last time he pitted, it was about 56.

He had everybody lap down,

and now he finds himself in the top 10.

You talk about that attrition

and how it's benefiting Alex Pillow.

He has been ordered to the rear of the field,

but he's 28 laps down at 22nd,

and that moves him back in front by 16 points over Will Power.

Let's go to Jake Query.

As for Pietro Fittipaldi's long day,

he had complained on numerous occasions

that he just felt something,

and heard something odd within that number 30 machine.

That's why they brought him in.

They went ahead, killed the engine,

gave a once-over on it,

could not diagnose what any problem may be,

and then sent him back out onto the racetrack.

Let's get an update on the conditions

high at top turn number one from Nick Yeoman.

It's a gorgeous day, Mark,

but a breezy one at that.

For most of the day,

the breeze has been at the driver's back

coming down the front straightaway.

Now it's a bit of a crosswind blowing against them

to the driver's left to right entering turn number one,

and it has picked up quite a bit here

over the last five or ten minutes.

So we talked about it.

Those strategists and engineers said

the wind's going to affect these drivers.

It continues to bluster here at Milwaukee.

Eleven cars are on the lead lap now

as we have 128 laps to go.

Lights are off on the pace car.

It's been dispatched to the inside of turn number three.

We'll pull off the racetrack

and hand the field over to the leader.

Nick Yeoman gives us the roll call.

Yeah, it'll be Alexander Rossi

as we're going to get no start.

We've got to pack them back up,

so we're going to resort that order.

The front mark, it's going to be Alexander Rossi.

He's your race leader.

Then you've got two lap cars behind him.

That's Catherine Legge and Connor Daly.

Scott Dixon, fourth in line, runs in second.

Then you've got a host of lap traffic,

four lap cars to be exact

before you get to those drivers that pitted.

Those are our original front runners,

Scott McLaughlin, Will Power, Marcus Erickson.

They're going to restart third, fourth, and fifth.

Michael Young.

Kyle Kirkwood wasn't running up front,

so they waited to the very end to bring him in

to give him a couple of extra laps on fresh tires.

He'll be the last car on the lead lap.

And they had to shuffle the order a bit

at the rear of the field.

It did not get that completed to their satisfaction.

They have done that now as Alexander Rossi

points it toward turn number four.

He'll come off of turn number four,

and Aaron Likens has the green flag waving

as they roar toward turn number one.

And immediately, Scott Dixon's going to try

to get around those two lap cars

of Catherine Legge and Connor Daly.

He'll dive to the bottom and get around Legge.

He won't clear Connor Daly,

so Dixon falls third in line.

Race leader Alexander Rossi setting sail.

Down the back stretch.

And we watch Linus Lundqvist.

That car looked like it was shot out of a cannon

out of turn number two.

Lundqvist currently in the 12th position.

Trouble, trouble in turn three, Mark.

We just had Christian Rasmussen run to the back

of Graham Rahal and spun him around.

There were two or three cars trying to jostle

for the same bit of real estate down in turn number three.

Looks like Graham Rahal got the worst of it,

bringing out another yellow here at the Milwaukee Mile.

Fifth caution of the day here at the Milwaukee Mile.

I want to thank McAllister's for catering lunch

for the IndyCar.

Our radio crew today,

when it comes to catering your next meeting or event,

McAllister's has a turnkey solution.

Turkey, two turnkey, turnkey options,

and turkey turnkey options.

In fact, turkey, bacon, avocado wrap,

and the honey mustard pepper jack sandwich.

Just hope the intern doesn't bring them

into the wrong meeting.

Simply order on the app or online at McAllister's.com.

Closed quarters racing between three and four,

Davey Hamilton.

Yeah, what happened?

It was closed quarters, but you're right.

It was Rasmussen just ran right in the back of Graham.

You know, when you're that tight,

you got to watch for the cars.

You got to remember, Graham was being sandwiched.

He was the middle of three,

and Rasmussen just ran right into the back of him.

So no question about it.

Graham's bad day goes to worse

by getting ramped into by Rasmussen.

A little bit of a gesture towards Christian Rasmussen

on the part of Graham.

All in all, been a very frustrating weekend

for that talented veteran driver.

Yeah, tough weekend.

They had high expectations.

He talked about how he likes to be walking.

He had a couple podiums here.

Wanted to try to get a win here,

but that team continues.

Struggle, especially on qualifying,

and they just didn't seem to get it right for the race either.

And just, you know, they had one car.

I'd say they played strategy right.

They had Lungard in the top five yesterday.

Now he sits 13th,

so they still have a chance to have a decent finish,

although he is one lap down.

And Davey, this continues to benefit Alex Pillow

as these cars continue to drop out of the race.

No question about it.

So as the points stand right now,

with power in that sixth position right now,

because he fell back a few,

and especially on that start, he lost a few more,

he's 20 points behind Pillow right now.

As you recall, the best, when he was leading it,

he was three points ahead.

So a lot could change.

You know, power just needs to keep digging away,

making sure that he finishes his race

at the very best that he can.

But right now, if they go into the last race,

Pillow, even though a tough day,

finds himself at 22nd,

would have a 20-point lead going into that finale.

And what does this caution do for the strategy

of Rossi and Dixon currently running 1-2, Davey?

Last pinning on lap 96 and 98.

Yeah, you know, that's going to be interesting.

I don't think they're going to pin.

I think they're going to just say track positions

where we're going to keep it right now.

Connor Dainey trying to get a lap back as well

in that second spot.

But obviously, he's lapsed down.

Matter of fact, 14 of them.

But I think they're going to, you know,

at this point, if they didn't pit the first time,

I don't see them pinning now

because they're going to lose so much track position.

It would file them back, actually, to 12th and 13th.

I'm sorry, to a 10th and 11th is where they'd file back into.

I think they're going to gamble on track position,

but don't know if it's going to pay off.

And, Nick, the thing that makes this tough

for those in the top 10

is we've reached that point of the race

where there are so many cars lapsed down,

sprinkled among the top 10.

It makes passing very, very difficult here.

Yeah, and that's where the, you know,

varying closing rates and speeds

have created some moments where, you know,

that situation we just saw with Rasmussen and Rahal,

I'm being honest with you,

I've seen that just about happen

about a dozen times already today.

So those fast cars try to maneuver their way

through last traffic.

Especially when you want to get absolutely everything you can

on fresh Firestone has created some hairy moments.

So hopefully things will settle down a little bit

so we can keep as many of these race cars

on the track as possible.

This is our fourth caution now.

We've had 39 caution laps,

six leaders and eight lead changes among your leaders.

Will Power, Scott McLaughlin, Alexander Rossi,

Santino Ferrucci, they all have led laps today.

Biggest movers on the day.

Dixon is plus 15, Erickson plus 12.

Same for Lundgren.

Guard Hurta is plus 11 and Kyle Kirkwood is plus eight.

Rossi is your leader.

Dixon, P2, McLaughlin, Erickson, Ferrucci.

Power, Hurta, VK, Grosjean and Harvey,

the top 10, Michael Young.

Yeah, I was just listening to the radio

and Barry Wanzer was talking to his driver, Alex Pillow,

and kind of told him where Power was

and where all the lap cars that are 11 on the lead lap.

And as he finished it,

Alex Pillow simply said, nice and spicy.

And Barry Wanzer said, copy that.

There's still a bit of humor in that crew

and obviously this championship's not over yet.

Well, it is what it is

and they might as well stay focused on the task at hand

because the championship is far from being decided.

Dick Yeoman, field is off at turn number four.

Here comes Alexander Rossi.

He's going to lead the lap car of Connor Daly

back to the green flag with Scott Dixon

already looking to the inside

and we got Will Power spinning out of turn number four.

Will Power just lost it out of turn four,

made a light contact with the outside retaining wall

with that Verizon Chevrolet.

He has come to a stop.

Mark, we are under yellow again.

How can this day, Davey, possibly get any crazier?

Is this really happening, right?

I mean, it's unbelievable.

Now, Will Power, he did make slight contact

with the outside barrier.

I don't see any damage to that car.

I don't think he's going to have to pit.

We're going to watch the replay right here.

We see him just, you know, nothing.

Normally, he's got Frucci in front of him,

Hurta behind him,

but we've seen earlier that car was a bit free.

The back end just didn't have a grip

and when he got on that throttle,

just turned around, everybody avoided him.

Barely made contact with that outside wall,

but yeah, another tough, what a tough day for Power.

Going to cycle him now to that 11th position right now.

A little bit lucky there.

Now, he's 28 points behind in the championship.

He was very, very lucky,

and so was Colton Hurta that he didn't collect it.

He came very close to doing that

in the middle of that spin, Davey.

Yeah, and the biggest thing there,

he's really lucky he kept the car running.

You know, that would have put him lapsed down

if he did not and kept that car running barely.

I mean, he was almost to a crawl

when he got it shifted down,

popped that clutch, fired off,

and he's able to gain to the back of that field right now.

I would expect him to go ahead and pit

just because those tires more than likely are flat spotted.

Yeah, so there's no measurable cleanup.

