Written by Archie O’Reilly
You would be hard-charged to find a podium with the entertainment value of IndyCar’s first on its return to the Milwaukee Mile.
Regular readers will know this post-race series of articles usually has the title: ‘IndyCar Drivers’ View’. But for this one, ‘Talk Show’ feels more apt after the out-of-control scenes that unfolded in the media centre as nightfall neared in Wisconsin.
First enter Will Power and Conor Daly, the second and third-place finishers for Team Penske and Juncos Hollinger Racing.
Power, reeling from singing in the press conference after victory in Portland, was his usual effervescent and frankly hilarious self. And Daly, a captivating and entertaining talker as ‘Speed Street’ podcast host, had supposedly just consumed a good deal of champagne - a long time in waiting.
Power had notched his seventh top-two finish of the season, closing the gap to Alex Palou atop the championship as the Spaniard finished fifth. Quite alternatively, Daly stepped on the rostrum for only the second time in IndyCar after his only previous podium in Detroit in 2016; it was a first-ever visit to the IndyCar podium for the Ricardo Juncos-led team.
Once race-winner Pato O’Ward entered stage left sporting a sizable sombrero - available at “Pato Shop, bro” - there was going to be no restoring of order.
Unprovoked chats of Mexico, marriage and having ‘that dog’ ensued among much else. And there was, of course, also talk about another entertaining short oval affair, Daly’s dream day and O’Ward’s proving of a point as he sealed a first career three-win campaign on a day of debate about IndyCar missing out on racing in his homeland.
Here is the reaction to a feel-good ending to a day hardly short of things to discuss…
“Pato who?”
As O’Ward delivered the synopsis of his race, you could just tell Power was eager to chime in. And it reached a stage where he could hold on no longer.
“We should be in Mexico City, not NASCAR,” he said, completely unprompted. “I say we should be in Mexico City.”
Audible exclamations and laughter followed from the podium trio. And those only grew.
“Pato who?” O’Ward joked in response, clearly directed at the claims that he is now well-known enough to warrant IndyCar racing in Mexico.
This was, of course, related to the debate about IndyCar missing out on a race in O’Ward’s homeland to NASCAR in 2025. A fair amount of outrage had been directed at Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles after comments about O’Ward not being famous enough, despite his legions of fans at every race and an Instagram following higher than the series.
After such a day of attention surrounding a story he was at the centre of, O’Ward more than did his talking with a defiant on-track statement.
“I was chilling in the morning, I was chilling in the afternoon,” he said. “I was just here for business.”
Cue Daly: “Business baby!”
O’Ward’s post-race Instagram post, captioned “Pato WHO?”, gained traction. And chief among comments was that from Arrow McLaren sporting director Tony Kanaan after Miles’ suggestions that O’Ward is not on enough billboards.
“Patito, maybe we will get you a billboard now,” Kanaan commented.
This topic had earlier prompted O’Ward to post a picture of a billboard by the Milwaukee track promoting the NASCAR Truck Series and not the ongoing IndyCar event.
Standing up to Formula 1 and NASCAR
After a period away from Milwaukee, it is not lost on the drivers how important it is to ensure the event succeeds. Especially off the basis of how good a show the opening race was.
“I think we’ve got to really build these events up,” Power said. “It’s important to have a full crowd - looks great on TV. Looking forward to our TV package next year - all on network at the same time, at a good time. Some great things happening to the series. Probably some good events coming in the next year or two. It won’t be next year obviously but after that.
“Got to keep digging. Got to keep catching those F1 and NASCAR people, see if we can get there, man. NASCAR, they had it written on the wall apparently that they’re going to one day be there. We need that painted somewhere.
“Where would you paint that? We can be near, I don’t know, F1. You could aim high. Put it on the wall there for everyone to see.”
A “locked in” and “manifesting” Daly then expressed his “love” for Power’s strategy and even suggested the masterplan should be tattooed.
“Get in the psyche and subconscious,” Power added. “Manifest it and one day: ‘Boom!’ There’s IndyCar right up there with the big guns.”
