The battle to win the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix came down to the wire at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway oval, where Josef Newgarden emerged victorious at the end of a trying season, after battling 2025 champion Alex Palou and Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin in the closing laps.
“This is a great win for our team after a tough, tough year,” said a relieved Newgarden, earning his first win of the season. “It’s great to get a win here in Nashville. We had the car today and I just wanted to get it done and finish off the season. The team really performed. Will (Power) and Scott (McLaughlin) could have also won today. This was not an easy race as my car was not where I wanted it when we started off. We got the car into a really good spot. It’s so difficult to get everything to work right to be able to get a win.”
Known to dominate on the ovals, Newgarden earned his 32nd career win, having won 11 of the last 23 oval races. It was the Tennessee native’s first win at the Nashville track. Many drivers had the potential to win this 17th and final race of 2025, which had a record 284 passes for position (502 total on-track passes), with 12 different leaders comprising 20 lead changes. Drivers were aggressive in their last opportunity to audition and impress team owners for next season’s rides.
Finishing second was Alex Palou, who was presented with the Astor Cup trophy post-race for clinching his fourth title at Portland earlier this month, two races before the Nashville finale. The Spaniard captured eight wins this season, leading 700 laps, earning 13 podium finishes, and his third consecutive title – his fourth in five seasons.
“It’s been an amazing year and season for us at Chip Ganassi Racing and Honda,” explained Palou. “I just had the pleasure to be the driver to drive the No. 10 DHL car. The last two races, even though we won the championship, we tried so hard to still win. Today, I just didn’t have the confidence in the second lane. There were so many marbles, I could not go higher and my tires had more laps on them to challenge Newgarden.”
Regarding Palou, team owner Chip Ganassi said, “he is just a hard worker on and off the track. He never gave up the will to win. He couldn’t quite get it done today but he kept pushing, even though he had won the title already. You have no idea the amount of hard work and late nights, questions, experiments, that go on in the race shop, trying to find a millisecond difference between our cars and some of the other cars. They call this a spec series. It’s hard to separate yourself from these other drivers.”
INDYCAR required drivers to run a minimum of one set of primary, black tires and two sets of softer, red alternate tires during the race, which required a minimum of three pit stops. Drivers made at least four stops. While the softer tires didn’t appear to be much faster on the banked, concrete oval, they were not as durable, creating a lot of marbles to form in the higher lanes.
There were four cautions for 46 laps. Newgarden led 60 laps, including the final 20 circuits. Pato O’Ward led 116 of the 225 laps before a right-front tire failure sent him into the wall.
McLaughlin led seven laps before fighting with Newgarden for the lead. The Kiwi got caught on the marbles from the degrading tires and brushed the wall, bringing out the final caution. Following the final restart, Penske’s McLaughlin and Ganassi’s Kyffin Simpson put on quite a show battling for third, running side-by-side for the final 11 laps.
“I thought I could hold off Josef (Newgarden) but I got caught in the marbles,” admitted McLaughlin, regarding his brush with the Turn 2 wall on Lap 205. “I managed to hold onto it and am so happy to get a podium. My car was straight after hitting the fence so I pushed on. It’s bittersweet for me and glad to hold onto third. Simpson did a great job and gave me room. He’s getting better and better every week.
“The restarts were really intense,” continued McLaughlin. “I had an absolute blast. It was so much fun. This was my best battle on an oval. The racing was really fair and a proper INDYCAR race. While this was a great end to our season, I’m pissed at myself. I felt like this has been one of those years where I haven’t put everything together. We’ve had really good speed all year but not quite as good as Palou. I’m excited for what is ahead. We will work during the off-season to be better, smooth things out, and improve.”
Rookie of the Year honours went to Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Louis Foster, who finished with a two-point advantage over Prema’s Robert Shwartzman, 213 to 211. Foster led three races during the season and earned the pole at Road America.
“I’m super pleased,” stated Foster, the 2024 INDY NXT champion. “It was one of our main goals and was closer than I wanted it to be. We didn’t have the car today. But the team did an incredible job this year, in spite of some ups and down. I learned a lot.
“It’s tricky coming into INDYCAR this year,” continued Foster. “Qualifying has been stellar. The races are double the length of what I’ve done before, and I had to learn about fuel saving and pit stops. I’m looking forward to coming back in 2026 with the knowledge and experience at these races. I’m an advocate for the Road to Indy program. I came to America to win the scholarships, which I did. For young drivers there is no better place than America.”
Devlin DeFrancesco contested his first race at Nashville. The Toronto native slid into the Turn 4 wall in the first practice session on Saturday, when he got loose over the track’s tunnel bump between Turns 3 and 4. He qualified 22nd and finished the race in 18th.
“Today was a tough day,” revealed DeFrancesco, completing his third INDYCAR season. “Balance-wise, we have made steps forward. There wasn’t anyone we couldn’t run with, get close to, and put under pressure. We just didn’t quite have the speed yet. On the short ovals, we seem to be a bit draggy, which compromises us. Still, it was a well-executed race overall. We’ve shown some very strong high points this year. We had pace at most places, especially the road courses and at the 500 (finished 11th), which we had a real shot to win. Looking ahead to 2026, my focus is on pure execution. We know we have the speed. It’s going to come down to the smallest details. If we can nail those, I have no doubt we’ll be fighting at the front every weekend.”
Not only did Palou win the 2025 NTT INDYCAR championship, but his teammate Scott Dixon finished third in the standings, behind Pato O’Ward, driving for Arrow McLaren. Kyle Kirkwood, who won three races, finished fourth for Andretti Global and McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard finished fifth.
The NTT INDYCAR 2026 season begins on March 1 at the temporary airport street course in St. Petersburg, FL.