As a matter of fact,

the safety crew has already returned to its position

and the signal has been given that the pits are open

and to that end, a couple of cars

going to take an opportunity to come to pit lane

and we expect one of them to be Will Power

who has led 64 laps,

two laps on the day

and for now has avoided disaster, Michael Young,

as the Verizon machine makes its way onto the pit lane.

He'll have to navigate Felix Rosenquist,

which he's able to do.

So welcome the Verizon machine to pit lane, Michael Young.

Robert Azuzki reminded him there's a lot of race to go.

Of course, Will upset with himself that that happened.

That crew will now go to work.

We'll see those brand new Firestone.

Actually, they're a scuffed pair of Firestone Firehawks.

No changes to that car.

They checked that throwaway.

7.4 seconds.

Will Power's done it away.

So Davey, again, that's where those race strategists

and those crew chiefs,

that's where they can calm those drivers down

and remind them, hey, all is not lost here.

Yeah, that's right.

And by the way, he's in 11th position.

There's only 11 cars on the lap.

It cost him, but he was running six.

So it cost him six spots.

Could have been way worse than that.

And he can.

That car's been fast.

He can make a lot of that up.

Just we got how many laps to go.

We got 116 to go.

So he's got plenty of time to try to make up.

Some shots to get that championship title back up.

Another 16 or 17 laps, Davey.

And Alex Pillow is going to pick up another position

because Graham Rahal, currently in 20th,

listed out of the race, completed 96 laps.

And then that's back to how important every point is.

And that was Pillow and his team working extremely hard

to get that car fixed, get him back on track,

just in case this scenario happened.

Now, this is best case for Pillow, to be honest with you.

His power's going to pit one more time coming in.

They're going to check some things out one more time

before he can do it.

We'll see.

They go back green.

Yeah, he might go a lap down.

It depends on what the plans are for that car.

The crew doesn't have any tires or anything over the wall.

They already took care of that.

Michael Young?

They're going to look and make sure everything is OK on that car.

Checking that front wing, that is the issue.

They checked it on his little stint that he had,

that little pit stop that he made.

They did the front right wing, and they had it look pretty good to me.

And they decided that there is issue with that front wing.

So they're going to keep checking it right now

as Will's revving that engine.

They're going to exit and check that thing out.

And Will Power's down and away, but he will go a lap down.

Nick Yeoman, there goes the field.

Will Power, as Michael confirmed, is going to go a lap down.

It was Catherine Legg who was way out of line down the back straightaway.

She is now in her spot.

So Will Power is going to tag the tail of the field.

Alexander Rossi has control of the field, as Mark, hopefully, fingers crossed,

we're about to get this thing started again.

113 laps to go on the restart.

Scott Dixon.

Trying to make quick work of Conor Daly as the field crosses the start-finish line.

Yeah, Dixon was aggressive out of turn number four.

He'll get around that lap car of Conor Daly

and now try to run down a race leader.

That's Alexander Rossi.

They're separated by four cart lengths down the back straight.

Santino Ferrucci getting racy.

Colton Hurta getting racy just behind him.

That's a battle for the fifth position.

Ferrucci has it.

Hurta wants it.

Marcus Erickson currently running in the fourth spot.

All kinds of traffic off of turn number four.

And Colton Hurta just kept his foot in the throttle,

and he pulled a Ferrucci on Ferrucci.

The outside and took that spot.

Santino is going to charge to the inside.

They're going to go wheel-to-wheel mark in turn two.

They stay side-by-side in the exit of turn number two.

Santino Ferrucci sees the momentum of the Colton Hurta

gain courtesy of that little bit of banking.

But now Ferrucci comes right back.

They go side-by-side through three and four,

and they're going to try to split Marcus Erickson.

They're three wide off of turn number four.

Marcus Erickson stuck in the middle,

and he's going to watch these two incredible Americans go right past.

And now they're glued together again.

Ferrucci on the bottom.

Hurta on the outside.

Ferrucci knows the head out of two.

Neither driver giving an inch,

with Scott McLaughlin running just in front of him.

They're going to catch him very, very soon.

They stay side-by-side through three and four.

Scott McLaughlin's bottled up behind Linus Lundqvist.

He wants to get out of there,

get to the high side of Lundqvist off of turn number four.

They are not giving each other an inch,

and finally Santino Ferrucci gets the advantage

in one of the most extreme situations I think we've seen all season long.

He's trying to get around Lundqvist,

puts him back a lap out of turn number two.

Scott McLaughlin was able to work his way around Christian Rasmussen.

He had to serve a penalty in the pits for avoidable contact,

that incident with Graham Rahal.

Meanwhile, Scott Dixon now trying to track down Alexander Rossi in turn two.

He's got to find about eight car lengths

as things finally settle down just inside the top five.

It's Rossi by nine car lengths over Dixon,

and Dixon back to the lap car of Daly.

Scott McLaughlin sits in third.

Davey, those two young guns,

that was quite a battle for about three laps.

Yeah.

They've had some issues throughout the year.

They had a few confrontations in Detroit,

a few words,

but right now, I'll tell you what,

Ferrucci's saying,

hey, I'm the guy.

I'm going to race anybody.

I'm going to race them hard,

but I'll tell you what,

both those kids race each other super clean,

never touch each other,

never put each other in a bad position,

so great, great race.

That's what we love to see.

Rinas VK is trying to make quick work of Marcus Erickson.

Christian Rasmussen is running to the high side.

He gives room to Marcus Erickson at the bottom of the racetrack.

Rinas VK trying to look strong at the bottom of the track off in turn number four.

This would be the battle for the sixth position.

Here comes VK.

He's got a strong charge down the front straightaway,

trying to get around his teammate Rasmussen.

Rasmussen stays high.

VK will get around him,

and now, Mark, he'll set his sights on Marcus Erickson.

And Roman Grosjean was hoping to make a little quicker work of Christian Rasmussen than he did.

He is bottled up now.

Marcus Erickson, Nick,

that's allowed him to kind of pull away a little bit from Rinas VK,

and Grosjean's still trying to keep pace.

Yeah, boy, I just wonder what Marcus Erickson must have been thinking

when those two Americans split him down the front straightaway.

But now he's got that breathing room.

The advantage of Rinas VK in turn two is eight car lengths.

Scott McLaughlin has now cleared the lap traffic, Nick Yeoman.

He's trying to keep pace with Rossi and Dixon,

but he's about a second and a half behind.

Yeah, so the front three have clean air right now.

Alexander Rossi up front in that papaya orange and white car for Errol McLaren.

He's got about an eight car length advantage over Scott Dixon.

It's another ten.

Back to Scott.

Scott McLaughlin, so it is Errol McLaren,

Chip Ganassi racing, Team Penske, one, two, three.

So, Davey, after early on in the race with the issues for Alex Pillow,

I think we saw like a three or an eight-point lead by Will Power.

Now after that spin, he's lapped out.

He's at 13th, and he's now 31 points back, Davey.

That's right.

We got Pillow in that 22nd position, Power in 13th.

But as you said, 31 back.

So that tells you how important points are.

If Will Power can gather this thing back up and get back on the lap

and get towards the front, you know, that's going to shrink a little bit.

And there's a good opportunity for him to do that.

Jake Query.

Graham Rahal was trying to improve on yesterday's 20th place finish.

It looked like the track was starting to come to you a little bit,

and then you're taken out there.

What was your perspective?

Yeah, I mean, you know, you're starting on used tires

with all the guys on new tires around you.

A very tough, you know, spot to be in.

But ultimately, Jake, we didn't do a good job this weekend as a team.

Our cars were not competitive from the word go.

We put ourselves in a bad position, and unfortunately,

at all times, I felt like we were on our back foot.

And, you know, it kind of bit us there.

Obviously, Rasmussen just drove right into the back of me.

There's not much I can do.

I was three wide.

I had to bail out because I was on used tires.

I was going to take somebody out if I didn't.

And that being said, I just got drilled.

So, you know, disappointing.

But that's been the tale of the tape this weekend.

If I'm not mistaken, yesterday it was a cut tire

that also involved Christian Rasmussen that knocked you out.

He's a young guy.

Do you have a conversation with him?

I think a lot of people.

I've had conversations.

I'm not really sure that much else is going to get through.

I think young guys these days, they're trained,

and they think in a different mentality than the racers of old.

And we've got to get used to that.

But certainly, I think he needs to go back and review the tape

and look at, you know, you've got to drive heads up,

particularly on a restart,

particularly when you know guys around you have old tires.

You've got to be more aware than that.

And unfortunately, not only did he ruin our day,

I think ultimately he ruined his too

because he's a young guy.

Obviously, he was in, you know,

had a pretty good dog in the fight by what I could see.

So, you know, it's disappointing, though,

to cause damage and to be in the position that we're in.

Appreciate the time.

We'll see you in Nashville.

Thank you.

That's Graham Rahal.

Keep in mind, Mark, when he talked about Christian Rasmussen

and the disappointment that could come now for that day,

there is still a very important battle with that 78 car

and the 20 car for that leader circle.

And those two were very close going into it.

Obviously, yesterday, Conor Daly with a good finish show

was an opportunity for Rasmussen to get back some of those points today.

Yeah, to that end, Jake,

the 78 machine of Conor Daly was plus 8 in 21st position.

