Alex Palou and the Astor Cup – Big Machine Music City Grand Prix – Photo by Joe Skibinski

By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio

Alex Palou continued to embellish his INDYCAR resume Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway, where the Spaniard’s methodical drive to a third championship in four years is drawing comparisons to domestic open-wheel racing’s all-timers.   

Palou placed 11^th in the 2024 season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, a finish more than enough for the Chip Ganassi Racing ace to secure his third Astor Challenge Cup. At 27 years, 5 months and 14 days, Palou is the second-youngest driver to win three INDYCAR championships. Only Team Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr. was younger _ 27 years, 2 months and 8 days _ in 2006.

Palou’s world-class race craft was on full display during the 206-lap/273.98-mile finale around Nashville Superspeedway’s 1.33-mile concrete oval. Palou started 24^th on the 27-car grid after his team incurred a nine-place starting grid penalty for an unapproved engine change in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. That infraction failed to rattle either Palou _ who never led a lap Sunday _ or a team led by strategist Barry Wanser and crew chief Ricky Davis.

Palou’s bid received an unanticipated boost when his closest title-rival _ two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Will Power _ fell five laps down early due to a disconnected seat belt in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet. Power finished 24th, eight laps down to race-winner Colton Herta of Andretti Global.

“We just had to keep on going,” Palou said after learning of Power’s belt issue and subsequent pit stop. “I have to thank everyone working on the No. 10 car. Super-proud. It’s been an amazing year, and I’m happy we got the championship back home.”

Palou rallied to as high as third during the closing stages en route to becoming the 13th driver in history to earn at least three championships, and just the seventh to win three titles in four years. Scotsman Dario Franchitti was the most recent _ also for team-owner Ganassi _ when he won three straight from 2009-11. Ganassi’s list of INDYCAR champions also includes Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi of Italy (1997-98), Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia (1999) and six-time champ Scott Dixon of New Zealand (2003, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018 and 2020).

Palou seemingly has only begun to tap into his talent pool. “The guy never broke a sweat,” Ganassi said during a Victory Circle interview with Palou and his crew. “It’s unbelievable the way he drives. The way he came into our team a few years ago down in Alabama _ he won his first race out and it’s been smooth sailing since. The No. 10 team likes winning, that certainly helps.”

Chip Ganassi Racing, meanwhile, continued its ascent into rarified INDYCAR air by winning its 16th series championship, including four in the last five seasons. Only Team Penske _ which has enjoyed a 23-year head start on CGR _ has logged more open-wheel titles with 17. CGR, however, has claimed the most INDYCAR championships of any team since it entered the sport in 1990 _ seven more than the next-best team and nearly half of all INDYCAR championships awarded since 1990.

Since the unification of open-wheel racing in 2008, the Ganassi juggernaut has recorded 11 titles _ nearly 75 percent of the championships during that time-span.

Palou’s latest championship is CGR’s 23rd across all forms of motorsports. In addition, primary sponsor DHL celebrated its first championship since joining CGR as a partner in December.

Wanser, Palou’s team strategist, won his 15th championship with CGR and sixth with the No. 10 car. Crew chief Davis claimed his 16th championship with CGR and sixth in that role.

With the title race basically decided just 13 laps into the 206-lapper race due to Power’s belt troubles, Herta hunted down and passed Pato O’Ward on Lap 202 to earn his first career oval victory. 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 INDYCAR standings, 31 points behind champion Palou.

It also was the first oval-track victory for former INDYCAR star Michael Andretti’s organization since Alexander Rossi won in 2018 at Pocono Raceway.

“I’m so happy,” said Herta, driver of the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda fielded by Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian. “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.”

Josef Newgarden, another Nashville-area resident, 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 native New Zealander Scott McLaughlin completed the top-five in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet.

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 alternates 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 and used that fresher rubber to close ground on O’Ward, also helped by slower traffic blunting the McLaren ace.

With Malukas in pit lane for his final stop, Herta dove under the lapped No. 41 Goodheart Vet/Pray.com Chevrolet driven by Sting Ray Robb of A.J. Foyt Racing in Turn 1 at the start of Lap 202, with O’Ward on the outside in a nerve-fraying dash for the win. O’Ward was forced slightly up the concrete surface by the three-wide action, allowing Herta to power into 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 INDYCAR at the facility in its return to Lebanon, Tenn., for the first time since 2008.

“The team did an unbelievable job, and I was pushing. I was pushing, pushing,” said O’Ward, a native of Mexico with family ties to San Antonio. “We really took these tires to the limit to what they’re capable of. I don’t know if we could’ve made two or three more laps. Bummer there we got stuck with traffic which gave Colton a run. That one stings a little bit. Got taken from us pretty late. It was a fantastic race and a really good way to end the season.

“The momentum will roll into the offseason, but we’ve got work to do. We’re going to put our heads down, make the cars go better and challenge for the championship once again next year but hopefully we’ll be coming out on the top end.”

Dallas resident Santino Ferrucci overcame a nine-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change to finish sixth in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet fielded by A.J. Foyt Racing of Waller, Texas. Ferrucci notched his personal-record 11th top-10 finish of the season to move from 10th to ninth in the driver’s championship for his career-best standing _ one point ahead of Rossi is his swan song with Arrow McLaren.  

