Power blows big IndyCar title chance after early Palou woe

Will Power blew an enormous opportunity to erase Alex Palou's IndyCar championship lead to nothing in the second race of the Milwaukee double-header, as an early mechanical problem for Palou was followed by a spin for Power.

Scott McLaughlin secured his second oval win of the year and his third race win of the season despite late-race pressure from Scott Dixon, but all of that was overshadowed by Palou grinding to a halt with a battery issue and Power spinning after leading a chunk of the early running.

Palou's issues

With a 43-point lead heading into the race, Palou drew to a halt at Turn 1 on the warm-up laps and the AMR Safety Team couldn’t refire his car, wheeling him back to the pitbox. There he was eventually refired - as the race ticked over to six laps started under caution.

However, on what was the effective race start, Palou’s Ganassi team-mate Linus Lundqvist did not see a yellow flag for the start being waved off due to the cars not being close enough together, and hit his team-mate Marcus Armstrong into Josef Newgarden, putting the polesitter out of the race.

Lundqvist received a drive-through penalty for his role in it, and later crashed out, but 20th was still enough to secure the rookie of the year title with a round to spare.

While all of this was happening Palou pulled onto the track but stopped between Turns 2 & 3, and was carried back to the paddock for further repairs by a truck with a crane on the back. He came sprinting from the paddock to his timing stand, where after frantic discussions he did at least crack a laugh with strategist Barry Wanser.

Then he sprinted off back to the paddock - grabbing a bottle of water from an ice box - in readiness for getting back out, which he eventually did when the leaders were 30 laps into the 250-lap race.

Power misses his chance

It left Power on track with a free hit to eat into Palou’s lead unchallenged, and he did not waste any time, taking the lead from Penske team-mate McLaughlin on lap 44 as the latter appeared to struggle more in traffic. That put Power in the championship lead had the race finished there.

But things began to unravel for Power when he was passed by McLaughlin in the pits under the caution on lap 117 of 250, and then on the following restart he was passed by two cars. Another caution followed and as he came to the restart he spun off Turn 3 and hit the wall at very low speed.

He pitted and his Penske team sent him back out after a tyre change, but then called Power in again and changed his wing.

That decision put Power a lap down in 13th and facing a fightback.

A strategy gamble fails

At this time, Colton Herta diverged on strategy in a bid to do one less pitstop to the end than his rivals creating a spread of strategies, and stopped with 62 laps to go - which was easy on fuel but not so much on degrading tyres.

Unfortunately for him, McLaughlin was around a second per lap faster and caught Herta what felt like almost immediately, but Herta made McLaughlin work for it eventually ceding the lead on lap 218.

Sting Ray Robb crashing with 22 laps to go then triggered a really long caution that left 11 laps on the clock.

A new contender

Scott Dixon had run in the top 10 for almost the whole day and early in the race he had stayed out under a caution along with Alexander Rossi to save an extra set of tyres.

After that final caution Dixon made his way to second and set some of the fastest laps of the race to erase the gap below half a second, but couldn’t halt McLaughlin’s charge for his second oval win of the season after Iowa race one.

Dixon took second ahead of Colton Herta, followed by Santino Ferrucci (the only driver to take top five finishes in both Milwaukee races) and Marcus Ericsson. They both passed Rossi, who had been second after the final caution but fell away without fresh tyres. Rossi's McLaren team-mate and Milwaukee race one winner Pato O'Ward retired earlier in the race with a gearbox issue.

The points battle comes to a head

That final caution also allowed Power to get back on the lead lap having been as many as two down after his earlier spin.

But he lost a spot on the restart and finished last of the cars on the lead lap in 10th, missing a huge opportunity to depose Palou.

A string of retirements promoted Palou from 27th all the way to 19th, which awarded him 11 points.

Points after Milwaukee

1 Palou 525
2 Power -33
3 McLaughlin -50
4 Herta -63
5 Dixon -82

So after a day where Power had totally eradicated Palou’s 43-point lead and edged three points ahead himself at one stage, he actually leaves a whopping 33 points behind Palou.

A score of 22 points in the Nashville finale - equal to ninth place - would absolutely guarantee Palou the title and bonus point and tie-break scenarios will offer more variables.

“A long shot now,” admitted Power. “God gave us a chance…and we just let it go really.”

Palou added: "I’m a bit sad and disappointed today."

It was a 12-volt battery that caused his trouble and the car was fine once that part was changed.

The championship will be decided at Nashville in two weeks time, where the 'crashville' Nashville street circuit has been swapped for the out-of-city Superspeedway oval.

Only Palou, Power and McLaughlin are in contention, and McLaughlin will be eliminated from contention as long as Palou starts the Nashville race, because five points are awarded even for last place.