Pietro Fittipaldi, 22nd with 168 points.

Stingray Rob, 23rd, 163 points.

And Rasmussen in 24th with 160 points, Davey.

So that's an update on that valuable leader circle.

Yeah, not helping anybody.

Rasmussen obviously had a task ahead of him.

He's in that 15th spot right now.

Not helping two laps down.

Needs to keep fighting to try to, you know,

Conor put so many points up yesterday.

With that team that it's going to be hard for the Carpenter team to catch up.

But today was a chance to take advantage with Conor out.

But it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

We're now to the point where there's about, Davey,

about nine laps to go for Alex Pillow to pick up another position, maybe.

He's already leapfrogged over Graham Rahal.

And that lead has swollen to 31 points now.

Yeah, that's right.

31 points.

And he, now Powers still, you know, he needs to try to get on that lead lap.

He's got to get by Lundquist.

And then, and then that would, and then back, well, honestly, around Rossi.

You know, that's the biggest thing.

Or about to get back on that lead lap.

Going to be tough to do.

Going to have to have a little yellow to help him right now.

But right now, that nasty team, that no, not give up attitude,

has paid off today by making sure they get that car fixed.

Get Pillow back on this racetrack at all costs.

And now he's salvaging his championship points.

Well, Nick Yeoman, if you will allow me to reach in the oldest of cliche drawers

and pull one out.

Catch it.

Not everybody is one thing, but passing them is another.

And unfortunately, that's been the case, whether you're a front runner

or you're a car that's a handful of laps down.

Right now, though, Will Power not dealing with any traffic,

but he can't improve his position at all.

He's running on a racetrack all by his lonesome.

Yeah, he's running all by himself, so he's going to try to turn qualifying laps.

Meanwhile, the leaders cannot turn qualifying style laps, Mark.

They are stuck together.

In fact, Scott Dixon's going to take a look to the outside.

He's trying to get it around Alexander Rossi, Mark,

for the race lead at the start-finish line.

Looks like a pretty good lead.

Battle with some cars in front.

Most notably, Stingray Robb as they roar into turn number two.

Rossi clears Stingray Robb.

Scott Dixon does not.

That opens the door for Scott McLaughlin to charge to the outside.

And McLaughlin's going to take P2, getting around Dixon down the backstretch.

He's going to keep the momentum, work his way underneath Stingray Robb,

while again, Alexander Rossi dealing with slower traffic off of turn number four.

And right behind them, Colton Hurta just returned the favor

and threw a slide job to grab fourth on Santino Perucci.

This is all happening in the course of about two,

a hundred yards, the top five through one, two, and three

as they roar down the back straightaway.

Hurta's going to make quick works of Scott Dixon now

and Santino Perucci past Stingray Robb,

and he's going to try to follow as they all roar into turn number four.

Santino Perucci with a strong move into turn number four to Scott Dixon.

Dixon's got to lift.

Those tires are going away on Scott Dixon off of turn number four.

Yeah, it's like he threw the boat anchor out the back of that PNC bank car

as Dixon is tumbled to the fifth spot.

Perucci and Hurta are headed towards the front, up front.

It is Alex.

Santa Rossi by three car lengths over Scott McLaughlin.

Danny, we talked about that air wash and what it does to the car in dirty air.

Is that heightened by the fact that you have a lot more tire deck

for guys like Rossi and Scott Dixon?

Yeah, absolutely.

No question about it.

There's that additional lapse on those tires.

By the way, they've got 20 more laps on those tires than their competitors.

That's what's showing it.

But right now, Rossi's still able to hold Alex McLaughlin by only four tenths of a second.

I'll tell you what, Perucci's the one that's throwing some slide jobs

to keep up with Colton Hurta.

And get by these lap cars.

He has a good line on lapping these cars on entry.

A couple of updates from Pit Road.

Let's start with Michael Young.

Quickly on willpower.

There was an issue with that front wing when Trevor Lacoste tested it.

It flopped a little bit.

There was a stretch fracture on the right side of that wing.

Very smart of that crew to bring it back in,

although he went a lap down to get that changed.

Let's go to DJ.

Felix Rosenkrantz just came in and out of pit lane.

It was a calm, cool, and collected stop.

Tires only for the number 60 Meyershank machine.

Updates from the pits brought to you by Shell,

the official fuel of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Christian Rasmussen, the latest that Alexander Rossi's

having to not navigate off at turn number four.

Rasmussen stays to the high side as Rossi darts to the bottom

to try to put him another lap down.

Scott McLaughlin is going to try to follow him.

The two front two separated by just a couple car lengths.

But Mark, here comes Colton Hurta down the back stretch.

They may go three wide into turn number three.

Colton Hurta goes to the bottom of the racetrack.

Side by side with McLaughlin.

Christian Rasmussen has to lift.

All of this happening behind the leader, Alexander Rossi.

And here comes Scott McLaughlin as Rossi comes to the pit lane.

Rossi needs new firestones.

McLaughlin, your new race leader,

as Hurta, Ferrucci, follow him into turn one from one, two, and three.

Go to pit lane.

Alexander Rossi stopped.

DJ Clark.

He comes to rest in his box here.

Tear off comes off.

New tires come on.

And Shell fuel goes into the car.

It looks pretty clean.

It is a great stop from the number seven Aero McLaren crew.

Kate Query.

Scott Dixon with a routine stop as he came in.

They did not make any adjustments to that car.

Got him down and away quickly.

Scott McLaughlin is also set up.

Mark, we'll let you know when Scott McLaughlin makes his way to pit road.

Yeah, McLaughlin is the leader.

He has a seven-tenths of a second lead over Colton Hurta.

He is working his way around lap traffic.

Hurta, again, is about seven-tenths of a second behind.

We see McLaughlin's crew laid out.

We expect to see him come to the pits at any time.

He woes it up.

Now he'll make the hard left-hand turn now as he works his way onto the pit lane.

We see Lita Slunquist has come to pit lane.

He's up service as a whole gaggle of cars head to turn number one.

Kate Query will call the stop of the leader, Scott McLaughlin.

The Gallagher machine comes in now of Scott McLaughlin.

It goes up into the air.

The four Firestone Firehawks go on.

The tear-off is taken away.

They did not make any adjustment to the front wing, and Scott McLaughlin's down and away.

Rock-solid stop for his crew, Davey.

Yeah, really good stop, and that's what they needed.

He could have went a little longer, but right now, knowing that he's racing with those two cars that just pitted,

and that's Rossi and Dixon, thought, well, better not let them.

So to speak, undercut me and get going faster.

We'll see how this all cycles out right now.

Dixon, Rossi, that puts them all a lap down, but here comes Hurta leading the race.

And Nick Yobin, you say, a good stop in many ways for Scott McLaughlin.

In fact, he just blended back onto the back straightaway ahead of Alexander Rossi and Scott Dixon.

Meanwhile, Mark, another one of those front runners, Santino Ferrucci, locks him up.

He's coming into pit lane.

Yep, and he is working his way onto pit lane.

It's been a good weekend so far for Santino Ferrucci.

Young had a new sponsor on the car for a couple of weeks, a pole center in Portland.

I think it's one of those situations when the leaders come in, you follow suit just to keep that same pace.

The crew goes to work, no problems thus far.

They had the problem with the right rear last time.

Sprock's solid this time.

Good stop for Santino Ferrucci.

6.1 seconds.

A couple of pit boxes behind him.

We see Kyle Kirkwood coming to the attention of his crew.

We also see Marcus Erickson's crew is laid out.

And Christian Lundgaard's crew is laid out.

Just across the way from us, Lundgaard is a couple of laps down.

Trying to work his way back into the top ten as he did yesterday.

Marcus Erickson, he brings his car to pit lane to the attention of his crew, Davey.

Been a serviceable day for him.

He's been in the top five all afternoon.

Yeah, really good run by him, actually.

Falls at six right now because of that pit stop.

But after yesterday, he wants to just finish this race, Mark.

And he needs a little good luck these last few races.

So, we don't know that there's been much of a benefit.

It's so far for Will Power, although we see him start to climb a little bit in the standing sub.

He's now currently listed in the ninth position as these pit stops are underway.

Let's get an update from pit lane, DJ Clark.

I just looked to my left, guys, and I saw the Meijer-Shank crew pushing David Lucas' car back through the paddock.

They are getting that number 66 back onto track.

Remember, that's one of those cars that they brought in, David, specifically to get the leader circle points.

And they are not.

They're not giving away anything today.

So, where we stand right now, Davey, is we've got Colton Hurta, Rita CK, Romain Grosjean, the top three.

They all last pitted on lap 116.

Yeah, I expect him to come in right now.

I'm going to look at lap times, and it kind of keeps track of the entire day.

Hurta, 26.0.

26 flat for BK behind him.

And then you've got the cars that pitted, 25 flat.

So, McLaughlin right now turning a second a lap quicker than Hurta.

Yeah, and Nick Yobin, I know you don't have the benefit of timing.

He's scoring like we have in the booth.

But bottom line is this.

Boy, I'll tell you what.

You can tell who has the fresh tires and who doesn't.

I mean, Mark, it's insane.

