McLaughlin led the opening stanza of the 55-lap race when he overtook Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster.
The rookie, who claimed his first pole position at Road America, faded to 11th. However, McLaughlin and Power were worse off in 12th and 14th respectively.
There were cautions galore in the early going. AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas brought out the first yellow on Lap 1 and then Robert Shwartzman crashed his Prema Racing entry on the Lap 4 restart.
Juncos Holinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb completed the trifecta on Lap 10. He lost control under brakes into Turn 5 and slid down the outside wall before ploughing into a tyre barrier.
The early Safety Car interventions allowed alternative strategies to take hold and ultimately compromised McLaughlin, Power, and several more front-runners on the conventional strategy.
McLaughlin made his last pit stop on Lap 40 and was forced to save fuel to the finish.
“Just an unfortunate day today. That’s about all I can say,” said McLaughlin, who led eight laps of the race.
“We drove out to the lead there but those early yellows just gave so many opportunities to do something different with strategy. In the end that is what got us.
“I appreciate all of the support from Xpel for the #3 team and we really want to win this race for them and for Chevy. That’s racing.”
Power echoed that sentiment, lamenting the timing of the yellows.
“Tough day for the Verizon Chevy team with where the yellows fell for us,” he said.
“Couldn’t do much with that. Another rough day for us, man.
“Very, very, very tough season. Move onto the next one.”
Power and McLaughlin sit seventh and eighth in the standings, more than 150 points in arrears of runaway leader Alex Palou who claimed his sixth win of the season.
Their teammate Josef Newgarden is on course for one of his worst season to date with Team Penske.
He sits 17th in the points after another his second straight DNF. Newgarden crashed out of the final turn on Lap 30 of 55.
“I really feel that the PPG Chevy was a top five car today,” Newgarden said.
“Our strategy likely wasn’t going to work out to where we could win but it is disappointing to find ourselves with another DNF.
“We had to pit off strategy for our second stop for a tire puncture, which put us in the strategy position we were in.
“Just pushing hard there on black (hard compound) tyres to try and keep up with the #9 car (Scott Dixon) and just pushed too hard in Turn 14.”
IndyCar returns on July 7 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
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