Alex Palou hopped into the cockpit Sunday at The Milwaukee Mile with a 43-point cushion on fellow title contender Will Power and almost instantly saw it evaporate as his car failed to start for the green flag. Power took the race lead 45 laps in -- giving him a virtual 5-point championship lead as the standings currently sat -- only to spin before the race's halfway point on a mid-race restart that he'd recover from to finish 10th.

After all the drama, Palou, the defending series champ, still sizable championship lead with just one race to go in the 2024 IndyCar season.

IndyCar news: How Alex Palou lost then regained his IndyCar championship lead

Here's the full IndyCar points list after Sunday's race at The Milwaukee Mile:

IndyCar series championship points standings picture heading to Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville

1. Alex Palou (2 wins, 525 points)

2. Will Power (3 wins, 492 points)

3. Scott McLaughlin (3 wins, 475 points)

4. Colton Herta (1 win, 462 points)

5. Scott Dixon (2 wins, 443 points)

6. Pato O'Ward (3 wins, 419 points)

7. Kyle Kirkwood (0 wins, 384 points)

8. Josef Newgarden (2 wins, 365 points)

9. Alexander Rossi (0 wins, 350 points)

10. Santino Ferrucci (0 wins, 339 points)

IndyCar Series remaining races

• Sept. 15: Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, Nashville Superspeedway (3 p.m., NBC)

IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year standings

Though he wasn't able to capitalize on his solid 5th-place starting position, Linus Lundqvist still managed to clinch IndyCar 2024 Rookie of the Year honors during Sunday's Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250, finishing the penultimate race of the year with an 81-point cushion to his closest challenger, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kyffin Simpson. The latter put together his second-best finish of his rookie campaign, finishing 13th, but it wasn't nearly enough to properly shrink the 88-gap to Lundqvist that stood after Saturday's Race 1 of the doubleheader.

With a maximum of 54 points available per race weekend, Lundqvist can go into this month's season-finale having already clinched the ROY hardware. He currently sits 16th in the driver points standings, 11 back of Rinus VeeKay (15th), 17 points back of Marcus Ericsson (14th) and 22 back of CGR teammate Marcus Armstrong (13th).

IndyCar Series Leaders Circle Standings

Despite a clutch issue that left him 20 laps down once it was finally repaired by his Juncos Hollinger Racing mechanics, Conor Daly's ho-hum 17th-place finish Sunday that followed his first podium in eight years still allowed him to pick up another spot in the Leaders Circle standings for the No. 78 Chevy.

IndyCar news: After 8-year drought, Conor Daly’s back on an IndyCar podium in star run at Milwaukee Mile

After jumping from 23rd to 20th after Saturday's major points haul, the No. 78 now sits 19th with just one race to go in the season as teams towards the bottom of the entrant standings fight for a crucial $1 million prize that will go to the top-22 eligible cars in the entrant point standings next season. With 25 cars eligible and Dale Coyne Racing's pair of entries a good ways back, it's long appeared that only one other car would miss out on the ever-important money to be paid out by Penske Entertainment over several installments next year.

As they sat after Saturday night's race, Ed Carpenter Racing's No. 20 driven by Christian Rasmussen continues to sit as the odd car out in 23rd, though the entry's gap to 22nd shrunk from 3 points to just 1 heading to Nashville, with Rasmussen finishing two spots higher and earning two more points than AJ Foyt Racing's No. 41, driven by Sting Ray Robb. Meyer Shank Racing's No. 66, driven by David Malukas, dropped a spot to JHR and sits 20th heading to the finale. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's No. 30 sits 21st, with Nos. 21, 22 and 23 in the standings separated by just three points.

Here are the standings around the cutline:

19. Juncos Hollinger Racing No. 78: 189 points

20. Meyer Shank Racing No. 66: 187 points

21. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 30: 177 points

22. AJ Foyt Racing No. 41: 175 points

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23. Ed Carpenter Racing No. 20: 174 points

24. Dale Coyne Racing No. 51: 160 points

25. Dale Coyne Racing No. 18: 137 points

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar points standings after Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 Race 2