Just as David Malukas lit the torch to burn the broom, Pato O’Ward snuffed out the flame and drove past Malukas on the final restart to win both races at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday.
I just watched the replay of Race 1 (second race of the day). here are some quick thoughts.
The history books had a huge rewrite after the race.
The sense of urgency to complete the race, enhanced by sprinkles of rain at the beginning, made for some great moves and some exciting passing.
The completion oof Race 1 from Saturday quickly became an event dominated by Malukas, who clearly had the fastest car. But on the restart with 24 laps to go, an engine hiccup in the Verizon car allowed O’Ward to get past him and win by more than a second.
Malukas now has six second place finishes in his career without a victory. The consensus going into 2026 was that Malukas would surely win a race in his first year with Team Penske. I hope he takes solace in the fact that Simon Pagenaud did not win a race in his first year with Penske either. Pagenaud turned out to be oretty good.
O’Ward is the seventh driver to win two races in one day, and the first since Rick Mears, who won twice at Atlanta in 1981. Other drivers who have achieved this rare feat are Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Mario Andretti, and Dan Gurney. That is not a bad club to be as member of.
More history came at the end of the final race of the day as Alex Palou won his fifth IndyCar title in six years and his fourth in a row. Palou joins Serbastien Bourdais as the only driver to win four consecutive championships. Only A. J. Foyt (7) and Scott Dixon (6) have more titles than Palou, But the Spaniard is just 29 years old, three years younger than Foyt was when he won his fifth title.
A third bit of history which FOX gave just a scant whiff of notice to was Rinus VeeKay finishing third for Juncos Hollinger Racing. I believe this is the first podium for the team, and deserved more than showing the team celebrating as they went off the air.
VeeKay was one of Sunday’s best drivers. He fell out of contention in the afternoon race after a slow pit stop. VeeKay had been in the top five most of that race. In the nightcap the driver from the Netherlands took third place from Scott McLaughlin with a brilliant move just three laps from the checkered flag.
FOX- A Tired Crew?
I don’t know, but I can assume that the FOX crew was just as tired as everyone else was by the end of the day Sunday. I though the telecast of the suspended race was one of their worst of the season.
The pit stop timer was an on again, off again thing, missing at the crucial stops of the le4aders. Many teams did a remarkable job of completing stops with no time elapsed.
I didn’t understand their obsession with Josef Newgarden, lingering in the bottom half of the top 10. We didn’t need to see his onboard camera for several laps. There was also an inset of 15th place Kyle Kirkwood which was unnecessary.
I look for an improved show from a refreshed broadcast team next Sunday.
I will have a full weekend wrap up tomorrow.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 