Tickets and Race Weekend Information
NTT INDYCAR SERIES points leader Alex Palou previously has been in the situation of leading the championship entering the season finale once. He led Pato O’Ward by 35 points entering the last race of the 2021 season on the streets of Long Beach.
Will Power trails Palou by 33 points entering Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge. This is the sixth time Power has been in second place entering the season finale.
Both drivers, despite having experience with a championship-clinching race, admit the magnitude of the race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway is enormous.
“I feel the pressure, man,” Power said. “It’s the right amount of pressure on me. It’s not like I’m comfortable; I never am.”
Power compared his emotions Friday during media day for this weekend’s season finale as similar in nature to his 2022 championship-winning season when he earned his second Astor Challenge Cup championship trophy at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
“Ultra-focused on the job and knew the task,” said Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet. “No other thought about anything else. That’s what we did, and the feeling now is similar in that respect.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s subconscious pressure. It’s always on you, and it’s a good pressure. I really notice it. You can see when people go in and out of that, like when they re-sign (a contract) or something and the pressure comes off for them, and they don’t perform as well.
“As much as you hate the pressure, it’s good for you. You’re lucky to have it because there’s going to be a time in your life when you don’t have that feeling.”
Palou admitted the pressure got to him in 2021 despite taking home the first of his two NTT INDYCAR SERIES championships. He clinched the title last year in the penultimate race of the season at Portland International Raceway.
That experience of 2021 is why Palou isn’t going to let the championship implications rattle him too much this time around driving his No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“I would say the first championship in Long Beach, I was super-tense all weekend,” Palou said. “I was like: ‘This is the last practice I’m going to get. This is the last qualifying this year and the championship is here.’
Palou must finish ninth or better to become the first repeat champion since Dario Franchitti’s three-year dominance from 2009-11. As much as Palou wants to focus on his race Sunday, ignoring Power and what he is doing is a challenge.
“You see it as a driver,” Palou said. “If you’re in the top five, you know you’re good, but you see the cars in front and behind you. If we’re 17th, you don’t care what (Will) Power is doing because you need to move up, no matter what.”
Power reverts to experience in not caring where Palou is on track. He must finish no worse than third in Sunday’s 206-lap race airing at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock, Universo and INDYCAR Radio Network, so worrying about where Palou is doesn’t matter, he said.
Ferrucci Taking Title Mindset into 2025 with Foyt
Santino Ferrucci will stay in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Racing for the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. The team announced Thursday that Ferrucci will drive the flagship car for the organization.
“We started this journey two years ago and are excited to continue working on it,” Ferrucci said. “As a team, we’ve built so much. I feel like a lot of this is my project, even though it’s Larry (Foyt) and his baby, but I feel very invested with my time and what we’ve learned and what we’ve progressed on and how much better we can do.
“Staying here for me makes a lot of sense, and I do feel like we can go for a championship next season. The team is just pushing themselves harder. The engineering staff has been working so many hours to get this thing right for me.”
Ferrucci is 10th in the standings, 11 points shy of Alexander Rossi for ninth, but 38 points clear of 11th, marking a personal best for him and the first time AJ Foyt Racing cracked the top 10 since Airton Dare in 2002.
Following the spectacular performance in last year's Indy 500 where Ferrucci qualified fourth, led laps and challenged for the victory, the team was approached to enter a technical alliance with Team Penske. The joint venture has been successful for both organizations, with Team Penske earning its first Indy 500 front row sweep since 1988 this year, and AJ Foyt Racing significantly improving its performances on road and street courses. Ferrucci earned his first career pole at Portland International Raceway and claimed six of his 10 top-10 finishes on road and street circuits.
“I feel like we’re a top-five team right now,” Ferrucci said. “We’re trying so hard to find that extra bit to win. It’s so hard in this series right now, but we’re working so hard on pit stops, debriefs, and trying to get the car right by going through all our notes and just doing everything we can. It’s just learning along the way, even for myself. I think another season like this, and this type of commitment will go a long way.”
Different Feeling for Newgarden, Herta
The first-three years (2021-23) of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge occurred on the downtown city streets. The move to the 1.33-mile concrete oval east of the city is the first visit to the track for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2008.
That move creates a bit of a different vibe this race weekend a bit for Nashville residents Colton Herta and Josef Newgarden.
“I would say it’s trickier than people would imagine,” Newgarden said. “I almost don’t like running a hometown race because you’re in a mindset of half at home and half in work.
“Obviously, people work in their own town all the time, but it’s just different in sports and something we’re not used to it. I’m used to being away from home when I’m competing. I’m not used to being at home, and it’s been awkward for me to reset my mental approach. It’s not that it’s a big deal, it’s just for me, it’s not been as seamless. It’s more seamless for me to leave home.”
Newgarden finished 10th, sixth and fourth, respectively, on the downtown street circuit. Racing on an oval in Nashville could help him take his No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to victory lane. He has won 10 of the last 17 oval races in the series.
Herta is in the same camp as Newgarden in the awkwardness of racing at home. So much so, he will spend time and sleep in his motorhome at the track rather than staying in his bed.
“I thought it would be weird to stay at home,” Herta said. “I’ve never done that in my house on a race weekend. Even growing up, we always had to drive an hour or two for races.”
Herta said logistically there’s more sense to stay at the track because he’d waste more time driving back and forth and can gain more valuable time to stay in his motorhome and pore through data to ensure his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda is prepared for race day.
