Will Power gained ground on championship leader Alex Palou in IndyCar’s return to The Milwaukee Mile, but was left ruing his mistakes that left points on the table.
The 43-year-old Australian came into the doubleheader trailing the Palou by 54 points and dropped that gap significantly after a runner-up finish in race one.
Then, when trouble struck the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda during the formation laps ahead of race two, Palou dropped several laps down due to a resulting battery change.
With Power in contention for the race win, this meant the Penske driver could have entered the finale with a single-point lead, rather than acting as the chaser.
While Palou, the defending and two-time IndyCar champion, returned on lap 29, a race of attrition provided the perfect recipe of damage control to his precious points lead. And unfortunately for Power, that included a self-inflicted spin on the lead-up to the restart on lap 131 coming out of Turn 4.
Despite leading 64 of 250 laps, Power was in sixth position on the restart and towards the higher lane of the track when his #12 Team Penske Chevrolet suddenly broke loose.
Although there was minimal damage, he was forced to pit for a front wing change and fell a lap down.
He battled back onto the lead lap and finished 10th, while Palou climbed to 19th out of 27 cars despite being 29 laps down.
“It was a faster-than-normal restart, or maybe it was starting back there, and I was in second gear, just caught me by surprise,” said Power, a two-time series champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner.
“I did not expect that. I was really happy to keep it off the wall and not get hit by anyone.
“We lost a lap changing that wing; I don’t know how damaged that wing was. Man, that was close.”
The results on the weekend, with Palou finishing fifth in race one, allowed Power to get to within 33 points of Palou (525-492).
Now, the two enter a head-to-head fight in the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway for bragging rights to become a three-time series champion.
“[It's a] long shot now,” Power said.
“God gave us a chance there and kind of let it go. That’s the season, man.
“You just can’t have those mistakes. It was getting a bit hectic on those restarts, maybe it would have been better to stay out. I don’t know.”
