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David Malukas’ run of difficult results continued on Sunday afternoon when he pushed his No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet too hard into Turn 7 on lap 27 and crashed into the wall.

The caution was brought out straight away, but Sting Ray Robb was arriving at the blind corner in his No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet and had no chance to avoid hitting the side of Malukas’ stricken car.

Malukas had started sixth and was running an alternative strategy, having come into the pits early in an attempt to make a three-stop plan work in the 147-lap street race.

“I want to apologise to Sting Ray; there’s nothing he can really do there,” Malukas told IndyCar’s Kevin Lee. “I just want to apologise to the teams, the sponsors, everybody. Obviously a big race here, but I don’t really know what’s been going on with me. Just in a bad run of form here for the past few races. So yeah, just need to get back, need to work and figure out what’s going on. If it’s mentally, if it’s physically, I don’t really know, but I’ve got to work on myself here. Got a few more races to finish off the season and got to make sure I can put myself back on form.”

With the DNF, Malukas is now highly unlikely to claw back the 137-point gap to Alex Palou, while Kyle Kirkwood stood to gain some breathing room in second place if he managed to finish the race. Kirkwood had led all 47 laps before the caution after lining up P2 on the front row.

When the caution came out, Graham Rahal, Rinus VeeKay, Kyffin Simpson and Romain Grosjean were the only drivers who had stayed out, as they had already made their first pit stops.

Kyle Kirkwood and Alex Palou then pitted from the front, with Kirkwood retaining the lead over Palou as they exited pit road.

Palou’s route to both the race win and the championship became more complicated when he struck a tyre in Mick Schumacher’s pit box and was given a drive-through penalty, to be served under green-flag conditions.

On the restart, Rahal held on to the lead despite brushing the wall, but the green-flag running did not last long as Marcus Armstrong ran into Christian Rasmussen, who was then sent into Rinus VeeKay and pushed him into the wall.

VeeKay had been in an unusually strong position, having pitted late enough in the race but still before the Malukas caution, which moved him into a top-five place while still leaving him with the possibility of reaching the finish with three pit stops like the drivers on the primary strategy.

Palou returned to the pits for a second stop under yellow, abandoning the primary strategy after his pit road penalty had dropped him back through the order.

On lap 69, Palou went a lap down following a rare error from the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing pit crew, who struggled to secure the left-front tyre.

Kirkwood then took the lead away from Rahal on fresher tyres. The Florida driver was the only one in the field to complete both opening stints on the red alternative tyres.