By: NTT INDYCAR SERIES (Photo Courtesy INDYCAR)
LEBANON, Tenn. (Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024) – Alex Palou joined the immortals of more than a century of North American open-wheel racing Sunday, winning his third NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge at Nashville Superspeedway.
Palou finished 11th in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, more than enough to clinch his third Astor Challenge Cup in the last four years. His closest title rival, Will Power, went five laps down early in the race due to a disconnected seat belt in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet and finished 24th, eight laps down.
“We just had to keep on going,” Palou said of his focus after he learned of Power’s troubles. “I have to thank everyone working on the 10 car. Super proud. It’s been an amazing year, and I’m happy we got the championship back home.”
With the title race all but over just 13 laps into the 206-lap race due to Power’s troubles, Colton Herta hunted down and passed Pato O’Ward on Lap 202 to earn his first career oval victory in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian. Nashville-area resident Herta outraced O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to victory by 1.8106 seconds and climbed from fourth to a career-best second in the final NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings, 31 points behind champion Palou.
It was the first oval victory for the Andretti team since Alexander Rossi won in 2018 at Pocono Raceway.
“I’m so happy,” Herta said. “We knew we were going to have a hot rod in the race. It’s been an amazing year. I just saw I finished second in the championship, which is awesome. Hoping to do a little bit better next year.”
Nashville-area resident Josef Newgarden finished third in the No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet. NTT P1 Award winner Kyle Kirkwood was fourth in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda of Andretti Global after leading a race-high 67 laps, while Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top five in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet.
Palou’s list of accolades matches many of the all-time greats of INDYCAR SERIES racing. He became just the 13th driver in history to earn at least three championships and just the seventh to win three titles in four years; Dario Franchitti was the last – also for Chip Ganassi Racing – when he won three straight from 2009-11.
Spaniard Palou, 27 years, 5 months, 14 days, became the second-youngest driver to win three INDYCAR SERIES championships. Only Sam Hornish Jr. was younger, 27 years, 2 months, 8 days in 2006.
Chip Ganassi Racing also continued its climb into rare air, winning its 16th series championship, including four in the last five seasons. Only Team Penske has more, with 17 titles.
Herta prevailed over O’Ward in a duel of differing strategies created by use of Firestone Firehawk alternate tires in addition to the standard primary tires. It was only the second time the softer, grippier red-sidewall alternates have been used on an oval in series history.
O’Ward made his final pit stop at the end of Lap 161, taking the Firestone alternate tires for the mandatory second time. David Malukas was forced to pit from the lead on Lap 201 in the No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda of Meyer Shank Racing, as he made his previous stop on Lap 139 and didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the finish.
Meanwhile, Herta was hunting down O’Ward after he made his final stop at the end of Lap 180, 19 laps after O’Ward’s final trip to pit lane. Herta took more durable Firestone primary tires after using his two mandatory alternate sets earlier in the race and used that fresher rubber to claw ground on O’Ward, also helped by slower traffic blunting O’Ward.
As Malukas was in pit lane for his final stop, Herta dove under the lapped No. 41 Goodheart Vet/Pray.com Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises in Turn 1 at the start of Lap 202, with O’Ward on the outside in a nerve-fraying race for the win. O’Ward was forced slightly up the 1.33-mile concrete oval by the three-wide action, and that let Herta power past for the lead for good at the end of the back straightaway and into Turn 3.
Herta never trailed thereafter for his second victory of the season – he also won on the streets of Toronto in July – and his ninth career victory. The decisive pass was one of 653 on track and 237 for position, records for the INDYCAR SERIES at this track in its return here for the first time since 2008.
Meanwhile, Palou wasted no time from the drop of the green flag to erase the predicament he found himself in after qualifying Saturday. He only needed to finish ninth or better to clinch the title, but he started 24th in the 27-car field after qualifying a mystifying 15th and dropping nine spots on the starting grid due to a penalty for an unauthorized engine change after the race Sept. 1 at Milwaukee.
Palou already had gained 10 spots, running 14th, when calamity struck Power on Lap 13. Power had started fourth – he needed to place third or better to have any mathematical chance of winning his third title – but had slipped to sixth when he called to his pit box on his radio that his lap belt dislodged.
Power immediately pitted, and the field circled the track five times before the belt was fixed and Power was back on track. His title hopes were over.
“I was driving down the front stretch there, and I just felt a pop on the lap belt,” Power said. “That’s a very abnormal thing. I don’t know what went wrong. Very strange failure. I’ve never had that before. You have engine failures, gearbox failures; I had a belt failure.
“Disappointing, but big congrats to Alex. A tough guy to beat. Ganassi did a great job. It’s been fun racing those guys this year.”
The 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season starts Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding at St. Petersburg, Florida, live on FOX and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
Results Sunday of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (9) Colton Herta, Honda, 206, Running
2. (7) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 206, Running
3. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 206, Running
4. (1) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 206, Running
5. (18) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 206, Running
6. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 206, Running
7. (12) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 206, Running
8. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 206, Running
9. (5) David Malukas, Honda, 206, Running
10. (6) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 205, Running
11. (24) Alex Palou, Honda, 205, Running
12. (10) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 205, Running
13. (20) Jack Harvey, Honda, 205, Running
14. (25) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 205, Running
15. (26) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 205, Running
16. (13) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 204, Running
17. (11) Scott Dixon, Honda, 204, Running
18. (27) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 204, Running
19. (21) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 204, Running
20. (23) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 204, Running
21. (16) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 204, Running
22. (17) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 202, Running
23. (19) Graham Rahal, Honda, 202, Running
24. (4) Will Power, Chevrolet, 198, Running
25. (15) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 136, Contact
26. (22) Katherine Legge, Honda, 85, Contact
27. (3) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 55, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 159.207 mph
Time of Race: 01:43:15.2534
Margin of victory: 1.8106 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 31 laps
Lead changes: 8 among 6 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Kirkwood, Kyle 1 – 53
Newgarden, Josef 54 – 91
Rossi, Alexander 92 – 123
Newgarden, Josef 124 – 139
O’Ward, Pato 140 – 160
Herta, Colton 161 – 179
Kirkwood, Kyle 180 – 193
Malukas, David 194 – 201
Herta, Colton 202 – 206
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Palou 544, Herta 513, McLaughlin 505, Power 498, O’Ward 460, Dixon 456, Kirkwood 420, Newgarden 401, Ferrucci 367, Rossi 366, Lundgaard 312, Rosenqvist 306, VeeKay 300, Armstrong 298, Ericsson 297, Lundqvist 279, Grosjean 260, Rahal 251, Fittipaldi 186, Robb 185, Simpson 182, Rasmussen 163, Siegel 154, Malukas 148, Harvey 143, Daly 119, Agustin Canapino 109, Theo Pourchaire 91, Legge 61, Tom Blomqvist 46, Ed Carpenter 45, Toby Sowery 45, Callum Ilott 39, Luca Ghiotto 27, Helio Castroneves 26, Kyle Larson 21, Takuma Sato 19, Tristan Vautier 12, Juri Vips 11, Colin Braun 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay 6, Hunter McElrea 6, Marco Andretti 5