I mean, the cars on fresh tires look like they're going 30, 40, 50 miles per hour faster than some of those that are staying out.

And you're watching even some of the drivers that are multiple laps down.

They're now starting to blow by Colton Hurta as they come on the pit lane.

So, two different strategies here as Hurta is going a lot longer than some of those other front runners he's been battling with.

I know he's 29 laps.

He lapsed out at 21st.

But we still want to keep our eye on Alex Pillow, Michael Young.

And he'll still need another stop after this one.

A good stop, 7.5 seconds.

Only a half turn into that front wing.

They keep coaching him.

We're not out of the championship yet.

Just keep digging.

Take query.

You had mentioned Colton Hurta last pitted on lap 116.

Right now, they are not set up over the other side of the wall.

They are anticipating trying to get 14 more laps out of Colton Hurta before they bring him in.

Your thoughts on that strategy, Davey?

Yeah, you know, I don't know.

I mean, I don't know.

I think I would have brought him in when he knows he's running up front.

He can race, get on the same strategy those leaders are.

Now he's losing ground.

And so, he's losing ground pretty drastically.

That last lap, he kept up 25.9.

But McLaughlin, 25.1.

Nearly a second quicker still lap.

And I just think when it all cycles out, that he's going to find himself farther back with that lead path.

We expect to see the leader in 14 laps.

It's Colton Hurta, Reedus VK, Romain Grosjean, Scott McLaughlin, Alexander Rossi.

On a differing pitch strategy, 174 laps complete.

We'll keep it right here because Will Powers coming in.

Michael Young, he will do so currently running in the 10th position.

And he is a lap down.

And as it stands right now, he's 30 points behind Alex Pillow.

Just such an odd day.

And everybody looks content that all of a sudden the crews will make a call to bring him in.

Remember, he went on scuffs last time.

They've got brand new firestones this time.

But by my calculations, he'll still need one more.

There's a.

They're off just a half turn to that front.

Wade Will Powers out of the way.

6.8 seconds.

Remember issues there were for David Malukas.

The crew has those fixed.

He has back out.

But he is well off the pace.

Currently listed in the 24th position.

176 laps complete.

The Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250, race number two.

180 laps complete.

70 to go.

Race number two.

The Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250.

You're listening to it on one of these great radio stations.

WSMN in Nashville, New Hampshire.

The game, WLME in Owensboro, Kentucky.

And the big 920, WOKY, right here in the fabulous city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

And we are seeing some of those on the differing pit strategy struggle a little bit.

Nick Yeoman, most notably, Reedus VK and Roman Grosjean.

Yeah, they're going an alternate strategy, Mark.

The only problem is they're going so long that some of those guys that pitted just a little bit ago

are starting to pass them.

Scott McLaughlin got around VK and Grosjean.

As did Alexander Rossi.

So we're starting to see that go-long strategy turn its ugly head for some of those cars.

Dick Query.

You had talked about the fact that right now Colton Hurd, as Nick had mentioned, is out in clean air

as a result of that.

Rob Edwards, just a second ago, asked his driver of that Cambridge car,

do you want to make changes when you come in?

Colton Hurd has said no.

Everything's good right now.

We'll see if that holds true to form once he comes into the pits.

Michael?

For Roman Grosjean, still may need one more.

Really going to have to stretch this stop.

Crew goes to work on that car.

For Roman, says the car has been good.

No changes.

Actually, a half turn to that front wing.

That's it.

Little bobble off, but still a good stop.

6.9 seconds.

Yeah, we saw him get freight-traded by a couple of cars, Davey Hamilton.

He said enough is enough.

I'll tell you what, Davey, we're going to keep an eye on the stop of Rita's VK.

He was running in the top three for a while on the same strategy as Grosjean, Dixon, and others.

Comes to the attention of his crew.

It looks like four Firestone Firehawks will go on and off.

And waiting for the fuel hose to be disconnected.

Davey, good.

Clean stop for Rita's VK.

Yeah, very good stop.

They are on that strategy.

Will not pit.

They're going to ride it to the end.

Colton Hurdle leading this race.

Looks like he has put himself in a good position.

He's able to keep pace up fairly good.

I mean, he's 26-0 right there.

But Glockland, 24-9, a little over a second.

But he's eight seconds back.

So that means if Hurdle pits within, you know, that eight laps,

that should cycle out pretty good putting Hurdle on new tires and just fighting it to the end.

He's kind of caught up in turn number three.

Right.

Now he just had the 45 of Lungard go around him.

Catherine Legg to the bottom of the racetrack.

And Catherine Legg is going to work her way around Colton Hurdle.

She's currently five laps down at 16th.

But she didn't have any issues at all passing Colton Hurdle, Nick.

Yeah, Colton Hurdle is playing the long game here.

And he is driving really smart, letting some of these cars that are slower than him on pace

but have the fresher tires go on by,

knowing that he's just got to try to milk this fuel tank for every drop that it's got.

And then once he puts on a fresh set of fires,

those, that 26 car, I'm sure,

will come to life.

We see one of the Hoonco stars going to roar to the outside.

Colton stays low.

In fact, Mark Colton Hurdle is coming to pit lane.

Here comes our race leader.

Colton Hurdle on the day has led 23 laps.

And he will relinquish the lead,

come to the attention of the Gain Breach crew,

and Jake Query is there.

And what did we say?

We said he did not anticipate any change or need it.

We'll see if that maintains to be true.

As the Firestone Firehawks go on,

the fuel goes in,

the tear-off is down.

They, in fact, made no changes.

Eight and a half.

Second stop for Colton Hurdle.

And we'll rely on Nick Yeoman to give us an idea

of where he will blend back in as he exits the pits.

Yeah, I think the most important thing here

is that he stays on the lead lap

as he moves his way to that pit exit lane.

The leader, Scott McLaughlin,

is coming through turn number one.

So Colton Hurdle is going to accelerate down the back straightaway,

stay on the lead lap,

but he will tumble down the running order, Mark.

But that eight-second lead, Dave,

he minimized the damage for Colton Hurdle.

Yeah, no, that's right.

He minimized for sure,

finds himself in that sixth position.

You've got to remember, that's his last stop.

So, you know, I mean, right now,

he's looking strong now on those new tires.

We'll just have to see when McLaughlin, Rossi,

Ferrucci, Dixon, and Erickson,

when they stop later on in this race,

and how long, how much faster can they be than Colton?

Can they make up that eight-second difference?

And right now, it seems like a pretty good strategy.

I have to give that Andretti team and Colton a lot of credit

because they were just hanging on.

Colton was hanging on and just trying to get by

on those older tires.

That car obviously is balanced pretty good

to be able to do that.

Well, and to his benefit, Davey,

about the last, I don't know, 15 laps or so,

I would say 10 of those laps,

he had a clean, green racetrack in front of him,

and that always helps when you've got that tire deck.

Yeah, that's right.

And right now, you know, like 21 seconds back,

I mean, that's easy.

You're going to put him back in the lead of this race.

No question about it, sitting on that lead lap.

As Nick said, how important that is.

So he's in really good shape right now

and taking the long run.

Now, the other two drivers that did that,

Grosjean and BK, not so much.

They're a lap down.

Don't think it's going to work.

Now for them, but Hurta was able to hang on

in a good position.

59 laps to go.

Let's give you the full field rundown.

Scott McLaughlin is your leader.

Alexander Rossi is second,

Fulci is third.

Dixon is fourth.

Erickson is fifth.

Colton Hurta is sixth.

Six cars on the lead lap.

Lap down in seventh, Kyle Kirkwood.

Eighth, Grosjean.

Ninth, BK.

And tenth, Lundqvist.

Two laps down, 11, Felix Rosenquist.

12th, Will Power.

13th, Christian Lundgaard.

14th, Jack Harvey.

15th, Kiffin Simpson,

who's three laps down,

along with Harvey.

By the way, Catherine Legg,

four laps down.

Christian Rasmussen, five laps down.

Stig Ray Robb, 18th.

He's 18th with six laps down.

14 laps down.

Fittipaldi and Daly, 19th and 20th.

Alex Below, 21st.

He is 29 laps down.

22nd, Graham Rayholt, out of the race.

Padova Ward, out of the race at 23rd.

David Malukas is 111 laps down,

but still turning laps here.

25th, Siegel.

26th, Armstrong.

27th, Newgarden, out of the race.

It's the Hy-Vee.

Milwaukee Mile, 250, race number two.

Lap 198, pit stops underway.

Let's start with Michael Young.

And for the final stop for Santino Ferrucci,

it was a 7.8-second stop.

No changes.

That will drop him down to that ninth position.

Jake Query.

6.4-second stop for Scott McLaughlin.

They put a set of lightly scuffed Firestone Firehawks on it,

sent him back out once they topped him up with fuel.

B.J. Clark.

It was another good stop for Alexander Rossi

in the number seven crew.

But Shell Fuel and Firestone Firehawks on the car.

He's back out.

Dixon Erickson among those.

The new race leader debut cycles back to Colton Hurta.

Really good run by them right now.

He's eight seconds ahead, kind of where they were earlier on

when Colton made his stop.

So it kind of cycled out the same.

Difference is Hurta went out.

He's going to have older tires at the end by 11 laps.

