Will Power once again chopped Alex Palou's lead in the IndyCar Series championship on Saturday, heightening the drama with just two races left in the season as Pato O'Ward claimed his third race win of the season.

The #12 Verizon Dallara/Chevrolet driver finished second in the first race of the weekend's double-header, challenging eventual winner Pato O'Ward in the closing laps as he bit 10 points into Palou's championship lead, bringing it down from 54 to 43.

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The Spanish championship leader narrowly avoided a disastrous shunt when Josef Newgarden and Marcus Ericsson collided from second and third at 3/5 distance, taking each other out of contention but just avoiding inadvertently helping to decide the title battle.

A disastrous pit-stop all-but ended Colton Herta's slim championship hopes, leaving pit road without a properly attached wheel nut on his left-front with around 60 laps to go – that wheel flying off as he re-entered the track, and sending him back around to get a fresh wheel. He finished 22nd.

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Official IndyCar Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 1 result

1. #5, Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet

2. #12, Will Power, Chevrolet

3. #78, Conor Daly, Chevrolet

4. #14, Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet

5. #10, Alex Palou, Honda

6. #8, Linus Lundqvist, Honda

7. #7, Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet

8. #3, Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet

9. #45, Christian Lundgaard, Honda

10. #9, Scott Dixon, Honda

11. #20, Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet

12. #27, Kyle Kirkwood, Honda

13. #60, Felix Rosenqvist, Honda

14. #21, Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet

15. #66, David Malukas, Honda

16. #18, Jack Harvey, Honda

17. #6, Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet

18. #30, Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda

19. #51, Katherine Legge, Honda

20. #15, Graham Rahal, Honda

21. #11, Marcus Armstrong, Honda

22. #26, Colton Herta, Honda

23. #41, Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet

24. #77, Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet

25. #4, Kyffin Simpson, Honda

26. #28, Marcus Ericsson, Honda - DNF

27. #2, Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet - DNF

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