Pruett's cooldown lap, Nashville edition

The kindly Gian Paolo Dallara has amassed enough summer homes, winter homes, homes at the lake, castles, mansions, and personal islands to last several lifetimes. They’ve all been purchased over the last 25 years from the proceeds of supplying cars and spare parts to IndyCar teams.

I reckon Mr. Dallara’s next purchase will be the state of Tennessee, site of the Thank You Mr. Dallara Grand Prix at Nashville, where the Italian racecar manufacturer must generate profits that make Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos blush.

If you missed the race and logged on minutes into the post-event coverage, the footage of the wrecker loaded with no less than eight noses and front wing assemblies – warped into abstract forms – and a crumpled rear wing would have told you everything there was to know about the 80-lap endurance round.

This tow truck driver had a successful day fishing for IndyCar memorabilia. NBC Sports

I’m not sure what else to say here that wasn’t said in my post-race column from 2021, other than to add that the Nashville **** Show 2.0 was indeed as bad as the first event in terms of quality. But hey, every person who buys a ticket or tunes into a race isn’t looking for clean and artful passing from start to finish.

For fans of crash-filled entertainment, IndyCar’s first and second visits to the Music City venue must have been amazing. That’s the only positive take I can come up with. Half of the drivers who entered this year’s Nashville race failed to reach the finish, and in all but a few of those cases, the premature endings were due to carnage that was either self-induced or delivered upon innocent bystanders. Actually, I’m not sure many could count themselves as ‘innocent’ in the afternoon melee.

So, here we are, with a carbon copy of last year’s race and a bump from 43 percent of the inaugural race being run under yellow to 46 percent on Sunday. Nearly half.

Within the field, 19 of the 27 starters were running at the finish last year; it was a proper split this time with 13 of 26 parked with some form of mechanical or electrical damage. Fully half.

CHAIN REACTIONS

And all of this was produced at an 11-turn track that used the best offseason input from IndyCar drivers to make improvements for 2022 that would, hopefully, prevent a lot of the embarrassing moments that tarnished the series’ first appearance in Nashville. Sadly, all the feedback that went into numerous changes did little to change the outcome.

As it’s constructed, Nashville has the unprecedented ability to create chain-reaction crashes at multiple locations that are unlike any other circuit on the calendar. To its credit, widening Turn 11 did prevent a repeat of the logjam that brought out a red flag late in last year’s event, but the same funneling of drivers — usually on restarts — coming off the bridge into the Turn 9 lefthander, then again at the left at Turn 10, and on the other side of the bridge at Turn 4 – and at Turn 6, where about 25 percent of the field was taken out or damaged — makes Nashville one big yellow or red flag waiting to happen.

IndyCar racing, Nashville-style. James Black/Penske Entertainment

The track is built around the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge, and while the bridge provides amazing visuals for the broadcast, it’s also where the majority of the crashes, spins, and general calamity is generated as drivers exit both sides of the span. We’ve even had one driver, Jimmie Johnson, pulverize his car on the bridge by himself on two occasions before reaching the braking zone in Turn 4.

With two consecutive wreck-fests, enough data has been collected to easily suggest that without fundamental changes, a third trip to race in Nashville will lead to the same costly conclusion. The old adage about the definition of insanity comes to mind here. Doing nothing isn’t the answer, but would the promoters actually delete the main problem area by creating a bridge-free circuit? That doesn’t sound plausible. The only other answer is for IndyCar teams to accept the carnage as the price to pay for racing in downtown Nashville, and that’s also an unlikely scenario.

Yes, Nashville is an amazing town that loves to party and welcomes guests from anywhere in the world to enjoy its unique culture. And maybe it’s building new fans there who’ve come to expect constant crashes and cautions as what you get with IndyCar. But for the rest of us who enjoy seeing less of the pace car during an event, IndyCar needs to turn next year’s race into something other than a barroom brawl. A third straight destruction derby would be negligent on the series’ part.

But don’t forget Mr. Dallara. If we can take 75 percent of the field out in 2023, he just might be able to build a house on the moon.

WHAT ABOUT THE DRIVERS?

The cars don’t drive themselves, right? Two consecutive dumpster fires in Nashville could have been avoided if the drivers had more respect for each other, blah, blah, blah.

Look, it’s true. We’re having a different conversation about Nashville if everyone strapped inside the Dallara DW12s played nicely with each other, but they don’t. And haven’t. And won’t. I’m sure there were a few among the 26 who were blameless on Sunday, but mostly, it was case after case of taking the bait and diving down the inside of someone and a kerblammo. Or it was out-braking oneself or being unsettled over the bumps and tagging the car in front or being tagged from behind.

For all the excellence in driving standards we see at a place like Road America, the opposite is shown at Nashville where it invites the worst behavior and there’s no amount of threats or yelling from series officials or team owners that will change the instincts of elite IndyCar drivers.

Make no mistake: The majority of the problems created over 160 combined laps of racing have come from the decisions or errors made by the drivers. We can also be clear that they won’t dial themselves back and race with kinder hearts in the future.

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS

The SCCA volunteers who lined the track and facilitated the event were gathered at 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning for a meeting before heading out to their corners, which means they were up somewhere around 5 a.m. to prepare themselves, have breakfast, and make the journey into the facility.

