WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Alex Palou suffered an influence failure seconds earlier than Sunday’s race started on the Milwaukee Mile in a blow to the IndyCar season championship chief.

Palou was out of his automotive because it was being towed again to the storage for an analysis of the hybrid engine because the race was roaring on round him. Chip Ganassi Racing stated after Palou returned to the race 29 laps into it that the issue was with a battery.

Palou got here into Sunday with a 43-point lead over Will Energy and two races remaining on the IndyCar schedule. The Spaniard theoretically may have wrapped up his third title in 4 years with a robust efficiency at Milwaukee.

As an alternative, his automotive got here to a cease in the course of the warmup laps. The race began underneath yellow and Palou was pushed again to his pit stall, the place the Ganassi workforce was frantically making an attempt to diagnose the problem.

The engine cowl was ultimately eliminated as the sector lastly went inexperienced six laps into the occasion and Energy already had minimize the deficit to 16 factors.

However the green-flag begin was a catastrophe as vehicles bumped into the again of pole sitter Josef Newgarden to set off a crash. Newgarden thought the beginning had been waved off and did not launch, and a few vehicles behind him additionally slowed. However others did not, which created a pileup that crashed Newgarden out for the second consecutive day.

Palou, in the meantime, was getting out of his disabled automotive and clinging to an eight-point lead over Energy when the race started.

Energy, in the meantime, took the lead of the race with a go on Crew Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin 44 laps into the race. He trailed Palou by a mere three factors within the standings at that time.