WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Racing luck strikes at random something, and when all seemed to be going Will Power’s way during Sunday’s Hy-Vee 250 at the Milwaukee Mile, he nearly lost it all in the penultimate race of the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season.
Instead of ending the race with a points deficit in the teens, Power now has to make up 33 points on Alex Palou at the season finale in two weeks at Nashville Superspeedway after finishing 10th in the second of this weekend’s two races on Sunday, Sept. 1.
Good fortune shined on Power before the race started as Palou experienced an electrical failure, bringing his car to a halt almost immediately. The No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda eventually got going, but not before losing numerous laps to the rest of the field as the crew replaced a 12V battery that powers the ignition system and a few other things on the car.
Meanwhile, Power ran second to eventual race winner Scott McLaughlin before taking the lead for the first time on lap 44. While Power ran up front, Palou was the last car still on track, picking up positions as other cars dropped out from either mechanical trouble or crashes.
Power led 64 laps and was leading the points during the race, but the Australian’s race unraveled, heading to a restart on lap 131, spinning on his own going through turn 4.
The team replaced the nose of the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet under the same caution, putting Power a lap down on the leaders. Meanwhile, Palou kept slowly creeping up the standings to re-assume the points lead as Power remained a lap down until a late caution for Sting Ray Robb‘s turn 2 crash.
Power benefitted from a wave-around to get back on the lead lap but unfortunately had no more new tires to put on his car for his last pit stop of the race. The 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner was ninth on the final restart but fell quickly to his eventual finishing position of 10th.
Palou, meanwhile, finished 19th.
Frustrations boiled over on pit road for Power, knowing what was at stake in the championship battle. However, the 2014 Milwaukee winner knew that he was responsible.
“I just spun off, it was a second gear restart, a little faster than normal,” Power said. “Man I just, I did not expect that. My bad, I made a mistake – needed to be a bit more cautious. I got hammered on the previous restart, you know, I got blown by so I didn’t want to lose another bunch of positions, so yeah, frustrating, just…
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