Palou's Milwaukee electrical problem still poses a mystery

Chip Ganassi Racing team manager Barry Wanser says they’re still looking into cause of Alex Palou’s electrical problems that struck the No. 10 Honda without warning while the Spaniard was conducting warmup laps prior to the start of Sunday’s race, but says something went wrong within the hybrid-powered car that harmed its battery.

“It was an electrical issue, lost voltage in the car,” Wanser told RACER. “We had to drain the voltage in the [energy recovery system’s energy storage system] in order for it to reset, then recharge it. That didn't fix it, and at that point, the battery was damaged.

“Then we had to go back and change the battery, go through the whole procedure again. You can't even communicate on the radio once it shuts down, so obviously it was very disappointing, but Alex did a great job keeping his patience and methodically just running the race.”

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Palou fell to last, lost 29 laps as he and the team worked through the problems, and recovered to take 19th and maintain a significant lead in the championship. But early in the race, the two-time title winner felt helpless as the electrical fault that killed the battery left him on the sidelines as the 250-lap event got under way.

“I couldn't do anything,” he said. “It just shut down so completely, all off. Couldn't speak on the radio, couldn't do anything. That's why they didn't know what was going on either, so it was just frustrating because I was alone, and not even the safety team could help me, because I was like, ‘Man, I'm stuck in fourth gear,' and I couldn't do anything.”

Two hours after the race, the NTT IndyCar Series and the team were continuing to hunt for the root of the issue.

“We don't know what caused it, but obviously there's a lot of stress and everything with the hybrid system,” Wanser added. “We unfortunately had it affect us in a negative way, so we'll figure out what happened and go on to Nashville.”