Home / Auto Sports / Christian Rasmussen steals maiden IndyCar win after late weather caution

Christian Rasmussen steals maiden IndyCar win after late weather caution


A spot of rain on a sunny day made all the difference for Christian Rasmussen at the Milwaukee Mile. Rasmussen came to pit road for a fresh tires after brief rain brought out a caution with 42 laps remaining and chased down a dominant Alex Palou over a final 28-lap run to score his first NTT IndyCar Series victory in the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250.

“Wow,” an overjoyed Rasmussen said after the race. “That’s a good Sunday.”

 

The Danish driver was running eighth when the caution first flew and sat sixth when the green finally came out 14 laps later. But he quickly surged forward when the final run began. Rasmussen was up to fourth with 25 to go, sneaking ahead of teammate Alexander Rossi to lead all drivers with fresh rubber. He passed Josef Newgarden for third a lap later, surged past Scott McLaughlin for second with 21 laps remaining and quickly chased Palou down.

By the time Rasmussen had caught the 2025 champ with 16 laps remaining, there was little doubt over what was to come. The 25-year-old jumped to Palou’s outside going into turn 3, survived a tense half-lap battle and marched off to a memorable victory for Ed Carpenter Racing.

“Today was amazing,” Rasmussen said. “We were talking about (it) before the race, that if there’s a late caution, then we want to go on new tires. Because it’s such an advantage. There was more people that did it than I thought there would (be) in that last stint, but it was definitely the right choice. We were so good on new tires, even compared to other cars on new tires.“

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Palou was the dominant driver on the day, but had to settle for second after taking the checkered flag 1.9463s behind Rasmussen. He’ll fall at least one victory short of matching A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr. for IndyCar’s single-season win record.

Scott McLaughlin held onto third to score his first podium since Barber Motorsports Park in May. Rossi and Pato O’Ward completed the top-five, with Christian Lundgaard, Josef Newgarden, David Malukas, Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong wrapping up the top 10.

The race was stalled out by a pair of early cautions, first for a crashing Nolan Siegel on the opening lap and again when Graham Rahal all-but-crashed on the lap 10 restart.

Those early slowdowns opened the door for a three-stop pit strategy, but significant tire wear left everyone planning for at least four stops over Sunday’s 250 laps. Rossi kicked off the first pit sequence before the race hit lap 50. Stops began again on lap 102 and again every time another 50 laps passed.

For the bulk of the time, it looked like Palou would march off to another comfortable win, particularly after the last scheduled set of stops entering the race’s final 50 laps. But a little fateful rain and some late heroics helped Rasmussen etch his name into the list of IndyCar oval winners.

With Milwaukee complete, just one race remains in the 2025 IndyCar season. The campaign will wrap up next Sunday (Aug. 31), when the series ventures to Nashville Superspeedway for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix.

In this article

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *