Power started fourth and dropped to eighth in the opening laps before coming to the pit lane on Lap 13.

“I have to pit, I have to pit,” Power exclaimed over his radio.

“My belt has come off. Seat belt has unclipped.”

Power duly came to the pits and spent several agonising minutes idle as his crew worked to clip him in.

Former IndyCar driver turned commentator Townsend Bell said the belt sequence is typically quite complicated.

“Normally, the protocol is you have your sub belt and then your lap belt goes on and then you clip on your shoulder belts, so to try to do it after the fact without restarting the full sequence is really hard, especially with the steering wheel in there,” Bell explained.

“Normally that’s removed, so that the crew member has a lot more elbow flex available. And now, Will Power is paying the price. This is a disaster.”

James Hinchcliffe added: “I’ve had it happen in qualifying, I’ve had it happen in practice, I’ve never had it in a race condition, but that is not the kind of thing you can mess around with.

“This is not a case of a driver just manning up and dealing with it. Massive safety implication. You have to have that sorted. It’s so difficult to navigate that space right now. ou saw his hand was off the wheel, he was trying to see if he could do it on his own but that’s impossible at speed.”

IndyCar Series points Alex Palou rose from 24th to 17th by Lap 10. With Power five laps down, that all but guaranteed the Spaniard his third title.

Power was already at long odds to win the title but had an opportunity to capitalise with Palou’s engine penalty.

Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood led the race at the end of Lap 50.

Power got one lap back by Lap 75 of 206 after Felix Rosenqvist crashed and brought out the first yellow.

PROBLEMS FOR WILL POWER MIGHT BE ALL ALEX PALOU NEEDS TO LOCK UP THE INDYCAR CHAMPIONSHIP.

📺 : NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/0FR4tmbOfp

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 15, 2024