Palou defeats Penske trio in Nashville to score fifth IndyCar win of the season

Four-time and defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda won a hot and humid Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville’s 1.33-mile oval to defeat Penske’s Josef Newgarden, David Malukas – who had charged from the back of the grid after missing qualifying – and Scott McLaughlin, who had been eliminated from the lead battle by an untimely yellow.

Indy 500’s latest winner Felix Rosenqvist finished fifth for Meyer Shank Racing, ahead of compatriot Marcus Ericsson, and Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren, while rookie Mick Schumacher impressed with a tidy and smart eighth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Kyle Kirkwood was disadvantaged by the same yellow that hurt McLaughlin, and couldn’t extract himself in the same manner, while Scott Dixon, who had started fifth, made a poor start and was later put down several laps with damage when Alexander Rossi’s ECR car slowed on the back straight while heading for the pits, and the No. 9 Ganassi car struck him hard.

Others to hit trouble and/or the wall included Will Power, Dennis Hauger, Caio Collet and Christian Rasmussen.

Story of the race

At the start of the race – delayed by one lap due to a scruffy lineup (after already being delayed by a day due to scruffy weather) – Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood held his pole advantage while Newgarden had to fend off Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to retain his second place.That done, the Newgarden made a couple of stabs on the outside of Kirkwood but couldn’t make it stick.

Behind Palou, Alex Rossi ran fifth ahead of the fast starting Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing separating Rossi from his ECR teammate Christian Rasmussen. Early losers in the opening laps were Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing, who fell from fifth to 10th, while fellow veteran Will Power shimmied up then down after getting high while trying to pass teammate Marcus Ericsson.

On lap 12, Rasmussen and AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci and Rinus VeeKay of Juncos Hollinger Racing all demoted Armstrong. Then on lap 19 out came the yellow as the other Foyt car of Caio Collet struck the wall at Turn 4.

That gave everyone the chance to stop and switch tires. Those who chose not to were Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Louis Foster, Penske’s David Malukas and Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who had been running toward the back. McLaughlin’s No.3 team jumped him ahead of Kirkwood, while Palou’s crew got him ahead of Newgarden. Most of the front runners who stopped went for reds.

Lundgaard and Foster immediately got swallowed up on the restart by those on fresh rubber, but Malukas hung on to lead ahead of McLaughlin, Kirkwood, Palou, Newgarden, Rasmussen (on primaries), Armstrong and VeeKay. By lap 43, Malukas had pulled 2.5 seconds on McLaughlin. He was on primaries, but this was still impressively confident for a driver who crashed on Saturday and missed qualifying.

By the time he reached Graham Rahal in 23rd to lap him on lap 52, Malukas had a 3.7s margin and that quickly halved behind the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver, and on lap 60, his advantage over McLaughlin was under one second. He pitted at the end of lap 62, grabbing a set of fresh red-sidewalled alternate tires. He rejoined in 23rd – the downside of stopping in green flag running.

Back at the front McLaughlin led Kirkwood by one second, while Newgarden made a brave move around the outside of Palou at Turn 1 to take third. Just a couple of laps later, VeeKay dived down the inside of Rasmussen to snatch fifth, while on lap 73, Palou re-passed Newgarden and Ferrucci took seventh from Rasmussen after the ECR driver drifted wide.

On lap 80, all those on regular strategy started considering their second pitstops, VeeKay starting the trend. His undercut worked beautifully. While the charging Malukas inevitably went to the front, and McLaughlin followed 2.5s adrift and still 0.8s ahead of Kirkwood, but VeeKay had managed to jump Palou and Newgarden. The only drivers in the top eight running primaries in this stint were Kirkwood and VeeKay, who were running in close company. 

Inevitably, through traffic, the margin between the two lead Penskes see-sawed, but as the race crept past half-distance, Malukas was looking unruffled. Meanwhile, McLaughlin was edging away from Kirkwood, too, as the Andretti driver kept his eyes on his mirrors for the closely pursuing VeeKay, Palou and Newgarden.

On lap 118, Rasmussen pitted having brushed the wall with his ECR entry and bent a toelink, and on lap 120 Malukas dived into the pits while holding a three-second lead. 

Palou had just stopped when the second ECR car hit trouble, too, after Rossi appeared to suddenly slow on the back straight and was struck in the rear by Dixon. Rossi then hit the wall, and Dixon limped to his pitbox with wings and a wheel askew.

The majority of leaders then pitted with 96 laps to go, but now Palou was sitting pretty at the head of the field, ahead of McLaughlin, Kirkwood, VeeKay, Ferrucci, Newgarden, Marcus Ericsson, Nolan Siegel, Mick Schumacher and Felix Rosenqvist. Malukas was down in 13th, just ahead of Pato O’Ward and Will Power – the last cars on the lead lap. 

On the lap 141 restart, Palou on primaries, McLaughlin (primaries) and Kirkwood (alternates) maintained third, but Newgarden (primaries) got around VeeKay (alternates) and Ferrucci (primaries) to snatch fourth. At the same time, Power struck the wall and was forced to pit again to have suspension repairs.

Looking impressive at this stage was Siegel, running ninth, just behind Ericsson and just ahead of Malukas. It took until lap 164 for the Penske driver to demote his fellow American. Once he did so, he breezed onto Ericsson’s tail and passed him on lap 165 as they lapped Rahal.

Lap 174 saw Newgarden to pass Kirkwood for third, and next time by, fifth-placed VeeKay made his final stop for primaries, Ferrucci was next to follow suit (again primaries), then McLaughlin for fresh alternates. Kirkwood was in the pits for the final time, when the caution came out for Dennis Hauger hitting the wall and spinning his Dale Coyne Racing to a halt in the infield with deranged right-side suspension. 

Because green flag pitstops cost you a lap, those who hadn’t yet stopped got the lucky break to now be able to pit with the field under caution. After servicing, Palou now led on primaries,  followed by five on alternates – Newgarden, Rosenqvist, Malukas, Ericsson and Mick Schumacher of RLL. Seventh-placed Kyffin Simpson was on primaries in seventh, ahead of Pato O’Ward and Siegel of McLaren, and Sting Ray Robb (Juncos Hollinger). 

Fate had relegated Kirkwood to 11th ahead of McLaughlin, VeeKay and Ferrucci, all doubtless cursing their poor luck. The upside was that IndyCar was sweeping the marbles off the track, opening up the top lane.

On the lap 197 restart, Ericsson and Malukas demoted Rosenqvist, while O’Ward climbed to sixth, and McLaughlin vaulted to seventh. Malukas went around the outside of Ericsson with 27 laps to go, and he lost momentum and fourth place to Rosenqvist. 

McLaughlin was up to sixth on lap 203 ahead of O’Ward and zeroed in on Ericsson, finally getting the job done on lap 206 and took aim at Rosenqvist who he dismissed on lap 210. He had 15 laps to try and pass his two teammates and get at Palou. But once they were clear of traffic, Palou seemed able to edge away from the three Penske cars. On lap 217 he set his fastest lap of the race to push his lead to over half a second, and he improved on that again just two laps later. 

In fact, he was over a second clear entering the final lap, and that was enough to ensure he won by 0.8731s ahead of this generation’s oval master Newgarden and Malukas. McLaughlin’s charge following the final restart saw him take the best off his red tires but he claimed fourth ahead of Rosenqvist and Ericsson. O’Ward was seventh having never figured in the race, while Schumacher completed his best performance of his rookie season with a strong eighth ahead of Simpson and Kirkwood.

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