IndyCar championship leader Alex Palou suffers “not a good day” in Washington, D.C.

Palou, the reigning and four-time series champion started on pole in Freedom 250, but never led a single lap: “It hurts, man. It hurts”

Alex Palou endured a no good, very bad day in Washington, D.C.

The reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion started on pole in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, but taking the green flag — waved by President Donald Trump — was the only time the Spaniard spent at the front.

Palou’s troubles began during his first pit stop on lap 36 of 147, when he struck a right-rear tyre belonging to rookie Mick Schumacher’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing crew. Race control handed Palou a drive-through penalty, sending him towards the rear of the field. His next stop was then delayed by a problem fitting the left-front tyre, dropping him a lap down.

As the race went on, he made contact with the wall, which caused slight suspension damage that he tried to battle through before spinning in Turn 3 on Lap 122. The final incident left him dragging his damaged #10 Honda back to pitlane for extensive repairs.

In the end, Palou returned to finish three laps down in 20th - just his third finish outside of the top 10 this season.

“We could have done a lot differently,” said Palou, 29. “I mean, it hurts, man. It hurts. It was one of those races that I really want to do very good. I wanted to get that win, so it kind of hurts a lot that we just had this bad of a day. But it's okay. Things happen. I'm at least kind of happy that everything happened at the same day instead of spreading out throughout different races.

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Photo by: Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images

“But yeah, we had some issues in pit lane, one my fault, one out of my control, something on the track that then I kind of bumped a little bit the wall and 20 laps after the rear toe link broke, that's why we spun.

And to make the pain sting a bit more, Palou’s championship lead took a significant hit with championship rival Kyle Kirkwood, who started alongside him on the front row and passed him in Turn 3 en route to leading 128 laps and taking the win. As a result, Palou’s lead, which was 133 over Kirkwood coming into the weekend, dwindled down to 91 points with three races to go.

“So yeah, not a good day, but it's all right. Things happen.”