– Mick Schumacher (RLL-Honda; 13th) was unable to convert the brilliant starting position at the Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 into a new personal best. Losses in position during restarts threw him out of the top 10.
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Initially, the son of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher was able to hold fourth place until lap 38, when the first of three yellow phases occurred as Romain Grosjean spun but was able to continue. Schumacher even climbed to third place during the subsequent pit stop.
At the restart, however, he lost his rhythm when attacked by Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet; 2nd). Several other cars passed him, and he only stabilized at eighth place. A change to the front wing backfired, which was corrected two-thirds during the next stop.
Photo series: Mick Schumacher’s results in the 2026 IndyCar season
During the following green flag stop, he was overtaken by several cars via undercut and thus fell out of the top 10. On lap 142, there was another yellow phase when Josef Newgarden (Penske-Chevrolet; DNF) spun into the wall. This caution led to a third yellow phase when Grosjean finally retired from the race at the restart.
Even at the subsequent restart, Schumacher went backwards. He lost several more places and stabilized at 13th. One more stop under green was still pending, during which Schumacher was again caught by undercuts. Scott Dixon (Ganassi-Honda) also passed him and then blocked him for a long time on older tires.
30 laps before the end, Dixon finally pitted and Schumacher caught up once more to Alexander Rossi (ECR-Chevrolet; 11th) ahead of him but could no longer attack. Instead, Santino Ferrucci (Foyt-Chevrolet; 12th) overtook him in the very last meters. Schumacher saw the checkered flag in 13th place.
His teammate Louis Foster (RLL-Honda; 10th) overtook him already during his first wave of position losses, fell back behind Schumacher again during the pit stop under yellow in the double caution, but passed him again at the restart. Graham Rahal (RLL-Honda; 22nd) experienced a weekend to forget.
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O’Ward fights back from a bad stop
The win went to Patricio “Pato” O’Ward, who really had to fight through. His pit stop during the first yellow flag went wrong and he initially fell out of the top 10. Afterwards, he even had several duels with Mick Schumacher, during which positions changed multiple times.
After the double caution, he was still only in ninth position but then rushed to the front with good speed and clever strategy during the last stop. On lap 196, he took the lead and defended it until the finish.
Scott McLaughlin finished second, surprisingly able to hold up front. He did not pit during the double caution and thus had the same strategy as Scott Dixon. While Dixon fell far back, McLaughlin was able to hold his ground in the lead group on the old Firestone tires. He was only 0.792 seconds behind the winner.
A true “mic-drop” moment was delivered by Christian Lundgaard (McLaren-Chevrolet; 3rd). The Dane, who must vacate his McLaren seat at the end of the season due to poor oval performances, scored his first podium on an oval. He is thus likely to leave with a top result on an oval track, probably heading to Ganassi.
Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda; 5th) missed the early title win as fifth but gets another chance in the continuation of the interrupted first race. He led the field for a long time in the first half but lacked some firepower against the Chevrolets towards the end. He finished fifth behind David Malukas (Penske-Chevrolet; 4th).
The restart of the first race continuation is at midnight CEST. (All info on the IndyCar double-header in Milwaukee)
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