Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 Gallagher Team Penske Chevrolet kept his championship hopes alive following victory in race 2 of the Hy-Vee 250 at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday.
On a day where there were issues for his teammate Will Power and championship leader Alex Palou, McLaughlin who started the race from second place seized the opportunity and claimed his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES oval win.
The New Zealander heads to the season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Super Speedway still mathematically in the running to win the championship albeit 49 points behind Palou.
That was the most fun race I have had in INDYCAR, it was a blast. So happy for everyone on the Gallagher Chevy because we just stuck with it. It wasn’t quite good at the start, but we trimmed it up and it was awesome. Lot better with traffic today which helped a lot. Credit to Colton (Herta) and all the guys we raced with, we had a blast. The 21 car, the crew, they helped me a lot in some exchanges and helped me with getting in the box. Big thanks to Team Chevy, and that teamwork that we have. But yeah, I am pumped.”
For Will Power in the No.12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet he started the race 43 points back from Palou and had a solid race going before spinning coming to the green during a caution period.
Power was able to recover to finish the race in tenth place and in doing so he has closed to 33-points to championship leader Alex Palou.
That was the most fun race I have had in INDYCAR, it was a blast. So happy for everyone on the Gallagher Chevy because we just stuck with it. It wasn’t quite good at the start, but we trimmed it up and it was awesome. Lot better with traffic today which helped a lot. Credit to Colton (Herta) and all the guys we raced with, we had a blast. The 21 car, the crew, they helped me a lot in some exchanges and helped me with getting in the box. Big thanks to Team Chevy, and that teamwork that we have. But yeah, I am pumped.”
For Josef Newgarden, a disappointing Saturday which saw him retire from the race following a collision with Marcus Ericsson continued in the race on Sunday.
Starting the race from pole he was caught up in an accident with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong resulting in a second retirement for the Tennessee native.
I really have no idea what happened there. Obviously the start was called off by race control and then I just got hit by the 11. Definitely had higher hopes for this weekend, especially starting on the pole with the Snap-on Chevy.”