Jamie Chadwick back in the top-five at Milwaukee Mile

“It’s a good day when you can be disappointed with fifth" - Jamie Chadwick had a strong weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, where she returned to the top five on her fifth-ever oval race. After another remarkable qualifying, Chadwick ran in second place but was caught in lapped traffic in the closing stages, still securing her third top-5 of the season.

Photo credits: Penske Entertainment / James Black

Jamie Chadwick had a strong weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, penultimate round of the 2024 Indy NXT season and third oval race of the calendar. After showing promise in practice, she delivered an impressive qualifying performance, securing third on the grid as she confirmed her strong form - then ran in second place for most of the first part of the race, eventually finishing in fifth place after facing strong competition and traffic after a restart.

Despite some challenges with lapped traffic, Jamie's solid performance secured valuable points, keeping her in the hunt for a top-five finish in the championship standings as she headed into the final round of the season.

Chadwick took on her fifth-ever oval start, her first time at the technical Milwaukee Mile, after a promising test earlier this summer where she had already shown potential with a top-10 in both testing sessions at the Midwest oval.

The Milwaukee Mile marked the first visit to the track for all drivers in racing conditions; Jamie has however shown superb progression on ovals this year and continued to build on this momentum.

This season, Chadwick scored a top-10 in Iowa after qualifying on the second row. In the last oval race at World Wide Technology Raceway, she achieved her best-ever oval qualifying—second best of the season after her pole at Road America—setting the second-fastest average lap time and claiming a front row start, though an incident caused by another competitor on Lap 7 ended her race.

Last week, Jamie tackled the final road course of the season in Portland, battling in the top ten all race but finishing P14 after recovering from the back in the final stages following an incident.

Despite some misfortunes, in fact, it has been a widely positive season for Chadwick—her second in Indy NXT—where she has consistently proven she belongs in the front-running positions. Her immense progress in qualifying, especially, has been noteworthy.

Although she could have been on the podium on several occasions, Chadwick secured her first top three at Indianapolis and her first win at Road America, along with six top-ten finishes before the weekend at Milwaukee. With two rounds to go, she had a realistic goal of returning to the top five.

“Milwaukee is a completely new track for all of us, and I’m very excited for it", Chadwick commented before the weekend. "It looks like it has basically no banking, so that's going to add new challenges. It's going to be a fast race and good fun for us to experience something new in the season.”

Taylor Ferns, in her first-ever season of single-seaters with a part-time program in 2024, also returned for the final oval races with Abel Motorsports. Unfortunately, she hit the wall in the opening minutes of practice, putting her on the back foot. Ferns had to pull out of the weekend following the earlier contact, with not enough time to practice and get up to speed.

Reece Gold also had an incident in practice, and also had to withdraw from the rest of the event. When the red-flag disrupted practice resumed, Jamie Chadwick put in a strong performance, finishing P5 with a best lap of 25.588, just 0.2 seconds off pace-setter Louis Foster.

Qualifying followed on Saturday - and Jamie went out as the eleventh car, aiming to maintain her momentum from her recent oval outings. With a great first lap of 151.3 mph, she then completed a stellar qualifying effort, placing in a provisional pole with an average of 150.745 mph over her two qualifying laps.

She held off Hedge and Brooks after their runs, with Abel eventually taking provisional pole, and Foster snatching the top spot by 0.114 seconds in the final minutes. Chadwick, however, secured third with another really strong qualifying performance.

Photo credits: Penske Entertainment / Chris Owens

Later in the afternoon, the Indy NXT by Firestone Milwaukee 100 got underway: from the second row of the grid, Chadwick passed Abel right at the start, moving up to second as Abel dropped to sixth after a slow getaway.

Foster led, followed by Chadwick, Brooks, and Collet. De Alba however gained positions and battled Collet, eventually moving into third as Jamie gained a few tenths buffer.

The Andretti Autosport driver settled into second and would gain over half a second on De Alba in the following laps. Meanwhile, Abel tried to recover, passing Aron before attacking Brooks - but had to back out and defend again from Aron.

Running consistently, Chadwick kept her closest pursuers at bay while Foster led by a second. By lap 25, she started to close in on Foster, reducing the gap to half a second, with De Alba also joining the duo.

A caution on lap 30 for Myles Rowe’s spin broke her rhythm: at the restart, De Alba overtook Chadwick, who had to settle for third, then came under pressure from Abel.

She defended firmly, but Abel’s #51 Abel Motorsports machine also found a way past her on lap 38.

Ahead, Foster tried to pull away, but De Alba kept up the pace. Once in fourth, Chadwick again found her rhythm and pulled away from the cars behind.

A big battle for sixth ensued between Brooks, Roe, and Sundaramoorthy, who made contact and swapped positions but kept it on track with 20 laps to go.

In the final stages, Chadwick closed in on Abel again, but then had to defend against Bryce Aron as she caught lapped traffic. Aron seized the opportunity and made a move stick, with Jamie trying to fight back while also keeping Roe at bay.

Jacob Abel also took second from De Alba, making good use of the lapped car traffic. Louis Foster, however, was unchallenged and clinched his Indy NXT title with his seventh win of the season, while Abel finished second, ahead of De Alba.

With a very solid race, Jamie Chadwick held off Andretti teammate James Roe in the final laps, taking the checkered flag in fifth position, thus returning to the top five after her victory at Road America. It was also her seventh top-10, her first since Iowa Speedway.

“It’s a good day when you can be disappointed with fifth", Chadwick said. "I just got caught on the wrong end of lapped traffic."

"We still got some good points, and I'm really happy for the No. 26 guys and Louis on the Championship", she continued, congratulating her teammate and compatriot Foster who sealed the Indy NXT crown with one round to spare. "I'm looking forward to finishing on a high in Nashville.”

Chadwick is now sixth in the drivers’ standings, with 297 points and one round to go in two weeks' time at Nashville Superspeedway, where she will try to clinch a top-five spot in the championship.