Championship Sunday is now within sight for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, with either Alex Palou or Will Power on the verge of winning their third season title.
Only 12 drivers in the sport’s history have earned as many championships, and only four of those have reached that mark in the past 30-plus years (Sam Hornish Jr., Sebastien Bourdais, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon). The driver who wins this Astor Challenge Cup will become the eighth with exactly three, joining Louis Meyer, Ted Horn, Jimmy Bryan, Rick Mears, Al Unser, Bobby Rahal and Hornish.
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Palou will bring a 33-point lead over Power into this weekend’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge at Nashville Superspeedway. Capturing the crown would give the Spaniard three titles in four years, a success rate not realized since Franchitti’s four in five years (2007-11).
If Palou, 27, hangs on, he will become the second-youngest driver to claim a third title. Hornish was 3 months younger when he nabbed his third in 2006. Conversely, Power, 43, would become the second-oldest driver to reach No. 3, following Unser, who was 46 in 1985.
The first practice is set for 11 a.m. ET Saturday, and Palou will look to capitalize on every minute of it. Not only has the driver of the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda never raced on the 1.33-mile oval track, this will be his first visit to the facility east of Nashville.
Meanwhile, Power competed in the most-recent series race at Nashville Superspeedway, in 2008, and he was one of four drivers selected to test at the track Aug. 8. The driver of the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet was the fastest in the session that included Dixon (No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda), Colton Herta (No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian) and Pato O’Ward (No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet).
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet) is the other driver eligible to win the championship, although he will be mathematically eliminated if Palou starts the race. Knowing that, McLaughlin has joked on social media about offering Palou soured sushi and “a little tour of the Tennessee countryside” on a high-powered Ducati motorcycle.
Palou will win the championship by finishing ninth or better, regardless of how Power or McLaughlin fare. Power’s only chance to take home the trophy is to finish in the top three of the 206-lap race (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, Universo, INDYCAR Radio Network).
For only the second time in NTT INDYCAR SERIES history, competitors will have the use of two different compounds of Firestone Firehawk tires. Both types must be used in the race. Also, the track will get its first experience with the hybrid technology introduced in July that gives drivers the ability to gain 60 additional horsepower in short dosages.
These are only a sampling of the many storylines featured in this weekend’s event.
A History Lesson of the Track
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES will stage a race at Nashville Superspeedway for the first time since 2008, a race won by Dixon that finished under caution due to rain. Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick rounded out the top five.
Dixon won the final three (of eight) series races at the track. Other winners included Buddy Lazier, Alex Barron, Gil de Ferran, Kanaan and Franchitti. Dixon was the fastest qualifier: 206.211 mph in 2003. No race lasted more than 200 laps.
This 27-car field will be the largest for the series at this track. The average of the previous races was 21.1, and those mid-July races averaged 5.3 cautions.
Dixon, Power and Graham Rahal are the only active drivers who have competed at the track. Rahal finished 12th in the 2008 race. Dixon also finished second in 2003 and won his second pole at the track in 2007.
Power Eyes Another Pole
In 2008, Power started 18th at Nashville Superspeedway, which means he has never won a pole there. It is one of two events on this year’s schedule where that’s the case, the other being the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.
A pole in Saturday’s NTT P1 Award qualifying session (Saturday, 2:15 p.m. ET, Peacock, INDYCAR Radio Network) would extend Power’s streak of consecutive seasons with at least one to 16. The next-longest pole streak belongs to Herta, at six seasons and counting.
Coincidentally, it has been since 2008 that Power last didn’t pace a qualifying session in a season. For perspective on the streak, consider that he arrived at the 2008 Nashville event as a KV Racing Technology driver in only his fourth month in the Indy Racing League. Also, that race was just his eighth on an oval, and his average finish to that point was 17.1. He now has 10 career oval wins in the series.
Dixon also has a history of success on the line this weekend. He enters the event fifth in the standings, 19 points behind Herta. Dixon has finished in the top four of the standings in 17 of the past 18 years. In that stretch he has won five of his six series titles, finished second three times and has been third six times. The outlier was 2016 when he finished sixth.
Maybe a First-Time Winner?
Marcus Ericsson, Kyle Kirkwood and Christian Lundgaard are the three drivers who won races last year but are winless in 2024. Add another driver to hungry-to-win list: Alexander Rossi.
This will be Rossi’s last race in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, and he would like to score his first victory for the team in it. Rossi’s last win came in 2022 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course with Andretti Global.
Andretti Global’s Kirkwood (No. 27 AutoNation Honda) won two races last year, including the Nashville race on the streets near Nissan Stadium. He also won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Lundgaard (No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda) won the Honda Indy Toronto, Ericsson the “500” before joining Andretti Global’s No. 28 Delaware Life Honda this season.
Fourteen drivers in this field have won a race in this series, which means 13 have not. Among the latter with the best chance of breaking through this weekend are Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet), David Malukas (No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda), Conor Daly (No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet) and rookie Linus Lundqvist (No. 8 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda).
Ferrucci is 10th in the standings and will give AJ Foyt Racing its highest season finish since Airton Dare was ninth in 2002. Ferrucci has 10 top-10 finishes this season, including top-eight finishes in each of the past three races. An 11th such finish this season gives him the team record. Ferrucci finished fourth in each of the recent Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile 250 races.
Malukas has started on the front row for two of the past three oval races. Daly led 22 laps in the “500” and finished third in Race 1 at Milwaukee. Lundqvist, who has secured the Rookie of the Year award, finished third in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline last month at World Wide Technology Raceway.
While Palou has 11 career series victories, a victory this weekend would be his first on an oval track. Rinus VeeKay (No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet), Felix Rosenqivst (No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda), Kirkwood and Lundgaard are the other former race winners still seeking their first oval wins in this series.
Don’t Forget About Newgarden
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet) had a rough go of it at the recent event in Milwaukee, crashing out of both races.
In Race 1, Newgarden and Ericsson had contact while fighting for position in Turn 2. In Race 2, Newgarden was hit from behind as the pole sitter at the start of the race. He was a front-row starter in each case.
Newgarden has been the series’ dominant oval-track driver over the past three calendar years, winning 10 of the past 17 races, including Indy twice.
Nashville Superspeedway is one oval where he hasn’t won a race, but there is no way he could have. Despite hailing from nearby Hendersonville, Tennessee, this will be his first race on the oval.
Another Ganassi Championship?
A second consecutive title for Palou would further cement Chip Ganassi Racing as an organization of champions.
If Palou hoists the trophy, Chip Ganassi’s team will have 11 series titles in the past 17 years. In that stretch, Team Penske has six series championships, Andretti Global 1. Overall, CGR has 15 series titles, Team Penske leads with 17. Andretti Global has four (with four different drivers).
Dixon has delivered Ganassi six titles. Palou would tie Franchitti with three for the Indianapolis-based organization. Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi (two) and Juan Pablo Montoya earned the others.