I don't think that's a difference.

I'm going to have a difference,

especially when I see McLaughlin put on scuffed tires.

Those weren't stickers.

Some of the good ones.

That had already been gotten out of those tires.

So right now, Colton Hurta leading this by seven seconds.

So as we cycle through now with now 50 laps to go,

it's Hurta, McLaughlin, Rossi, Grosjean, Ferrucci, VK, and Dixon.

Davey Hart, believe just seven cars on the lead lap.

Yeah, well, you know, Colton really put everybody in an awkward position.

He's the one that did most of that

because a lot of those cars were going to be on that lead lap.

But with that strategy that he decided to try, it worked out.

It really worked out for him.

Not worked out for him.

These drivers, we would have had about 12 or 13 cars,

actually 14 on the lead lap if Colton Hurta went with everybody else's strategy.

But him and that team decided, nope, we're going to go on a different one.

I'm going to struggle on old tires.

Instead of two more stops, I'm going to make one more and see if we pay it off.

Well, checking back in on the championship contenders, Davey.

Alex Pillow is 29 laps down, currently 21st.

Will Power is a lap down in the 11th position.

And the lead now for Alex Pillow is at 30 points.

Yeah, right.

Now, you're right, 30 points right now.

Which it looks like Power has the opportunity to gain a few more spots.

He could get up to that 8th position, four more spots,

and try to narrow that lap or that points gap down.

But still, it looks like Pillow is definitely going to leave here with the points lead.

So, again, recapping the top seven, we should say, that are on the lead lap.

Hurta, McLaughlin, Rossi, Ferrucci, Dixon, Grosjean, and VK.

Let's give you the rest of the field.

8th is Linus Lundqvist, a lap down.

Erickson, a lap down in 9th.

Rosenquist, a lap down in 10th.

Power, a lap down in 11th.

12th, Kirkwood, a lap down.

2 laps down in 13th.

Lundgaard, Harvey, 14th.

Simpson, 3 laps down in 15th.

Leg, 16th.

4 laps down.

5 laps down is Rasmussen in 17th.

18th is Rob, 5 laps down.

Connor Daly, 14 laps down in 19th.

Fittipaldi, now listed as out of the race.

He is 20th.

Alex Pillow, 21st.

29 laps down.

Rahal is out of the race.

He's currently listed as 22nd.

David Malouk is still running, but he's 23rd.

Several laps down.

Award, 24th out.

25th, Siegel.

26th, Armstrong.

And 27th, Dugard.

Hurta's been plus 17 all the day, Davey, and he has now led 31 laps.

Yeah, pretty impressive.

Like I said, continue to talk about now.

As you said, only 7 cars on the lead lap.

VK and Grosjean on the same strategy as Hurta was, but they couldn't hold that pace.

They just couldn't hold it.

They couldn't hold the pace that Hurta did.

But they're still the last 2 cars on the lead lap, which is a huge benefit.

Still a good finish for both those teams.

They were the 6th and the 7th if we could end that way.

Scott McLaughlin has a fast race car, Nick Yeo.

But a few moments ago, that lead was 7 seconds for Colton Hurta.

And Scott McLaughlin just worked his way around Catherine Legg.

And he has shaved about 3.5 seconds off that lead over the last 4 laps.

Yeah, and that is really bad news for Colton Hurta.

Because I think we are all wondering what the pace in those Firestones for Hurta is.

Are going to be like in the last 20 laps.

We've still got 43 circuits around the Milwaukee Mile.

Scott McLaughlin works around Christian Lundgaard in turn number 3.

Now there's no more lap traffic in front of him.

And he's got to find about 25 car lengths to catch Colton Hurta.

Yeah, he sees him at the start-finish line now as he comes off in turn number 4.

So, Davey, there's no question McLaughlin's coming.

Yeah, when we look at that time, as you said, a little over 7 seconds when he got back on track.

It's now 2.5 seconds.

2.5 seconds, as Nick said, with 42 circuits left.

I'm just questioning how good McLaughlin's tires are going to be at the end of this as well.

Because they were scuffed tires going on.

Let's go to D.J. Clark.

Felix Rosenquist comes down into pit lane.

Out of the 10th place position.

Waiting for him here at this point to come on in.

The team is ready and they will get ready to go.

No changes applied to the Meyers Schenck racing machine, we do believe.

It looked like he went around another lap on us here.

He'll be back in shortly.

Jake Cleary varying pit strategies here just like we saw yesterday.

But four pit stops today for Colton Hurta.

That is correct.

And the last one is going to have to take him 63 laps on the tires that he has on.

So that's going to be the issue or the question for Colton Hurta.

Let's face it, Davey, though, all in all, he's had a really well-handling race car at 63 laps.

It may not be a problem.

The question is, tires will be fine, but will he have enough fuel?

Yeah, I think fuel will be good.

I think he'll be fine on fuel.

I think it's going to be the tire dag that's going to cost him, if anything.

He's only 1.1 seconds ahead of McLaughlin right now.

I think...

They're all going to equalize out.

It's just going to be lap traffic and how they catch it is going to play out who wins this race.

Six-tenths of a second to lead for Colton Hurta as here comes Scott McLaughlin.

Nick Yeoman up in turn two.

Yeah, McLaughlin has not inched towards Colton Hurta.

He has taken out chunks, and now he is right on the rear wing.

They're separated by two car lengths as they apex through turns three and four.

Back onto the front straightaway, Hurta by a car length.

And there are some slower cars in front of them.

Reed is VK and Jack Harvey as they work their way into turn number one.

Colton Hurta.

Scott McLaughlin.

They're both going to run that middle groove.

That takes the air off the nose of Scott McLaughlin's car.

He has to gather it back up, Mark, as he charges out of turn two.

Boy, you can clearly see that car wash up the banking, the nine degrees of banking,

when it gets right behind Colton Hurta.

He'll try to gather it back in now as the two of them race off at turn number four.

They'll both hammer the throttle down this front straightaway.

They're both trying to catch the lap car of Jack Harvey,

but this is more importantly for the race win.

Colton Hurta now moves up the lane.

Scott McLaughlin puts his left side firestones in that dark.

Roger Gray, he's got a charge at a two.

He arced it into turn one a little differently,

and that allowed him to gain some momentum.

Tries to do the same thing in turn number three,

but Colton Hurta kind of shuts the door.

It's a two-car length advantage now for turn number four.

Now, Colton Hurta has said, Scott, if you're going to pass me,

you're going to have to do it on the inside,

and it is hard to do on that slicker asphalt.

Back into turn number one, Hurta.

He's going to move up to the middle lane.

McLaughlin dove it in deep, and he lost a ton.

He's going to pick the throttle back up.

He's got a charge down the back stretch.

A strong run in the halfway point of the back stretch.

They go side-by-side into turn number three.

Colton Hurta has the high side.

Scott McLaughlin has the bottom of the racetrack.

Colton Hurta trying to hold on, stay in the throttle.

He gets pushed up to the outside retaining wall,

side-by-side of the start-finish line.

McLaughlin got really loose out of four and just about wrecked it.

It allows Colton Hurta to get back out front.

Once again, out of turn number two, Colton Hurta with a two-car length advantage.

McLaughlin simply will not go away.

Still not able to pull up on the car of Jack Harvey.

McLaughlin wanted to throw with a hand.

He's at him again in turn number three.

He wasn't able to do it.

Colton Hurta washes up the racetrack, opens it up for Scott McLaughlin.

They're nose to tail in the start-finish line.

Well, I don't know if they can do this for another 34 laps, but we'll see.

Colton Hurta back into turn number one.

Again, running that higher groove.

McLaughlin goes all the way to the bottom.

He'll have to gather it back in.

Loses all of his momentum out of turn two.

Didn't quite have enough room, although he had the momentum to make the pass

at the bottom of the racetrack at the apex of turn number two.

That's allowed Colton Hurta to pull away by two car lengths, but McLaughlin comes

back in the start-finish line.

Again, they are nose to tail.

McLaughlin with a good charge out of turn four.

He's going to get to Colton's right rear tire.

He's going to go wheel-to-wheel into turn number one.

McLaughlin, he's going to take the race lead, exiting turn two.

Scott McLaughlin with a strong run through one and two, and now all of a sudden,

he has checked out on Colton Hurta.

He'll have to deal with lap traffic, though, as he sets up for turn number three.

Both roar through the third corner.

Scott McLaughlin opens up about a five-car length advantage.

McLaughlin catching Jack Harvey down the front straightaway,

but that lead is...

It's growing as they all head back to turn one.

Works his way around Jack Harvey, or tries to, but Jack Harvey says not so fast.

McLaughlin's car really strong at the bottom of the racetrack,

but it pitched off a little bit at the apex of turn number two,

and Harvey's now pulled away into turn number three.

Rita C.K. running in front of Jack Harvey.

Scott McLaughlin now has opened up about a ten-car length lead over Colton Hurta

off in turn number four.

And I think we're starting to see the tire tread and the speed of Colton Hurta's

fire stones start to go away, because now some of that slower lap traffic behind him,

like Christian Lundgaard, he looks a lot faster than Hurta.

He's all over Hurta's rear wing at a two.

