The Race to finish the Snap-On Milwaukee doubleheader weekend

WEST ALLIS, Wis. — In the middle of August, I had some plans fall through that gave me the opportunity to cover the NTT IndyCar Series race weekend at The Milwaukee Mile, similar to my experience covering the NASCAR Cup Series at Chicagoland Speedway in July.

For those who do not know me personally, my wife and I share a car. Since she elected to stay home with our dogs, I elected to leave the car with her in case of an emergency.

This meant I would have to seek out a ride to Milwaukee from my home in Appleton, a nearly two-hour distance between my modest city and the bustling metropolis in the southeastern corner of Wisconsin.

I found lodging with my wife’s uncle and cousin, which took care of one issue; however, they were headed down Friday morning while I was stuck performing duties at my day job through Friday evening.

After scouring a few different places, I asked my coworkers if any of them were headed down to Milwaukee for the weekend, but ultimately, my post had no takers.

An empty carpool meant I would have to search elsewhere to get myself down to Cream City for some good, old-fashioned open-wheel racing.

I spoke with my father-in-law about the races later in the week, leading to him and his friend deciding to go to Race 2 on Sunday. This meant I secured a ride back, but time was running out on finding a route down south.

On Friday evening, I booked a Greyhound bus from Appleton Transit Center to Milwaukee Intermodal Station for Saturday morning.

With the first race starting at 1:30 p.m local time, I knew I would be cutting it close, with my arrival time in Milwaukee being 11:45 a.m., but it was the earliest possible arrival time, my only option.

Following a modest night’s sleep, I woke up and collected the rest of my essentials, including the new steady cam and microphone setups I got from our gracious CEO and founder, Joe Samaniego.

I zipped up the last of my bags and headed for the bus station where the first obstacle of the day presented itself – my bus got delayed.

This could have sent me into a panic, knowing I was on a tight schedule. Instead, I focused on the arrival time to see how much time I would be losing; I was shocked to find that I would only be losing roughly five minutes off the initial arrival time. What luck!

The Greyhound rolled into our station close to 9:50 a.m., allowing me to toss my duffel into the cargo hold before hopping into my seat. I locked in my earbuds and drifted off to sleep as the bus made further stops in Oshkosh and Fond du Lac.

Right before our exit to Milwaukee Intermodal Station, I woke up for the second time that day, knowing I needed to order a rideshare because the bus would not get me where I needed to be in time.

A gentleman in a black Kia picked me up and shuttled me over to the hotel I would be staying at later. During the ride, I ordered poke for delivery, and as soon as I got my bags, sat down and situated, I sprinted down the stairs to the lobby to grab my food, my first meal of the day at nearly 1 p.m. local.

I cracked open the Oasis Vibe Celsius I brought from home to help me get energized before scarfing down my food. I bounced into the shower shortly afterward, got redressed and ordered a second rideshare, this time a white Nissan.

The driver asked why I was going to the fairgrounds because the Wisconsin State Fair ended earlier in the month. I noted that the fairgrounds were home to the oldest oval track in America, leaving him confused.

I explained that The Milwaukee Mile started life as a 1-mile dirt horse track in the 1870s before being converted into an automobile track in the early 20th century. I let him know it was paved in the 1950s and that IndyCar and NASCAR have been among the American racing disciplines that have called “The Mile” home.

After a brief conversation about the intricacies of oval racing compared to road and street circuits, we pulled up to the facility where I was greeted with water falling from the sky.

Given how water ruined my most recent trip to Chicagoland, I worried the technology in my bag would be in jeopardy again.

I sped through the security checkpoint and went to the box office to find out where I got my credential, and two golf-cart rides later, I made it back to the frontstretch with a lanyard wrapped around my neck.

The rain fell for a little while longer but ultimately petered out, allowing the monstrous pickup trucks with jet engines strapped to their beds to blow water with exceptional force off of and out of the aged racing surface.

Finally, I saw IndyCar action on an oval with my own two eyes for the first time, sitting near the start/finish line in the grandstands to truly take in how the cars move, and observing how cars enter and exit corners to set up passes.

I hung out there until the moisture made its grand return around Lap 65, and it did not leave the area until it was too late to restart a race on a track without external lighting.

Much of my time during the delay was spent chatting with folks from a marketing firm, including other fellow media members, before we got the inevitable call that the track and the daylight were lost.

