Favorites and sleepers: Milwaukee

The historic 1.015-mile oval of the Milwaukee Mile is ready for a double dose of action as it hosts two NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this weekend. The Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 gets underway at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, followed by the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 at 1 p.m. ET Sunday, with coverage airing on FOX, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls. Since the series returned to the Wisconsin State Fair track in 2024 after a nine-year hiatus, three races have been held. Chevrolet has claimed every single one of those wins, though each victory belonged to a different driver and team, featuring triumphs from Arrow McLaren's Pato O’Ward, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, and ECR’s Christian Rasmussen.

Chevrolet's dominance on short ovals is staggering. Ever since the 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine arrived in 2012, Chevrolet-powered machines have dominated by winning 33 out of 44 races across Iowa Speedway, Milwaukee Mile, Nashville Superspeedway, Phoenix Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway. This season, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden took wins at Phoenix Raceway and World Wide Technology Raceway, while Honda driver Alex Palou secured a victory at Nashville Superspeedway.

Among the favorites, Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Snap-on Team Penske Chevrolet enters winless at the Mile across seven starts, which include four appearances between 2012 and 2015, though he boasts three top-10 finishes there including a seventh place last year. The two-time INDYCAR SERIES champion holds 12 short-oval wins in 27 starts since 2019 alongside 20 overall oval victories, and sits second in oval points this season. Scott McLaughlin, driving the No. 3 Clarience Technologies Team Penske Chevrolet for Race 1 and the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet for Race 2, has never finished worse than eighth in his three Milwaukee starts—a race where he started on pole and led 147 of 250 laps before winning the next day from second on the grid after leading 85 laps. McLaughlin is third in oval points, backed by two wins and 16 top-five finishes in 21 short-oval starts.

Pato O’Ward wheels the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet holding a 5.3 average starting position and a 10th-place average finish at the track, having won the 2024 return race before hitting a 24th-place finish the next day and a fifth-place finish last year. Across 35 career oval starts, O’Ward has secured four wins, nine runner-up finishes, and 24 top-five results. Meanwhile, Alex Palou pilots the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, bringing two top-five finishes from three Milwaukee starts, including a runner-up result last year after starting from pole and leading 199 of 250 laps before falling to a late charge from Rasmussen. Rounding out the primary favorites is David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, who has scored the most oval points of any driver this season after taking a pole and leading 73 laps at Phoenix before finishing third, taking seventh at World Wide Technology Raceway, and finishing third at Nashville.