This time by, there'll be 30 laps to go with a high V, Milwaukee mile, 250.

27 laps complete.

Scott McLaughlin has opened up a 2.8-second lead over Hurta.

Rossi is third, Dixon fourth, Santino Ferrucci complete the top five to Jay Query.

And Colton Hurta will run this stint with 11 further laps than Scott McLaughlin,

just in terms of the way they staggered out.

But when I asked Kyle Moyer, how many more laps did those tires that you just put on

McLaughlin's car for this final stint have on them, he said zero.

Mark, there's a little gamesmanship there.

Those were absolutely slightly scuffed tires, but we'll see if the grip holds on

and maintains that same grip advantage for Scott McLaughlin over Colton Hurta.

Now, the grip looks good so far on those tires of Scott McLaughlin, Danny.

Yeah, and what happens sometimes, they were scuffed, but he literally could have went

out of the pits, went one lap and pulled right in, just to get that shine off,

just to kind of get him sized.

Kind of put a heat cycle in him.

So he could be, obviously, he's not going to, I mean, if it had laps on it, he would tell us.

And that's probably the situation, which is a good news for McLaughlin,

as he pulls out to a three-second lead on Hurta.

Now, Rossi in that third position, he is only one second behind Hurta.

So he needs to be, you know, keep track of Rossi, too, try not to pass him as well.

Yeah, and Rossi's going to be on him before long.

But, you know, Scott McLaughlin has his own set of worries,

because the 45 machine of Christian Lundgaard

has not made it easy for him.

Lundgaard's getting a little racy late in the race.

He's three laps down, but he just worked his way around Rita's VK.

And McLaughlin, Nick, is trying to work his way around both of them.

Yeah, and I think, you know, the term pace, it's all relative, right?

Because I think Scott McLaughlin may be losing some pace in his Firestones,

as he is starting to get passed by some of those cars.

But he's still significantly faster than Colton Hurta down the back straightaway.

Hurta's concerns, you're absolutely right.

That's Alexander Rossi, who's about five car lengths behind.

As they all enter turn number three.

And we should make mention, Davey, according to the race strategist,

that tire deck over the length of a run could be anywhere from two to three seconds.

We have a yellow flag in turn number two, Nick Yeoman.

Is Stingray Robb, the driver for A.J. Foyt Racing,

is up against the outside retaining wall in turn number two here at the Milwaukee Miles.

So this brings out another yellow.

And, Mark, I think it changes just about everything.

We pause ten seconds for state's identification.

Okay.

This is the IndyCar Radio Network.

Jake Quarry on pit road back at the Milwaukee Mile,

as this caution has brought out all of the teams on a pit road,

including our leader, Scott McLaughlin, who brings in the Gallagher machine.

And now Scott McLaughlin with stop number five puts on a new set of rubber.

They wait.

Those are slightly scuffed tires.

McLaughlin down and away.

Efficient stop.

Colton Hurta's also going to be in as well.

Michael Young.

For Santino Ferrucci, final stop of the day.

It'll be a pair of...

Scuffed Firestone Firehawks.

Rossi's already through.

We see Hurta's couple of lapsed cars down.

But Ferrucci will find himself about midway through that pack of cars.

7.2 seconds.

DJ Clark.

It was a lightning fast stop for the Aero McLaren team.

They were able to jump Alexander Rossi up into second place.

And Jake Quarry.

And they also, of course, with Colton Hurta, did the same.

Went ahead and put on a new set of tires.

They're scuffed, of course, but in comparison to those that were falling off just a little bit.

So we'll see how everybody cycles out.

As Colton Hurta works his way back out.

And it'll be interesting to see how everybody cycles out, Davey.

So I'm sure everybody smartly took advantage of that caution by Stingray Rob

to be able to come in and get a fresh set of Firestone Firehawks for the final 18 laps.

Yeah, that's right.

It's going to probably be about 16 when the green comes out.

Maybe even 15.

And it's going to be a clear racetrack for McLaughlin, Rossi, Dixon.

Top three right now.

Hurta obviously had a bad stop down there.

I didn't really catch it and see what happened.

But he came in second.

Goes out fourth.

And Frucci stayed in that fifth position.

So no loss, no gain there.

But you know Frucci on these starts.

He's going to go for it.

No question about it.

And you wonder if we've reached that window now.

And it looks like it might be the case.

Fingers crossed, Davey.

We've seen over the past couple of years toward the end of a race.

Inside what?

The last 10 or 15 or so.

They move those cars that are a lap down around the pace car

and give those leaders a chance to slug it out for the finish.

Yeah, I don't know what that number is.

I think you're right.

I think it's 15.

And that's with the sweeper still in the track.

With 17 to go, it will be 15 or less by the time they get these sweepers off the track.

And so I assume they're going to take the lappers out, correct?

So those sweepers working through one and two and then again in three and four, Davey.

And I'm sure the drivers are happy to see those sweepers

trying to get as many marbles as they can off the high line.

That's right.

And guess what?

Take one other look.

Guess who else is on the lead lap right now?

That is Will Power.

Finally got that lap back.

Finds himself in that 10th position now, Mark.

32 points still down on the championship.

But guess what?

It's him on opportunity with just a few laps left to make up some ground.

Kirkwood, Erickson, Grosjean in front of him.

And the car of Pietro Fittipaldi sits on pit lane.

He's 21st and out of the race.

And right now, Alex Pillow, once 27th, Davey, has worked his way up seven positions to the 20th spot.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, just, you know, fight, fight, fight.

And that's what that Andretti team has.

They said, hey, we got to get this fixed.

As we know, when we look at yesterday's race, hardly any cars out, almost every car finished this race.

Today, we have, what is it, four, eight cars out of this race just unheard of.

Michael Young.

Will Power and Alex Pillow.

How odd is it at the end of this race that the two of them battle side by side?

And Will Power had a fantastic stop.

He'll work his way around Kyle Kirkwood back onto the track.

Good stuff for Alex Pillow as well.

So a handful of these drivers, Davey, at the end of this yellow window deciding to come in for tires and fuel.

Might as well, right?

I mean, nothing to lose at that point.

They got their lap back.

Now, come on in.

That's Erickson, Power, Kirkwood.

Power did beat Kirkwood out, so puts him in that ninth position.

One more spot ahead.

We'll look at the points.

He's now 30 points behind.

So every spot counts, as we continue to say.

30 points behind in this championship.

Still a long ways compared to early in this race.

He was three points ahead.

So not a great day for Will, but just trying to salvage it.

14 laps to go this time by.

And it's your top ten that are on the lead lap.

McLaughlin, Rossi, Dixon, Hurta.

For Rucci.

Fifth.

VK, Grosjean, Erickson, Power, and Kirkwood, the top ten.

Then we start to get a lap down around Rosenquist and Lundgaard at 11th and 12th.

Nick Yeoman, how is the situation with the sweepers on the racetrack?

Well, I got good news.

The sweepers are off the racetrack, and we are watching the lap cars be brought down pit lane.

We absolutely love this move by race control and this ruling that we saw established a couple years ago.

So, Mark, all the front runners are going to be lined up nose to tail.

McLaughlin, Rossi, Dixon, the top three.

And you've got Hurta, for Rucci, fourth and fifth.

And then shout out to Rinas, VK, and Roman Grosjean sitting in that sixth and seventh spot.

They could be factors as well here in the final 14 laps.

What an unbelievably entertaining weekend it has been all throughout the weekend, Davey, here at the Milwaukee Mile.

So, do you think it was a good move to come back to the Milwaukee Mile?

Oh, my goodness.

I'd say absolutely.

Two outstanding races.

Totally different races.

Completely different podiums.

Man, what an exciting time.

And, by the way, Mark, as you can look down and see,

how about the fans here today and yesterday?

Absolutely outstanding.

They are all on their feet, and they are about to be treated to what we think will be a most memorable finish

and quite a shootout now over the last 12 or 13 laps of this race.

Before the race began, had an opportunity to walk through that free fan zone.

Talked to Bud Dinker a little bit earlier today as well.

We talked to him on Friday, and they were filled with so much anticipation.

He said there were people here.

Bill, 11 o'clock last night.

And I can tell you, I got here a couple of hours before we ever went on the air,

and that fan zone was absolutely full of entertainment and vendors and food

and just an incredible atmosphere, Davey Hamilton, all weekend long here at the Milwaukee Mile.

Yeah, always is.

I'm excited they're back.

I mean, the best part is the fans showed up, and we are putting an outstanding event on.

I mean, this race, I mean, there's not a crew member, a driver, people in the stands,

or any of us know what's going to happen, but we're all excited to see this last,

with, give me 11 laps, shootout here for the end.

The lights are out on the pace car, and the pace car continues to pull away.

They're starting to gather around victory circle in the infield,

seeing who they will crown as the winner of race number two.

Pace car is off.

Dick Gilman, one more time, give us the top ten roll call into turn number three.

It is going to be an 11-lap shootout.

Scott McLaughlin is going to lead them back to the green flag with Alexander Rossi,

Scott Dixon, Colton Hurta, and Santino Ferrucci, the top five,

settling here at the Milwaukee Mile.

One of those times when Santino Ferrucci is usually worth the price of admission.

