Alex Palou may have locked up his third straight IndyCar Series championship already, but Christian Rasmussen wasn’t fazed when he passed Palou for the lead late in the race and held on to win his first IndyCar title at the Snap-on 250 on Sunday in West Allis, Wis.

Rasmussen, a 25-year-old from Denmark, passed Palou on the outside with 14 laps to go and found himself and his No. 21 Chevrolet in victory lane not long after.

He defeated Palou by 2.044 seconds at the Milwaukee Mile for his first IndyCar breakthrough in his second season driving for Ed Carpenter Racing.

“Our ovals have been pretty good this year,” Rasmussen said of his team’s performance at the oval-shaped track.

Rasmussen commended his team’s decision to change tires late in the race when they had the opportunity.

“We were talking about before the race that if there’s a late caution, then we wanted to go on new tires because it’s just such an advantage,” he said. “There was more people that did it than I thought there would … but it was definitely the right choice.”

Team owner Ed Carpenter trumpeted his young driver’s success as Rasmussen brought the team its first IndyCar win since 2021 (Rinus VeeKay, Indianapolis Road Course).

“We knew this was coming for Christian,” Carpenter said. “He’s the best there is right now in short ovals. He’s shown it all season long. That late yellow (flag) played into his hand and he did an amazing job taking advantage of his new tires.”

Palou led 199 of the 250 laps, while Rasmussen led just 16. The Spaniard can rest easy knowing that this marked his 12th top-three finish in 16 races this season.

Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand, Alexander Rossi and Mexico’s Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five.

–Field Level Media