Lebanon, TN – Alex Palou held off Josef Newgarden in a nail-biter to win INDYCAR’s Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway. The Spaniard had luck on his side, pitting just before a caution closed pit lane, while also making the right tire choices. David Malukas finished third, followed by Scott McLaughlin and Felix Rosenqvist.
The race was originally scheduled for late afternoon on Sunday, to be broadcast on FOX following the World Cup soccer finale, but was postponed due to thunderstorms in the area and heavy rain on Sunday evening. As a result, the 300-lap (399 miles) event on the 1.33-mile track was shortened to the usual length of 225 laps (300 miles) on Monday afternoon.
“Teamwork!” said Palou, about earning his third career oval victory (he won the Indy 500 and the Iowa race in 2025, the longest and shortest ovals, respectively). “It was a close battle with Newgarden. He had so much speed and I was flat-out the last 30-35 laps. Pretty cool weekend for Spain to win the World Cup. It’s my first ever win at a race on a Monday. A ton of people came back to the track today so I thank them for sticking with us.
“I knew I had a great car,” continued Palou, who gave Chip Ganassi Racing its 150th victory, while earning his fifth win of the season, after leading 97 laps. “I was not that comfortable on Saturday with my car. I struggled at the beginning of the race but was so comfortable the last two stints once I got in the lead. I was a bit worried about Josef coming while I was in traffic. Once you lose some downforce (from the turbulence generated by the car in front) you are fighting the car and have no place to go. You have to avoid the marbles (rubber bits cast off by the tires as they degrade). There was no more that I could do as I was flat-out. Josef had the draft to get closer to us. But his tires started degrading (on the softer reds, while Palou was on the harder black tires). It’s one of those tracks we’ve been struggling at.”
Palou started fourth in the 25-car field and remained between third and fifth position. The team called him to pit because he was caught in traffic on Lap 123, just 0.3 seconds before the yellow came out, closing the pits. His teammate, Scott Dixon, had hit the back of Alexander Rossi, who slowed on track instead of in the warm-up lane to enter the pits.
“I was committed,” said the determined Spaniard, hoping to earn his fifth NTT INDYCAR title in six seasons. “It’s a close championship this year. The 12 (Malukas) and the 27 (Kyle Kirkwood) are normally there, so I know it isn’t going to be easy. I’m very happy to get a win here because it is a place where we didn’t expect it.”
There’s no tougher competitor on an oval than Newgarden, who’s won 11 out of the last 24 oval races. It must’ve been very nerve wracking to see Newgarden in his mirrors. Palou managed a margin of victory of 0.8731 seconds but, at times, the gap was down to three tenths or less.
“This is just what we had today to finish second,” said a hot and disappointed Newgarden, who followed Palou the last 47 laps. “I had a good, fast car. It didn’t really matter if I was on reds or black tires because this race was a track position race with 30 laps to go. I didn’t think it was going to fully be that way if we could have gotten more full stints. Before the last yellow (Lap 181 -193), I was coming, I was ready. The track was still open (had multiple lanes). Unless you have a full stint (at least 40 laps) and I just didn’t get enough as we needed more laps. I got blocked a couple times and lost track position a couple of times. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. It would have been great to have 300 laps because then you’d have more stints. You just can’t give up track position under a yellow. We’ll go to the next one.”
Malukas hit the Turn 2 wall twenty minutes into the first practice session on Saturday. After making a cockpit adjustment, only to have his car immediately spin, his right knee came up on impact when he backed into the wall, releasing his steering wheel into his lap and bruising his right knee. He started last because he missed qualifying while being evaluated at a local hospital. Conor Daly was potentially going to fill in for Malukas but the officials stated if Daly did a qualifying run, he’d have to compete in the race the next day.
“This was a great team effort,” explained Malukas, who made a number of daring passes and had been catching Palou in the title fight. “I’ve never driven so hard in my life. We had to go through the field twice. The team pulled together and gave me an incredible car. From last to third. We wanted to go on a different strategy than the rest of the field since we started at the back. It was better to race today than yesterday. Yesterday would have been a game of survival but today it was game on. I’m super happy with lots of good memories. This was the hardest race of my life. So hot. It’s one to remember.”
There were three cautions for 41 laps, with 11 lead changes. Every time there was a caution, the officials had trucks remove the marbles, the bits of rubber that come off the tires, to encourage passing in the higher lanes. That process lengthened the cautions. Both Palou and Newgarden made four pit stops, taking advantage of the three cautions. But Malukas, who started 25th, stayed out during the first caution so he could move up the field, making only three stops to finish on the podium.
The Nashville Superspeedway is a 55-foot-wide track, offering three lanes with 14 degrees of banking in the turns and 9 degrees on the curved front section (D-shaped track). Teams were required to run two sets of alternate (softer, red side walled) tires and one set of primary (harder, black) tires for a minimum of two laps each. The Nashville concrete surface is more abrasive than an asphalt track and teams split their decisions about the preferred tire.
The most improved driver on an oval was Mick Schumacher, who qualified 16th and finished 8th, outdoing his two Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammates. But the driver who struggled was Christian Lundgaard, who started 24th and finished 16th, driving for Arrow McLaren (teammate Pato O’Ward finished 7th and Nolan Siegel finished 11th). Lundgaard, who is now a free agent since the announcement that Dixon and Rosenqvist will join the McLaren team next season, needs to improve on ovals that make up a third of the season for him to be seriously considered by a top team, such as a move to fill the vacancy of the No. 9 car (replacing Dixon) at Chip Ganassi Racing.
Palou now has an 83-point lead in the standings, with 457 points, over Malukas 374, Kyle Kirkwood 370, Lundgaard 353, and O’Ward with 336 points. There are six races remaining, with the next event in Portland, Oregon on August 9.
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