We'll see if he holds true to form.

Front four start to separate themselves a little bit as they roar into turn number one.

Scott McLaughlin got a great restart, and it's Scott Dixon who is aggressive into turn number one.

He'll take second from Alexander Rossi.

Colton Hurta comes with him, jumps to third out of turn two.

Colton Hurta looks awfully strong.

He's to the inside of Scott Dixon.

They'll go side-by-side into turn number three.

It looks like Colton Hurta is going to make the pass, Dick.

Scott Dixon says not so fast.

They're side-by-side in the exit into turn number four.

And this is great news for Scott McLaughlin as they run side-by-side.

He's opened up about a 15-car length advantage.

Dixon now clears Colton Hurta into turn number one.

Behind them, Ferrucci and VK go side-by-side.

Still McLaughlin out front.

Santino Ferrucci trying to track down Alexander Rossi.

VK trying to track down Santino Ferrucci as they set up for turn number three.

Scott McLaughlin with a comfortable advantage of the start-finish line.

Ten to go.

Roars across that.

Start-finish line.

And that two-tone blue Chevrolet for Team Penske.

Scott Dixon trying to dig deep.

He's might have closed a bit on this lap.

He's got it down to seven car lengths down the back straightaway.

Front three with pretty good separation.

That's McLaughlin.

That's Dixon.

And that's Hurta.

Alexander Rossi now has his mirrors fill up of Santino Ferrucci.

Ferrucci on the charge through three and four.

Reedus VK trying to keep pace.

Pretty good battle between Kirkwood and Erickson.

That's the battle for seventh as the leaders head back to turn one.

And again, Scott Dixon continues to inch.

His way forward.

It was seven car lengths.

This time down the back straightaway.

He's got it down to about five.

A pair of Scots battling in the turn number three here at Milwaukee.

And it is six-tenths of a second off of turn number four.

The advantage.

Scott McLaughlin over Scott Dixon as they roar back to the start-finish line with seven laps to go.

It's Penske versus Ganassi.

It's Chevrolet versus Honda.

It's as good as it gets in IndyCar racing.

Again, out of turn number two.

McLaughlin and Dixon running that same middle groove down the back stretch again.

For all intents and purposes.

Colt purposes.

Colt DeHerta has lost the battle with those front two, didn't he, Hamilton?

Yeah.

Yeah, he, for whatever reason, just didn't fire off like normal now.

He's by himself in between Dixon and Rossi.

But no challenge to gain a spot.

And really no challenge to losing right now as Frucci gets by Rossi.

And they go side-by-side into turn number one.

Nick Yelvin to the battle for third.

That is the battle for the fourth spot.

Ferrucci wiggles at corner entry.

He's going to wrestle that spot away from Alexander Rossi.

Gets on his horse and charges down the back stretch.

Behind them.

And VK and Erickson.

That's a pretty good battle.

That's a battle for the sixth position.

As VK sees Erickson try to drive to the bottom of the racetrack.

But he's going to shut the door on him off at turn number four.

Yeah, VK got a really nice strong run through the center of the corner.

Now he's going to move down to try to break the draft.

To try to stall out that run by Erickson.

As they're all trying to call their way back into the top five.

Eight tenths of a second to lead for Scott McLaughlin as he roars off at turn number four.

He will see four laps to go this time in the starter stand as he sets sail for turn number one.

And that charge by Scott Dixon is stalled out again.

About five car lengths behind as they're into turn number one.

Dixon trying to move up the racetrack.

Find a little clean air.

Trying to run down McLaughlin down the back stretch.

Both heard it for now as a firm grasp on that third spot on the podium.

It looks like Santino Ferrucci has kind of wrangled fourth away.

Alexander Rossi trying to keep pace before long.

Marcus Erickson's going to catch him.

Scott McLaughlin.

Three laps to go.

Roars into turn number one.

Yep.

McLaughlin and Dixon just both got around the lap.

The car of Christian Rasmussen.

That didn't stall the run for either one.

They're still glued about five car lengths apart down the back straightaway here at the Milwaukee Mile.

It's holding steady at about six to seven tenths of a second for Scott McLaughlin.

McLaughlin comes off of turn number four.

Two laps to go for Scott McLaughlin here at the Milwaukee Mile.

All the fans here at Milwaukee are on their feet cheering on McLaughlin and Dixon into turn number one.

Again, Dixon trying to search around the racetrack.

Find any amount of speed to run down McLaughlin down the back stretch.

It's up next.

Eight tenths of a second now.

The PNC bank machine makes a hard charge into turn number three.

Scott McLaughlin will see the white flag this time by off of turn number four.

Matt Gallagher's Chevrolet for Team Penske.

And Scott McLaughlin roars underneath Aaron Likens' white flag into turn number one.

Good entry.

Absolutely stable through turns one and two.

McLaughlin trying to hold on to win here at Milwaukee.

Holding steady at seven tenths of a second for Scott McLaughlin.

He has led 84 laps on the day.

Scott Dixon with a hard charge.

He's cutting down to five tenths of a second.

McLaughlin off of turn number four for the final time.

The advanced auto part checkered flag is in the air.

Pole center yesterday.

Race winner today.

Scott McLaughlin goes to victory lane.

He wins the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 race number two.

Scott Dixon, Colton Hurtis, Santino Ferrucci, Marcus Erickson complete the top five.

Let's go, boys.

You have to win a team game today, my man.

Take a treat to the moon, boys.

Let's go.

A P2 for Scott Dixon, Michael Young.

I don't know if it was me that said it was going to be a long day or you,

but clearly it wasn't a long day for you.

That was a fantastic run today, Scott, for this team and for what happened to Alex Pillow.

All in all, fantastic.

Yeah, it was definitely a rough start to our weekend.

You know, the car was so good on Friday and qualifying.

I don't know.

We just lost the balance and put us in a bit of a hole.

Yesterday, we just couldn't catch a break, you know.

So it was nice to roll from 17th there and, you know, get up to second spot.

I think if we had another restart, car was definitely good on long runs.

Traffic was a little lefty.

We couldn't run on the black, but, man, the car was fast.

So huge thank you to, you know, everybody on the PNC Bank number nine.

Honda, of course, was a dream to drive out there today.

So, yeah, hopefully we can go one better in a couple of weeks.

How about being back on the podium here at Milwaukee?

Yeah, it's fun, man.

It's cool to be back here.

It was great to see the crowd turning up out here.

And, you know, it's the first time back in many years.

And hopefully we can keep this tradition going and fill those stands out more.

Enjoyed that cream puff.

Thanks, buddy.

There you go.

That's Scott Dixon, DJ Clark.

I'm down here with third place finisher Colton Hurta.

Colton, an alternate strategy that paid out in spades for you to be able to be here on the podium.

Yeah, I mean, I think we were, even on the other strategy, we were going to get on the podium.

We had a really fast race car.

But, you know, the guys did an incredible job in the pits.

Good job on the box with strategy.

The Cambridge Honda was fast.

And that's all I can ask for as a driver.

So I had a lot of fun.

You know, 18th to third.

So I'm really happy about that.

Looked like you could place this car anywhere.

Does that give you hope going into next year to give you a little bit of an idea of what this car can do

and maybe mount a good challenge next year as well?

Yeah, I mean, we know how to make a good car work here now.

You know, there's a lot of unknowns.

And even after testing, we weren't sure if our package was going to be strong or not.

So it's really reassuring to come here and see that it is.

All right.

That's Colton Hurta.

Over to you.

All right, Santino Ferrucci.

A couple of fourth place finishes on a weekend in Milwaukee.

I know you'd like to have been on that podium, but that was a hell of a weekend for you.

Yeah, honestly, hats off to the crew, man.

They did an amazing job in the pit lane.

It's great to have the Phoenix Investors car running up front both days after not so great of a qualifying.

You know, I just really want to thank everybody and thank, you know, Sexton Properties, Chevrolet.

I mean, we had a bad, fast race car and, you know, just shy of the podium.

It's funny to say we're disappointed with two fourths.

But, I mean, that's huge for us as a team.

And, you know, we'll go into Nashville still on that trophy hunt.

All right.

More opportunities for Santino Ferrucci to do Santino Ferrucci things well done this weekend.

Thank you.

Santino Ferrucci, DJ Clark.

I'm down here with the very jubilant Marcus Erickson.

Marcus, after a rough day yesterday, we talked to you this morning.

You said you had the speed and you certainly showed it.

Big hugs here from Santino Ferrucci.

A great run.

Yeah, it was a great day for us.

I think, you know, we were doing a really good job in the pits.

Good starts and restarts.

We were lacking a little bit of pace there mid-race.

I just couldn't, you know, we put ourselves in a position to fight for the win.

But we just couldn't really keep up with the quickest cars.

But, you know, we had to rebuild three out of four corners, the whole rear end, after yesterday's crash.

So, you know, the guys just did a fantastic job to get that car so competitive.

And a top five.

And it was fun that last stint after the yellow where we had to, you know, just push hard and overtake some cars.

And last lap pass for a top five is always a good feeling.

So, yeah, really proud of the 28 group.

All right.

That's Marcus Erickson in fifth.

We throw over to Jake Querrey.

