WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Alex Palou suffered a power failure seconds before Sunday’s race began at the Milwaukee Mile in a blow to the IndyCar season championship leader.
Palou was out of his car as it was being towed back to the garage for an evaluation of the hybrid engine as the race was roaring on around him. Chip Ganassi Racing said after Palou returned to the race 29 laps into it that the problem was with a battery.
Palou came into Sunday with a 43-point lead over Will Power and two races remaining on the IndyCar schedule. The Spaniard theoretically could have wrapped up his third title in four years with a strong performance at Milwaukee.
Instead, his car came to a stop during the warmup laps. The race started under yellow and Palou was pushed back to his pit stall, where the Ganassi team was frantically trying to diagnose the issue.
The engine cover was eventually removed as the field finally went green six laps into the event and Power already had cut the deficit to 16 points.
But the green-flag start was a disaster as cars ran into the back of pole sitter Josef Newgarden to trigger a crash. Newgarden thought the start had been waved off and didn’t launch, and some cars behind him also slowed. But others didn’t, which created a pileup that crashed Newgarden out for the second consecutive day.
Palou, meanwhile, was getting out of his disabled car and clinging to an eight-point lead over Power when the race began.
Power, meanwhile, took the lead of the race with a pass on Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin 44 laps into the race. He trailed Palou by a mere three points in the standings at that point.