A much-needed win for Arrow McLaren
The performance from O’Ward was emphatic to add to the inherited St. Petersburg win and Mid-Ohio victory. He led 113 laps and, after a Lap 119 pass on Team Penske pole-sitter Scott McLaughlin, controlled the race for his seventh career IndyCar win.
“The car really came to life in the second stint, then it was a little gnarly after that - a lot of changing conditions,” he said. “Super stoked. A great bounceback after a really tough [Portland] weekend for me and the whole team. So really happy that I was able to give them this.”
O’Ward had finished 15th last week in Portland - his best finish in three races after a late Toronto crash and mechanical issue at World Wide Technology Raceway. Alexander Rossi was the Arrow McLaren team’s best performer that weekend by qualifying down in 18th and making it up to a 12th-place finish.
“We’re not going to get it right all the time,” O’Ward said. “But specifically this year has been really, really tough just to feel like I have something to fight with. I feel like I’ve had it in numerous races along the year but there’s been some where it’s just been really, really tough in a lot of different angles.”
O’Ward qualified eighth (promoted to sixth with penalties) for the first race and will start the second in seventh at Milwaukee, with Rossi qualifying fourth - finishing seventh - and sixth. Rookie Nolan Siegel is also narrowly outside the top 10 for the second race.
“It was nice to bounce back like this after a solid qualifying effort, then really putting it together in the race,” O’Ward said. “Great pit stops, great strategy. It all definitely came together for us.”
Daly’s dream day after a long wait
For Daly, there was a sense that his IndyCar career - at least outside the Indianapolis 500 - could have been over after losing his Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR) drive midway through last season.
But one of IndyCar’s great journeymen - a driver for 11 different teams - he has continued to prove a popular figure for teams to turn to as a ‘super sub’ option. And his biggest gig, spanning multiple races, has come at Juncos Hollinger Racing as they attempt to secure a Leaders’ Circle contract after the closing races of the 2024 season.
From 112 races, he had only a single podium to his name. But despite many online belittling his suitability to fill in at JHR, Daly has again proven an oval specialist to achieve only his second career podium and a much-deserved first on an oval at Milwaukee in race No.113.
“The last podium I was on had Juan Pablo Montoya and Sebastien Bourdais,” he said. “I changed my era of IndyCar drivers. Kind of crazy.”
The weekend had not started in a good fashion for Daly, placing 25th on the speed chart in practice. He qualified 18th for the first race (and 20th for the second) but had to start 25th due to an engine penalty. Daly was as confused as anybody as to how his No.78 JHR Chevy performed as well as it did in the race.
The start from Daly was nothing short of spectacular, with 11 positions made up inside a mere three racing laps as he ran the highest line to pass several cars around the outside. By the end of the race, he had made 51 overtakes - the most of any driver.
“The first lap I decided to just go where there was open space,” he said. “Turns out that worked. Then we just kept going. It was slowly working our way forward. Our pit box might be the worst thing in the world - I am thankful that we didn’t hit anyone. The guys got the work done, we got out of the pits okay.
“Obviously we want to win and we want to compete at the front and this team gave me the opportunity to do that. We thought we could do it at Gateway - that opportunity quickly came to a grinding halt.
“But I’m thankful to be here and be back up where I dreamed of being my whole life really.”
A huge first with the JHR “family”
For Daly, getting only his second IndyCar podium with the Ricardo Juncos’ team - the first for the still-young IndyCar outfit - was a poetic, full-circle moment.
“It feels like family,” he said. “I won Ricardo’s first car championship for him [in Star Mazda in 2010] and got him his first IndyCar podium. Feel like that’s got to count for something.”
For the part they played in his junior career, and the fact that many personnel that he worked with at Carlin are present with the team after they were overhauled in 2021, Daly has significant admiration for the JHR team - widely regarded as a ‘small team that could’. It was with Carlin that Daly took his first and only IndyCar pole at Iowa Speedway in 2020.