Full disclosure: I have struggled with insomnia for much of my life, so going to bed and getting up in the morning do not come easy to me, especially in new environments like hotel rooms.

Despite this, I found a way to get comfortable and fall asleep with a 6:30 a.m. alarm, knowing that the race was due to pick up at 8 o’clock Sunday morning.

My alarm sounded on time, but before I heeded its call to action, I rolled over and looked out the window. Water droplets coated the glass. Between them, I could see puddles stretching outward in the sprawling parking lot below.

It is always best to confirm with the experts, and sure enough, Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass was already on the case.

If you thought the cars were fast, you have never seen a head move faster than mine heading back for the cool embrace of the pillow.

I returned to consciousness close to 8:30 a.m., a smooth nine hours of sleep for a long day ahead. Weather remained a threat later in the day for the resumption of Race 1, while Race 2 would begin at the scheduled Noon local start.

Race 2 ended before the conclusion of the first race. This was a truly unique situation that made talking with drivers tricky.

Before IndyCar’s return to action, INDY NXT took to the track for a 90-lap jaunt, and for a good while Josh Pierson appeared to have the race on lock.

Heavily rumored to take over AJ Foyt Racing’s No. 4 Chevrolet for 2027, Pierson led the first 53 laps from pole and looked poised to claim his elusive INDY NXT victory after almost four years in the series.

I started compiling ideas for questions in my head, but as Pierson rounded Turn 2 on Lap 54, his car got away from him, sliding into the inside wall on the backstretch and ending his race.

The caution allowed me to high-tail it to the infield to get ready for post-race reporting, where I watched Abel Motorsports’ rookie Max Garcia claim his maiden INDY NXT triumph.

After attending and recording the post-race press conference, I made sure to eat and hydrate before the beginning of Race 2, the first IndyCar race of the day.

The second race played out straight without Mother Nature’s interruptions as Pato O’Ward, the current leader of Race 1, sped off to a dominant victory under sunny, partly cloudy skies.

I ducked into the media center once again, where Scott McLaughlin and Christian Lundgaard both lamented what could have been if not for drivers multiple laps down obstructing their path to O’Ward’s rear wing.

Then, O’Ward took the stage, where he heaped praise on his team and gave a lot of memorable quotes.

From there, I returned to the stands to meet up with my in-laws and decompress a bit before Race 1 resumed. Before I could get too settled, I started feeling drops from the sky again.

As much as I wanted to stick out the weekend to the bitter end, I could not stick around for a Monday conclusion to the first race, as I had my day job to get back to, so I hoped that it would ultimately miss the track this time around.

Those clouds continued to spit those drops on us intermittently as the cars ran the remaining 160 laps around the oldest paved oval race track in American history. Somehow, the conclusion of the race was never impeded by rain again.

Not only did O’Ward claim the victory and become just the ninth driver in IndyCar history to sweep both legs of a doubleheader, Alex Palou also locked up his fourth consecutive series championship, meaning I got to attend and participate in the champion’s press conference.

First, I hit pit road where I hoped to speak to David Malukas, who picked up another second-place finish after leading the race late in the going. I intended to ask him explicitly if he believed he had suffered from a plenum event, but he was frustrated and left after his interview with FOX Sports, which was understandable.

I turned to Rinus VeeKay, who had already made his way toward the podium, so I started heading toward the media center where I saw Scott McLaughlin again and chatted him up about a question I did not get to ask in the media center after the earlier race.

I let McLaughlin go after the question to head to the media center, where Palou’s strategist, Barry Wanser, and team owner, Chip Ganassi, took to the stage with the champion and answered our questions before I snuck away to speak with VeeKay in the bullpen.

O’Ward grabbed the seat after that for his second winner’s interview of the day, this time for the race that started on Saturday afternoon and ended on Sunday evening.

Following that interview, I thought about wrapping up for the day, but I saw the 2025 Milwaukee race winner, Christian Rasmussen, leaving the media center. I hustled a bit and caught up with him, and he talked about how different the track and cars were compared to last year’s event.

I plodded back to the media center once again to upload my clips and went to meet my father-in-law and his friend, who gave me a lift back to Appleton. I returned home a little after 9 p.m., just under 36 hours after this odyssey began.

With a five-year contract extension recently signed, I will be making the trip to Milwaukee every year for the foreseeable future to cover this race weekend, and I am sure the next race I attend will go more smoothly than this one.