IndyCar's title has been decided in favour of Alex Palou and with the rest of their field put out of their misery, the Milwaukee Mile event seemed to lift a weight off the competition's shoulders.
Despite Palou taking an incredible last-gasp pole and dominating most of this race, the nature of short oval racing that anything can throw a spanner in the works.
A late caution for rain meant Palou, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden stayed out to keep track position and everybody else got the cheat code of being able to take fresh rubber.
Still, what happened next - a barnstorming drive through the pack from Christian Rasmussen for his first win - was exactly the kind of unpredictability which makes short oval racing so fun.
More on the rest of the field and the event itself via our winners and losers below.
Winner - Ed Carpenter (1st/4th)
We've written about Rasmussen and his win already, of course he's a big winner here, especially as he came from the back of the pack after a mid-race pitlane speeding penalty to be in position at the end.
Instead, we'll use this section as a word for Ed Carpenter. He put Rasmussen in his own car and sat on the sidelines for the last few races of last year - surprising people with his feeling the team had a better chance with Rasmussen rather than himself, an Indianapolis 500 polesitter no less.
He gave Rasmussen a full 2025 season and Rasmussen has been the oval surprise driver of the year.
Carpenter's brought on a new partner this season which allowed the team to bring in much-needed personnel reinforcements and sign a big name like Alexander Rossi. A massive new factory will follow in the coming years.
Rossi managed fourth in this race, a second consecutive top five, although hitting Newgarden in the closing stages ruined a good finish for the Penske driver and looked like it deserved a penalty. A lucky escape.
Back to Carpenter, he sometimes makes decisions in the moment which may not make total sense to those outside the team. But the proof is in the pudding as they say, and in this case the pudding is a first win since 2021 and a future that looks much, much brighter than it did 18 months ago.
Loser (kind of) - David Malukas (8th)
One of the downsides of Penske waiting until after the season to decide Will Power's fate and if David Malukas will replace him is that the two are constantly being compared race to race even though they are in different teams and circumstances.
Malukas almost took his first pole this weekend before Palou intervened, but Malukas passed him at one stage in the race and looked a threat for the win until a wheel-gun failure on his second stop put him a lap down.
A caution not long after helped him get his lap back and he rallied to eighth which was quite the result for the Foyt driver, although like the rest of the last stoppers under the final caution he couldn't make the headway that Rasmussen did.
Still, despite a podium turning into an eighth, it wasn't his fault and his fightback was strong. The qualifying result was really good too.
Winner - Pato O'Ward (5th)
Pato O'Ward was another who couldn't make good progress on fresh tyres despite being the highest placed car on the final restart to have them.
But O'Ward's season has been built on taking only the high-percentage moves. He's struggled with being too risky in the past but this year he's had just the right balance of risk versus reward, and Sunday's payoff was a 10th finish inside the top five this year which guarantees him second in the championship.
As usual he's been one of the best oval drivers this season and this was a strong run where he and his McLaren team-mate Christian Lundgaard faded somewhat in the final stint but brought home good results in fifth and sixth - Lundgaard from 17th on the grid.
Loser - Nolan Siegel (27th/DNF)
While O'Ward's season has been built on consistency and Lundgaard has impressed in his move from Rahal Letterman Lanigan by sitting fourth in the points, McLaren's other driver Nolan Siegel has two top 10s all season, is 22nd in the standings behind top rookie Louis Foster and crashed out on the first lap of this race.
Much was made of Siegel's promise and how much he could achieve this season. Sadly though the results do not paint a picture of a driver worthy of a McLaren seat.
The context is much more complicated and there have been a few good results taken away outside of his control.
But it's hard to have anything but disappointment for a season that was supposed to be full of promise and better results but just hasn't been. There's only so much time you can talk about potential with a young driver before expecting some tangible evidence of putting points on the board.
Siegel scored more points per race last year - which included two races at Dale Coyne - than he has this year.
That does include the three points he got for being entered for the second Iowa race despite non-starting that through injury, but even removing that, there's very little difference to last year. Gosh.
Winner - Colton Herta (11th)
I haven't got to the bottom of if it's how Colton Herta sets up an oval car, how the Andretti car handles generally or if my observations are not quite fair, but it feels like Herta is the most likely driver to randomly lose the rear end of his car early in a run on an oval in the whole field.
It happened again here in qualifying which consigned him to the back of the field, but then in the race Herta was absolutely devoid of any fear or constraints.
He went from 26th to 17th in the first stint, and was already ninth after the first stop with a bit of aid from the undercut. That's where he was after the last caution but he dropped a couple of spots to finish 11th.
Still, that was one place above his team-mate Kyle Kirkwood (an oval race winner this year), who had started sixth compared to Herta's 26th.
There's some rumours flying around in the paddock that Herta is looking at heading to Formula 2 to get the superlicence points he needs for a Cadillac F1 seat. But The Race believes Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez have two-year race set deals there, so would Herta give up being IndyCar's suspected highest-paid driver to go to F2 in pursuit of becoming a reserve driver in F1?
Sounds very unlikely to me unless something massive changes.
Loser - Felix Rosenqvist (22nd)
Meyer Shank driver Felix Rosenqvist was the top oval qualifier in the series heading into this race but crashed on his Milwaukee quali run, setting up a poor weekend.
Twice he went a lap down in the race trying to stretch fuel runs and ultimately ended up in 22nd. He was a solid sixth in the championship for most of the season but he's fallen to ninth with recent performances.
A shoutout to his team-mate Marcus Armstrong - definitely a winner. After being confirmed at the team next season in the lead up, he turned a ridiculous strategy decision to leave him out under a caution around, fighting back to 10th, a remarkable 11th top 10 of the year.
Winner - Scott McLaughlin (3rd)
Much has been written of Penske's plight this year and how Power has been its top driver. Scott McLaughlin has made some very high-profile errors but has had plenty go against him out of his control as well.
He won one of the races at Milwaukee last year and although he was clearly second-best to Palou on the day this time and was passed late on by Rasmussen, it's his first podium since early May at Barber and puts him back in the top 10 in points.
A big result for his team.
Loser - Will Power (26th/DNF)
Power crashed out and although he was trying to pass lapped traffic and Kyffin Simpson didn't leave a lot of room, he needed to bail out but was already committed and crashed after losing grip on the marbles.
He's constantly been Penske's top driver and finishing ahead of his potential replacement Malukas this season, but some people believe you are only as good as your last race, and if that is true, Power's in a bit of bother.
Every rumour under the sun from Power staying, to him signing for Rahal have been floated in the paddock. Ultimately I don't believe Penske has made a decision and if it wants him he's going nowhere, so the rest is still speculation for now.
This error was just one race and he still deserves this seat.
Winner - Milwaukee Mile
Getting bums on seats in North American oval racing has been a problem across series for decades, at certain events at least.
In IndyCar especially. Even as far back as the CART days, sellouts came amid suspicion that most tickets were being given away by big sponsors.
But on Sunday, in its first race since taking over promotion from Penske, the Wisconsin State Fair Park sold out the raceday general admission tickets.
The race was somewhat saved by the late caution ruining Palou and McLaughlin's winning chances and giving an advantage to a thirsty chasing pack, but that doesn't really matter.
The state of Wisconsin is a huge friend to motorsport and it showed up for the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday and Sunday. Great to see.
It's rare you hear actual fan cheering over the action these days but Rasmussen's victory and donuts were backed up by deafening cheers from the spectators. Proper.