With the long delays caused by rain and lightning in the area, those unpaid volunteers were there until after 8 p.m., thanks to Robby Gordon’s Jumpy Trucks being the last hurrah, and once they were done, blasting out of Nashville to drive or fly home, catch a few hours of sleep, and return to their day jobs Monday morning was the reward.

Just as we thank the AMR Safety Team and IndyCar Medical staffs for taking such great care of the paddock, the next time you are at an event, please offer the same gratitude to the folks dressed in white who give us their free weekends and vacation days to make the racing possible.

And if you’re so inclined, you might ask one of them how to join the volunteer community. They’re always in need of help with flagging and communications, and in wider capacities at SCCA club racing events with technical inspection, stewarding, and all the other critical roles.

EERILY FAMILIAR

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson scored his first IndyCar win in 2021 on the streets of Detroit and followed it up with a second on the streets of Nashville. Ganassi’s Scott Dixon got his first win of 2022 on the streets of Toronto and followed it up with a second on the streets of Nashville.

Ericsson took flight off the back of Sebastien Bourdais’ A.J. Foyt Racing car last year in Nashville, pitted five times to affect repairs to the front of his car, fell as low as 25th, and went on to earn a highly improbable win.

Dixon took flight with a hit from behind from Dalton Kellett’s A.J. Foyt Racing car — Bourdais’ former teammate — this year in Nashville, pitted six times to affect repairs to the rear of his car, fell as low as 23rd, and went on to earn a highly improbable win.

All I’m saying is there’s no need for the Ganassi team to do a lick of strategizing for the 2023 Nashville race. Find a Foyt car, brace for impact, and head to victory lane.

Nashville is fast becoming Chip's backyard. Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment

KIWI GOOD LUCK CHARM

Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin might consider pooling their resources to get countryman Steven Templeman to all of their upcoming races. The New Zealander tries to make the long trip to at least one IndyCar race per year, and he was definitely a good luck charm for Dixon after rocking up to the 2018 season finale in Sonoma — sporting a custom shirt supporting the Kiwi — where Dixon went on to win his fifth championship.

The luck didn’t play out as intended on his next trip to the 2019 curtain closer at Laguna Seca: Josef Newgarden won the title. But after being derailed due to COVID-related travel restrictions, Templeman arrived in Nashville this week — wearing another custom Dixon shirt — where fellow Kiwi McLaughlin earned pole and followed Dixon home in a 1-2 finish.

Dixon and his good luck charm Steven Templeman after the Kiwi’s 53rd IndyCar win. Photo courtesy of Steven Templeman

SATO SAYS

There haven’t been many instances in Takuma Sato’s IndyCar career where he’s been able to go hard at another driver after being hit. Nashville was one of those rare occasions, so whether he was right or wrong in how the race-ending collision with Devlin DeFrancesco occurred, it’s worth sharing his side of the story.

“Our race was very disappointing today,” he said. “We were making our way up running P15 and making our way to the top 10 but we didn’t quite get there. What happened was that DeFrancesco went wide into Turn 10 and we both hit the wall – normally you can run two-wide there. He said I had turned into him, but I didn’t. I made sure that he saw me, and he did.

“He explained that someone had hit him from behind, but looking at the footage of on-board cameras, that wasn’t the case. Basically, he didn’t turn, and he crashed into me. What’s mostly disappointing, it’s not just that we didn’t finish the race, we should have good quality, hard racing, but it wasn’t that.”

From DeFrancesco’s perspective, frustrations were high.

"It was another frustrating day,” he said. “It feels like there has just been frustration after frustration. I had made up a few positions on the restarts so things were trending positive. Then the incident occurred and our day was over. Hopefully, we can regroup on the week off."

MISCELLANEOUS

* There’s no need to hand out The Golden Bowling Ball award, because damn near every driver deserves it to some degree. But I did love Romain Grosjean’s comment of ‘This isn’t bowling’ after the race in reaction to the heated clash with Josef Newgarden.

* Nice job by Jack Harvey to survive the wars and record his best finish of his debut season with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with a 10th. RLL’s road and street course pace of late has been encouraging and if the planets align, I wouldn’t be completely surprised to see Graham Rahal or Christian Lundgaard get a win at Portland or Laguna Seca.

* According to Peacock, the length of the broadcast with all of the pre-race weather delays and in-race delays from eight cautions and a red, was 4h 48m!

* I love Marino Franchitti’s suggestion for next year’s race. My only addition would be to have the drivers dive from the middle of the bridge, and then start the jet skis…

https://twitter.com/MFranchitti/status/1556402441293283330?s=20&t=3VAVz2rbYUYbJmU8hnd1lQ

* Punishing end to Simona De Silvestro’s three-race run with Paretta Autosport and Ed Carpenter Racing that lasted just 55 laps and ended with a last-place finish. It’s great to see a fourth race get added for Laguna Seca, which will give the Swiss driver a chance to forget Nashville.

https://twitter.com/simdesilvestro/status/1556447179325247488?s=20&t=3VAVz2rbYUYbJmU8hnd1lQ

* That’s a wrap on five races in four weeks. Take a breath and enjoy an off weekend and then we’re back with Gateway on August 20 and the last three races of the season spread over four weeks.