“It’s really impressive what [Juncos has] done with that group,” he said. “It’s still a fairly fresh team in the last five, six years. When Carlin first came over, now under the JHR banner, I love what they’ve done, I love the group of people they’ve brought together.
“It’s really hard to go racing in this series. It’s hard to show up and be competitive. Obviously they’ve proven that they can do it. It means a lot. Ricardo is a racer at his heart - he just loves racing. He wants to do whatever it takes. He’s on my stand. It sounds like he wants to try to engineer the car sometimes… He just loves it.
“The team is dedicated to understanding where they need to improve, which I think is so important. To go faster, it is hard. You have to do a lot of work to get there.”
Daly was also keen to give a “shoutout to Trevor Carlin” for his role in forming a lot of what remains with JHR at this point.
“He put together a really cool group of people,” Daly said. “Obviously a lot of them have really enjoyed it, they’ve stayed. Ricardo and Brad [Hollinger] have taken over. It truly is a very underrated group. They’re so smart. There’s a lot of talented folks there.
“They deserve this, for sure, because it’s been a very unlucky year for them. Obviously I felt it the last two weeks. This is the first race we’ve been together where we haven’t been spun at least once.”
Whether Daly has a chance of keeping the ride and returning to IndyCar competition full-time remains unknown. Even with him now having elevated the entry from one place outside to three inside the Leaders’ Circle - and 16 points ahead of his former ECR No.20 entry from a tie pre-race - his future may be out of his hands.
“I’d love to think so,” Daly said when asked whether he feels he has a shot at staying with JHR. “In the end, the finances are very difficult to make happen in this world. But I feel like I have a lot that I still want to do in this world.
“The last couple years have been obviously really difficult for me in the situation that I was in. This group around me has been just so supportive... I know I can run at the front with these guys. The car gave me the opportunity to do that. We made the right moves when we needed to.
“What the future holds, I have no idea. Thankfully I’ve got next week planned and the weekend after that. After that, we’re back to the drawing board.”
Ferrucci, Randy and mutual respect
Daly is evidently a very popular driver in the paddock - that was shown by Power’s delight as he embraced Daly immediately after emerging from his car post-race.
“I should say pleasant surprise but well-deserved,” Power said. “Shows it doesn’t matter where you qualify. Even my spotter said during that run: ‘Conor already has passed half the field around the outside so the outside works.’ For Ricardo and that team, couldn’t be happier. Super excited to see that.”
And even those who Daly has had animosity with were keen to applaud him.
It is not uncommon knowledge that Daly does not get along with AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, who finished fourth and Daly passed to lift himself onto the podium. Daly even gave a “thank you” to Power, whose own pass on Ferrucci allowed an inroad for Daly.
“I don’t think [Ferrucci] is a bad driver,” Daly said. “I’ve always said that. We’ve just had some disagreements, for sure. I can respect a good racer. He obviously raced me clean - this year it’s been really cool. I’ve had some problems with him, of course. I respect good racing and a good racer. He’s done a great job this year.
“His group of people behind him, [veteran engineer] Michael Cannon, already texted me. It’s very funny what he says. I like Michael Cannon a lot. He calls me Randy - Randy Cool. I don’t know why. He just said “RANDY” in all caps and 45 exclamation points. That’s Mike.”
Could this be somewhat of a revival for Daly?
“2016, a long time ago… this is when I was trying to be elite,” he said. “But I fell off the wagon and now I’m back. Randy’s back.”
“Young blokes trying to take my seat”
Rolling back to Power’s comments about getting eyes on the series and races like Milwaukee, he did say: “You boys [O’Ward and Daly] will benefit way more than me.”
But after winning at Portland - securing a first three-win season since 2018 - and keeping himself alive in the title fight, he did firmly quash any thoughts of retirement. Even for 43-year-old Power, the prospect of continuing in some capacity “for another decade” is not a wild thought.
“It’s just a matter of keeping your job that long,” Power joked. “Young blokes [are] coming up trying to take my seat apparently!”
