Christian Rasmussen Earns First INDYCAR Win, Spoils Alex Palou Quest For 10

It took a spectacular drive to end a potential historical finish to a sensational season.

Oh, Alex Palou is still the INDYCAR champion for 2025. But his quest to tie the series record of 10 victories in a season came to an end Sunday at The Milwaukee Mile when Christian Rasmussen, on fresher tires, passed him with 16 laps remaining to capture his first career victory in the series.

“Good on Christian,” Palou said. “He was really fast. It’s great to see him win.”

It not only was the first career win for the 2023 Indy NXT Series champion (INDYCAR’s version of AAA-baseball), but it was also the first win for Ed Carpenter Racing since 2021.

“He’s shown, on ovals especially, but everywhere really all year, he’s pretty relentless when he’s feeling it and is confident in the car,” team co-owner Ed Carpenter said.

“I think he wanted it more today than anyone else. That’s what it looked like to me.”

Palou had led 199 laps of the 250-lap race and appeared in control when a stray cloud came over the track, producing enough drizzle for the caution to come out and bunch up the field with 42 laps remaining.

The top three drivers — Palou, Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden — stayed out while the rest of the field pitted for fresh tires. 

Rasmussen, a Denmark native known for his bold moves that can be a blessing or a curse, restarted seventh and ripped through the field, taking the lead and never looking back, crossing the finish line ahead of Palou and McLaughlin.

The 25-year-old Rasmussen said he knew if he could have tires that were fresher by more than 20 laps, that he would have a strong advantage and have the chance to rally. But by the time he got to Palou, he wasn’t sure if his tires had worn enough that he wouldn’t be able to pass the series champion.

“[Passing] Alex, … I didn’t know how it was going to go, if I had enough to get past him,” Rasmussen said.

“I knew I would have enough to run the top. But if I would have enough grip to actually get past him, I didn’t know. Obviously, we did. But I was confident in what I was doing.”

Palou said he initially was worried about Pato O’Ward, who restarted fourth as the top driver with fresher tires, but then he was getting reports that Rasmussen was making passes and significantly cutting into his lead.

“I knew he was going to race hard,” Palou said. “He always races hard. He was going to pass me or go to the wall.”

McLaughlin said while that strategy ended up as the right call, it was Rasmussen who was able to make the strategy work with his aggressive style.

“That’s how he races,” McLaughlin said. “You got to respect it. I think he’s very fast. He’s very brave. He makes some really nice split-second decisions.

“As we’ve seen, it’s bit him in the backside a couple of times as well. He’s learning. He’s getting better.”

Rasmussen noted he has not wrecked out of a race this season.

“I feel like I learned a lot of lessons last year of how people drive in the series,” he said. “I’ve kind of taken that and kind of replicated that.

“I think I’m on the aggressive side, but I … feel like we had last year to kind of tone that or kind of get it into the right spot. I feel like we’re doing really well with it this year.”

Rasmussen became the first, first-time winner in the series since 2023.

“It’s full credit to him because he really made that happen,” McLaughlin said. “The strategy was the strategy. … He had the confidence to rip around the corner, rip around the outside of people, do his stuff.”

The 2025 INDYCAR season comes to a close next Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, FOX).

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.