"I got greedy": Nolan Siegel owns up to "dumb mistake" after crashing out on lap 1 of IndyCar Milwaukee race

The first caution of the day at the Milwaukee Mile was caused by Nolan Siegel on the opening lap of the race. The Arrow McLaren driver spun his car seemingly unprovoked, leading the No. 6 car to face another DNF in a year where he has only had two top-10 finishes.

Siegel was snubbed by Arrow McLaren during the second half of the 2024 season and was brought on board the squad for the 2025 championship campaign with the hopes of the 20-year-old maturing as a driver. Though he has had several good moments throughout the year, his performances have trailed his teammates more often than not.

After qualifying the lowest among the McLaren trio of drivers, the No. 6 car was slated to move up the road, but he spun his car at the start of the race. Reflecting on retiring out of the race, Nolan Siegel admitted that he made a "dumb mistake", as he told Frontstretch Open Wheel:

"[I] spun on power. It was a dumb mistake on my part. It's these races are rowdy and aggressive, and you have to be aggressive, and I got greedy and spun. I hate it for everyone that's worked so hard to make this happen, and it's like wasn't obviously what I was trying to do. So, we've got Nashville. I think we were really strong today. Would have been really strong today." (0:01 onwards)

Siegel has amassed 200 points in the 2025 season so far, after adding 5 points for his 27th-place provisional classification.

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Nolan Siegel's hopes of moving up the road were crushed on lap 1

Nolan Siegel at the 2025 NTT INDYCAR Series Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 - Source: Getty

Nolan Siegel qualified 15 spots behind Arrow McLaren team leader Pato O'Ward. While he was only a single spot behind Christian Lundgaard, the California-born driver had set out the objective to move up the road on Sunday, as he said (via McLaren):

"It was a decent run for the No. 6 SmartStop Arrow McLaren Chevrolet crew. I felt we actually got quite a lot out of it, and didn't feel that we were too far off from where our potential was. I know we can find more pace, especially for the race, and we'll be ready to move forward tomorrow."

However, with him crashing out of the race on the opening lap, Siegel's torrid run at ovals continued. His two top-10 finishes came at road courses earlier in the year, and in the following six races, he only took the chequered flag in three races (he did not start at the second race in Iowa).

So, with the 2025 season concluding next weekend in Nashville, Nolan Siegel does not have much time to score a head-turning result in the IndyCar series.