Ed Carpenter Racing had the best race of the team's history this Sunday, as Christian Rasmussen took his first IndyCar win and Alexander Rossi finished fourth at the Milwaukee Mile. A dominant day by Alex Palou seemed to be setting up the already crowned 2025 IndyCar Champion to win one more race on his way to tying the most wins of a season, but fresh tires and a bold final 28 laps from Rasmussen stole the show and the win.
Rasmussen and his Ed Carpenter Racing team decided the race that, if there was a late caution, tires mattered more than track position.
The Danish driver was among the first to come down pitlane with the field splitting his decision. He would restart seventh.
"We were talking about it before the race. If there were a late caution, we wanted to go with new tires because there was such an advantage."
For just a moment in the closing 30 laps, sunny rain fell on the track, bringing out a short caution to set up the final sprint of 28 laps.
Rasmussen restarted two positions behind his teammate and made quick work of battling past Rossi to move onto Josef Newgarden, who carries the best oval record of any current driver. Rasmussen passed Newgarden on the highside, and Rossi followed. The second ECR driver touched Newgarden on the way, but the former champion was able to save himself from the spin.
Rasmussen then quickly took second from McLaughlin a lap later. The gap to the leader with 20 to go was 1.6 with a one-lapped car in between. Rasmussen quickly made it past the Prema, which was a lap down. His spotter was calling to him to be patient. Still, Rasmussen, through the final laps, proved that he had the tire advantage and the guts to pass anywhere. Twelve laps into the restart, Rasmussen had made it inline with Palou, and as they crossed the start/finish line with 15 laps remaining, he pulled away to take the lead.
Rasmussen would continue to pull away from Palou and win the race by almost two seconds.
With his win, Rasmussen became the first new winner since fellow Dane Christian Lundgaard won his first IndyCar race in the tenth round of the 2023 IndyCar Season on the Toronto Street Circuit.
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