Photo by Kyle McInnes

Today’s Schedule:

SATURDAY, AUG. 31
Noon-12:45 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone Qualifying (Single car, Two laps), INDYCAR LIVE
1:15 p.m. Qualifying for the NTT P1 Award (Single car, Two laps (Lap 1/Race 1; Lap 2/Race 2), Peacock
2:55 p.m. INDY NXT by Firestone Milwaukee 100 (“Drivers, start your engines”)

3 p.m.  INDY NXT by Firestone at Milwaukee Mile (90 laps/91.35 miles), Peacock
4:40 p.m. Peacock on air
5:01 p.m. “Drivers, start your engines”
5:05 p.m. Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250s Race 1 (250 laps/253.75 miles), Peacock (Live)

It’s an old school race day at an old school track today. The historic Milwaukee Mile has qualifying and a race for both Indy NXT and Indycar. Today’s Indycar race is only on Peacock.

I hope we see a bit more speed today than the times that were posted yesterday, I didn’t expect laps below 160 mph. Patrick Carpentier’s track record of 185 looks safe for another year.

While qualifying may affect the early running order in the race, this will come down to a battle between the usual suspects. Unless Josef Newgarden does not qualify well, his nine spot grid penalty won’t matter. He will be up there near the end. After qualifying, we will have a better read on how the race could shape up. I still see Scott Dixon winning one of the races, and a Penske driver winning the other one.

Notes

How many fans will come out today? It sounds as if the series is hoping for 15,000, which would be decent considering it is a holiday weekend. Labor Day events typically do not draw well.

As I mentioned yesterday, the track looks much better than I remember from the last time Indycar was here early in the last decade. The place looks clean and fresh. The many concession booths and permanent buildings behind the grandstands appear to have also received a bit of freshening up.

I’ll be back early this afternoon with a wrap up of qualifying and the starting lineup.