O’Ward offered some reassurance: “You’d be fine. You’re performing fine… I don’t see why not.”
The second of the two Milwaukee races will be just as decisive for Power. His gap to Palou temporarily sits at 43 points but Power is aware that much can change within 24 hours given the tight turnaround between races in a doubleheader weekend. But his task is still a clear one: beat Palou and the fight goes to the finale.
“Palou is a serious contender, man,” Power said. Nothing can rattle that guy. Very tough to go head-to-head with him.”
The pair were often embroiled in battles throughout the opening race of the weekend until Palou was ultimately caught out slightly by a caution that separated the pair and dropped him to seventh. But frustratingly for Power, Palou still recorded a top-five finish - only failed to do so twice this season - after starting outside the top 10 in 12thz
The pair were even stationed in tandem in pit late and there were some accusations that Power’s right-rear tyre changer was intentionally making Palou’s exit difficult. A monetary fine came Ganassi’s way for Palou hitting equipment but Power rubbished thoughts of gamesmanship.
“I’m not into that,” he said. “Just straight up s**tty to do that sort of thing. It’s tight boxes simply - hard to get in and out with someone in front of you.”
A successful (sun-blinded) first race
The opening race boasted 667 on-track passes and Milwaukee-record 326 overtakes for position. And the drivers enjoyed the return to a track that has been absent from the IndyCar calendar since 2015.
“It was pretty good,” Power said. “There was a lot of passing, back and forth. I thought the crowd was really good too. Sounded awesome once you got out of the car, the cheer of the crowd. I think it was a very successful return. A lot of fun in the race.”
There was still a feeling from Daly that “you were going up top with a prayer” given the marbles that built on the higher line when the track had not had a caution to be swept. But as shown by his 11 positions gained in the first three racing laps and the overall passing tally, side-by-side racing was still entirely possible.
The tyre degradation causing the marbles added to the spectacle too. And limited visibility for drivers given the low sun for the evening race was also a challenge to contend with.
Power “actually couldn’t see” and Daly said he “never saw a single car in front” because of the “complete blindness” caused by glare.
“A car would disappear, come out and there he is,” Power said. “You couldn’t see the line. ‘I know this guy is going high, then needs to go low, reappear here.’ You couldn’t see the car.”
In terms of the event itself though, drivers have very few complaints.
“You could just hear the cheers of everybody,” O’Ward said. “Everybody was just super into it, brought a lot of energy today. That was fantastic to see. Really been amazing. It was a pretty good race - we could get through traffic and stuff like that. So that usually means itms eventful pretty much everywhere. It was definitely a success.”
“That dog” and big wedding rings
Somehow, towards the climax of the talk-show-like press conference, discussion vaulted to ‘got that dog’ chat - much to the bemusement and lack of understanding of Power.
“The dog never left Pato,” Daly said. “Will is a dog. Look at him.”
Despite clearly trying his best to grasp the exchange, saying “[the] top group all have dog in them”, Power conceded: “I don’t even know what that means. What does it mean if you’re a dog? You can run fast?”
By this point, Daly of all people was trying to restore order. But not before Power managed to change the topic to Daly’s engagement (or lack of it at present).
“Big ring? Going to buy a big one?” Power asked - for no apparent reason.
“I finally made money today… but not enough,” Daly responded.
Then Power laid out some clear instructions.
“Put it in the pot, man,” he said. “Got to be at least $50,000, the ring. American girls love the big rings!”
Daly continued to say he has “got to get 40 more of these [podiums]” to satisfy Power’s suggestion. But O’Ward had to chime in too…
“If she wants that big of a ring, she doesn’t deserve you, honey,” he said in a softly-spoken tone. Power then admitted he didn’t understand marriage to a point.
“This is going well, going great,” Daly said.
Much of the above was rather confusing babble. But a more serious point is that IndyCar has personalities with great entertainment value that could be listened to for hours on end talking such gibberish.
With O’Ward in a position to spearhead that charge, it needs to be taken advantage of.
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