It is a jubilant Scott McLachlan here in victory circle who I went around.

And I think you actually went around and high-fived about half the fans that came down here.

Obviously, I could tell just the relief of the weekend.

Heck of a run.

I've had a blast here this weekend.

Milwaukee's turned it on.

I can't wait to get out the back and have a beer in the beer stands and have a bit of fun.

So, I appreciate all you guys.

The Gulligan Chevy was unreal.

And, yeah, it's a roll in Nashville.

But, yeah, that was a blast, man.

That was probably the most fun IndyCar race I've had ever in my career.

It's interesting.

Because what happened yesterday in a hiccup kind of helped you today because you had, if I'm not mistaken,

one extra fresh set of tires.

And that grip helped you out.

Then, of course, you made that last stop.

But if you could recap for us just how good that Gallagher car felt on that fresh road.

Oh, we went really hard.

You know, we were pretty bad yesterday.

And I didn't do a good job either.

I hardly slept last night because I was just so stressed about the bad job I did.

And, you know, I'm really proud of the tenacity that we showed as a group.

Pit stops were unreal as per usual.

And thirsty threes were ripping.

Really proud of everyone.

You know, we'll just keep working here.

All we can do is win races.

The Gallagher Chevy, it's my first time with Gallagher on the car.

And I won a race.

So I'm pumped with that.

So I'm really excited.

Car number three, win number three on the season.

The seventh in the IndyCar career so far for Scott McLaughlin.

Congratulations, Michael.

Tenth place finish for Will Power.

33 points back.

Will, that was about the wildest race I think I can remember in some time.

You have a smile on your face as you look at your competitors out there.

What's going through your mind right now?

Oh, yeah.

Oof.

Man, we had a shot there.

I can't believe I let that go, you know.

What happened in turn four?

I just spun up, man.

I just spun up.

It was in second gear.

I was used to first gear restarts.

Just my bad completely.

Yeah.

Yep.

I'll be kicking myself on that one.

But I still have a chance for a very long shot.

But it's still not over.

And you did a great job working your way back onto the lead lap on that final set.

The crew did an amazing job as well.

They did, yeah.

Yeah.

Good stuff, man.

I was the one that made that mistake.

Big time.

Yeah.

All right.

We'll see you in Nashville.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you.

That's Will Power.

Let's go to DJ Clark.

Down here with seventh place finishing, Renis VK.

And you were just telling me that last round of pit stops,

you had to make a little bit of an unorthodox strategy call,

but it worked out for you.

Yeah.

So we had to go to 25-lap old tires.

So it wasn't ideal, but they were better than the 50-lap old tires we had on the car.

But, yeah, that made it tough.

It was really.

It was really hanging on by a thread there at the end.

But, you know, P7, I think we can call a very, very good day.

It was sketchy out there.

A lot of guys in trouble.

But, no, we had a good day.

And I think this is what we need to do to finish out the season on a strong note.

Well, you certainly did have a strong note here.

That's Renis VK.

Let's discuss the manufacturer's point standing as we head into the final race of the season, Davey.

Good day for Chevrolet, first and fourth.

Honda.

Good day, second and third and fifth.

But Chevrolet leads 1,426 points to 1,260.

Yeah, I haven't pinned the paper, but I think it's over.

I think Chevrolet has got this locked up at this point.

I think even if Honda was to sweep out in Nashville, Chevrolet still has got the job done.

Right now it looks very strong to have, you know, a champion, you know, with a Honda.

But then the manufacturer with a Chevrolet and the 500 with a Chevrolet.

So it kind of mixed it up this year.

It mixed it.

It mixed it up indeed.

We could tell you there were seven leaders, 13 lead changes, six cautions for 57 laps.

Your leaders, Scott McLaughlin, 85 laps, Power, 64 laps, Rossi, 46 laps, Hurta, 43 laps, and Ferrucci led six laps.

Let's hear from Alex Pillow.

Not an ideal day, but Michael Young, it could have been oh so much worse.

A 19th place finish for Alex Pillow.

You were at one point out of the championship lead.

You now are 33 points.

To the positive side.

You kept a very positive attitude.

I think at one point Will Power was running six, still on the lead lap.

And you said nice and spicy.

And things got very spicy out there when he spun out.

Walk us through that day, though.

Yeah.

First rating, I think, for everybody at the 10 or the Ganassi camp.

But, yeah, nothing we could have done differently there today.

We made mistakes in the past, but I don't think today was that day.

And, yeah, we were just trying to get some points.

At the end, I think we...

We overtook, like, nine cars, so we survived more than nine other cars.

So, yeah, once we were already in the worst-case scenario, I think we ended up pretty good.

And, yeah, I'm obviously a bit surprised about what happened there on the restart with the 12th.

But, yeah, nothing that we could have done differently in the 10 car.

When did you spin back into race mode, knowing that, hey, I can make up some points here?

Well, as soon as I got into the car.

I mean, you never...

I never give up.

So, yeah, I knew that if you want to win the championship, it could be only one point.

So you need to...

Once something happened, I wanted to cry, obviously.

Everybody wanted to cry and stop and go home.

But it's not the spirit that we have.

It's not the mentality.

And we knew that that was not the mentality we needed to fight for the championship in Nashville.

And that's why you're a champion.

Well done today.

Thank you.

That's Alex Pillow, 33 points ahead of Will Power as we go on to Nashville in two weeks.

What's up, Michael Young?

Thank you.

50 points ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Davey.

If Pillow starts the race at Nashville, that eliminates McLaughlin.

So it's essentially between he and Will Power when we get to Nashville.

Yeah, that's right.

And we've seen that that gap can be closed.

But it takes bad luck on one of these drivers' side.

And it would be Pillow at this point to have another bad day like that.

And we don't see that very often, honestly.

So, right now, he's definitely favored going into this last race.

I think it's going to be a fantastic time.

And Nashville haven't been there for a long time either.

And I expect to have an exciting, great race like this.

I hope Firestone brings the same kind of tire.

And that track winds out to where we can go two and three wide there as well.

So it's going to be fun.

Great stuff all weekend.

Safe travels.

We'll see you in Nashville.

All right.

Looking forward to it.

Full field rundown now.

Scott McLaughlin, your winner.

Scott Dixon, second.

Hurda, third.

Ferrucci, fourth.

Erickson, fifth.

Rossi, sixth.

VK, seventh.

Kyle Kirkwood, eighth.

Romain Grosjean, ninth.

Will Power, tenth.

A lap down, 11th.

Felix Rosenquist, two laps down and 12th.

Christian Lundgaard, Kiffin Simpson, 13th.

Three laps down.

Jack Harvey in 14th.

Four laps down.

Catherine Legg, 15th.

Seven laps down and 16th.

Christian Rasmussen, 17th.

Out of the race, Connor Daly, 18th.

Stingray Robb, 29 laps down and 19th.

Alex Pillow, 20th.

Linus Lundquist, out of the race.

Also out, Fittipaldi, 21st.

Belukas, 22nd.

Rahal, 23rd.

O'Ward, 24th.

25th, Nolan Siegel, 26th.

Armstrong in 27th.

Newgarden.

Congratulations to everyone involved on a successful return to this Milwaukee Mile.

And again, Scott McLaughlin, the winner of the Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile, race number two.

Pato O'Ward, the winner on day one.

Let's go, boys!

That's your winner at Sheen's Garden State, my man.

Woo!

Take a treat to the moon, boys.

Let's go.

The Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile, race number two, has been brought to you by

Firestone, the official tire of the NTT IndyCar Series, for redefining the limits.

Advanced Auto Parts, official checkered flag of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Pennzoil, official motor oil of the NTT IndyCar Series.

American Medical Response, official partner of the NTT IndyCar Series.

And the AMR IndyCar Safety Team.

Coors Light, cold as the Rockies.

Coors Light is proud to be the official beer partner of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Coors Light, choose chill.

By Racing Optics.

The official aero screen and helmet tear-off of the NTT IndyCar Series.

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Nothing fits like a henchman.

The Indy Racing Experience.

The fastest seat in sports.

Borg Water, official turbochargers of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Safety Clean, official environmental service partner of the NTT IndyCar Series.

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By Shell, official fuel of the NTT IndyCar Series.

And by NTT.

NTT.

The official technology and title partner of the NTT IndyCar Series.

Our driver analyst today was Davey Hamilton in the pits.

Michael Young, Jake Query, and DJ Clark.

Helping to call the action for the turns, Nick Yeoman.

Our chief engineer is Rick Evans.

In-car audio production by Tim Spiro.

Master control operations in our Indian Atlas Studios by Sam Rumza.

Production assistance by Paul Levin.

The network director is Chris Pollack.

Our executive producer is Kevin Sublin.

This is Bart Jane.

Join us here on most of these same stations for flag-to-flag coverage of the next and final

NTT IndyCar Series race of 2024.

It's the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Super Speedway.

Follow us all weekend long for practice and qualifying.

Then come back to most of these same stations for live flag-to-flag coverage of the race

starting at 3 p.m. Eastern.

A champion will be crowned and history will be made.

This is the NTT IndyCar Series.

So long from the Milwaukee.

The preceding was an exclusive copyrighted presentation of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.