As Christian Rasmussen hopped out of his car and celebrated his first career IndyCar victory, he pounded the windscreen of his car and hugged both his teammate Alexander Rossi and his crew members.
Two weeks after winning the championship, Alex Palou dominated and was on his way to another victory at the Milwaukee Mile. But then the rain came. While the 2025 series champion stayed out, along with two other drivers, the rest of the field pitted under the caution with 42 laps to go. On fresh tires and with 21 laps to go, Rasmussen passed Scott McLaughlin for second. In five laps, he cut the lead from two seconds to less than three-tenths of a second. With 15 laps to go, Rasmussen overtook Palou for the lead and drove on to his maiden victory in the Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250.
“Yeah, amazing,” Rasmussen said. “Great job by the team this weekend. We started pretty rough, like we were really struggling in practice one. Got it turned around for qualifying. Qualified better than I thought we would, to be honest, which was really good.
“The race went our way. We did what we do best on ovals: running whatever line the car in front is not (smiling). Again, we were amazing in traffic, which that’s what made the main difference today again I think. Then with a good call there at the end going onto the new tires, having something to fight with.
“Yeah, pretty cool getting my first win here. Good Sunday.”
It’s his first career victory in 15 NTT INDYCAR Series starts.
Palou led 199 of 250 laps, but came home second. McLaughlin rounded out the podium in third.
“Yeah, was amazing day for us,” Palou said. “Anyway, I thought it was my best race on an oval, even though we didn’t win. I think we’ve got some (indiscernible). The 500, I think it was just different how everything played out.
“Today was amazing, a bunch of fun. Good on Christian. I think he was really fast. It’s great to see him win.”
“I mean, that was probably Alex’s race,” McLaughlin said. “(Indiscernible) let that happen. Massive congrats to Christian. As Alex said, he’s been super quick on ovals, super brave. He’s doing an awesome job with that car.
“He has a great teammate in Alex. Yeah, just cool to see someone get their first race win. I know how that feels. Alex knows how that feels. It’s a special moment.
“Yeah, proud for my team. Nice to get some momentum back. A couple of top 10s, now a podium. Not exactly what we want, but it’s a start.”
Rossi and Pato O’Ward rounded out the top-five.
Christian Lundgaard, Josef Newgarden, David Malukas, Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong rounded out the top-10.
Christian Rasmussen earns maiden victory at Milwaukee
Race summary
Palou led the field to green at 2:21 p.m. ET. Caution flew on the first lap when Nolan Siegel clipped the curb in Turn 4, got loose and hit the outside wall.
Back to green on Lap 10, caution flew on the same lap when Graham Rahal spun in Turn 2, but maintained control of his car.
Back to green on Lap 16, Malukas went high in Turns 1 and 2 and overtook Palou for the lead. Afterwards, the field settled into a green flag rhythm. After pulling out to a 1.5 second lead, Malukas backed off his pace when he caught the back-end of the field on Lap 35. This let Palou close the gap down to under a second. When Malukas caught Jacob Abel, the gap shrank to under half a second. By Lap 39, Malukas cleared Abel in Turn 2. Eventually, thanks to lap traffic, Palou closed in and passed him for the lead in Turn 3 on Lap 41.
With the four-stop pit window open, Rossi kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 49. Palou pit from the lead on Lap 58. Louis Foster pit from the lead on Lap 60 and Palou cycled back to the lead.
The second round of green flag stops began on Lap 102. Palou pit from the lead on Lap 104 and caution flew on Lap 105 when Will Power hit the wall in Turn 2, again in Turn 3 and spun down the track. On pit road, Malukas, who pitted on Lap 103, suffered a pit gun failure and lost a lap.
Back to green on Lap 119, the field, again, settled into a green flag rhythm. Caution flew on Lap 142 when Callum Illot’s engine expired. Marcus Armstrong stayed out to take the lead.
Back to green on Lap 154, Palou overtook Armstrong in Turn 1 with ease to retake the race lead. Rossi kicked off the final cycle of green flag stops on Lap 190. Palou pit from the lead on Lap 196.
Caution flew with 42 laps to go for rain. Palou, McLaughlin and Newgarden stayed out. While the rest of the field pitted under this caution.
Back to green with 29 laps to go, Palou pulled out to a two-second lead. With 21 to go, Christian Rasmussen, on fresh tires, overtook McLaughlin for second. In three laps, he cut the lead from two seconds to under a second. With 16 to go, he caught the tail of Palou. With 15 to go, he ran high in Turns 3 and 4 to edge Palou at the line and overtook him going into Turn 1.
Christian Rasmussen earns maiden victory at Milwaukee
What else happened
Conor Daly gained five spots on the opening lap, going from ninth to fourth. Colton Herta went from 17th to 10th.
Christian Rasmussen earns maiden victory at Milwaukee
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted two hours, two minutes and eight seconds, at an average speed of 124.656 mph. There were 11 lead changes among six different drivers and five cautions for 49 laps.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action for the final time in 2025, next Sunday, at Nashville Superspeedway.