Qualifying fifth Saturday for his second-best run of the season, Ferrucci was slapped with a nine-spot grid penalty after his crew opted to change the car’s engine after final practice as a precautionary measure. They did not finish that task until 1 a.m. Sunday.

“A really tough race today,” Ferrucci said. “I think the grid penalty hurt me more than I initially thought, but we fought really hard all day to keep the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevy up-front.

“The crew was awesome in the pits, incredible stops. We had a great strategy. Everything really kind of went our way to get another top-five, and we just kind of fell short there right at the end. But overall, incredible day. We locked ninth in the drivers’ championship. Just really great execution these last few events, to do what we’ve done as a team. Really proud of our guys.”

Ferrucci’s future with Foyt Racing was secured earlier this week when Team President Larry Foyt, youngest son of open-wheel icon A.J. Foyt Jr., announced that “Santucci” had been signed to a multi-year contract.

“We’ve moved up 10 whole positions in the championship from last year to this year,” Ferrucci said. “We have two top-fives, a record-setting top-10s for the team (in the modern era) and just the progression between what we’ve done with the mechanics, the engineering staff, myself as a driver and Larry with the strategies. Everybody in general, has just been incredible. And you know, the growth really shows.”

From the drop of the green flag, Palou wasted no time in erasing the grid predicament he found himself in after qualifying Saturday. Recall that Alex originally only needed to finish ninth or better to clinch the title, but started 24th after qualifying a mystifying 15th and dropping nine spots on the starting grid due to the penalty for an unauthorized engine change after the race Sept. 1 at The Milwaukee Mile.

Palou already had gained 10 spots, running 14th, when calamity struck Power on Lap 13. Power had started fourth and needed to place third or better to have any mathematical chance of winning his third title. But the native Australian had already slipped to sixth when he radioed to his pit box that his lap belt had dislodged.

Power immediately pitted, and the field circled the track five times before the belt was fixed and Power was back on-track. With that, his title hopes were over.

“I was driving down the front stretch there, and I just felt a ‘pop’ on the lap belt,” said Power, team-owner Roger Penske’s longest-tenured driver. “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 is scheduled to start Sunday, March 2, with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding on the Streets of St. Pete, Fla., live on new broadcast partner FOX Network and the INDYCAR Radio Network.

Quick Brit Louis Foster was just too fast Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway, and practically all points along the 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone schedule.

Foster closed his championship-winning season with his eighth victory in the Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway. Foster drove his No. 26 Copart/Novara Technologies entry of Andretti Global to victory by 0.3071-seconds over Indian American driver Yuven Sundaramoorthy in the No. 22 Optima Batteries/Clarios/Abel Motorsports car. It was a career-best finish for Sundaramoorthy in his rookie campaign.

While Foster clinched the title in INDYCAR’s developmental series at the previous race, Aug. 31 at The Milwaukee Mile, he finally got a chance to perform celebratory donuts after his 10th career victory in INDY NXT _ tying him for second all-time with Tommy Byrne, Alex Lloyd, Paul Tracy and current NTT IndyCar Series regular Kyle Kirkwood. The late Greg Moore of Canada is the all-time leader with 13 wins.

“I would have loved to have done them at Milwaukee, but we had to baby the car for one more weekend,” Foster said of his delayed donut display. “But now we can. Yeah, it’s good. If in doubt, go flat-out.”

Rookie Caio Collet of Brazil finished third in the No. 18 HMD Motorsports entry, 1.7897-seconds behind Foster on the 1.33-mile concrete oval. Ireland’s James Roe finished fourth in the No. 29 Topcon car of Andretti Global, and rookie Salvador de Alba Jr. of Mexico completed the top-five in the No. 2 Grupo Indi machine of Andretti Cape NXT. Three Michael Andretti-affiliated cars placed in the top-five as the team capped its sixth INDY NXT championship.

Foster earned his eighth win in the last 11 races as his list of superlatives continued to lengthen. He never finished lower than second in the final 11 races, dating to mid-May. He also qualified on the front row in the season’s last 10 races.

In total, Foster led the series in wins (eight), poles (seven), laps-led (362 of 640, 57 percent), top-five finishes (13) and top-10 finishes (14) in 14 races this season.

Foster pulled away from the field Sunday after starting from pole. His gap held steady between two-and- three-seconds, first over Collet. Sundaramoorthy then passed Collet in Turn 1 on Lap 34 of the 65-lapper but couldn’t close the gap to Foster.

Still, the complexion of the race changed on Lap 52 when Jack William Miller in the No. 40 Patterson Dental Haven Go by SAAM car of Miller Vinatieri Motorsports and Jamie Chadwick of Great Britain in the No. 28 VEXT entry of Andretti Global made contact in Turn 1, triggering the day’s only caution.

With his three-second lead gone, Foster got a good jump on the restart on Lap 58 before Sundaramoorthy rallied to pull to within two-tenths of a second on Lap 59. Sundaramoorthy closed to within one-tenth of a second on Lap 63, but Foster drove away on the last two laps to hang on for victory. Foster capped his race by leading every lap.

“It was a strange race, really,” said Foster, a 21-year-old native of Odiham, England. “We were pinned for pretty much the entire race. Once I had a bit of a gap to Caio and Yuven behind, I was saving tires a bit. But Yuven was really strong. I had to keep him behind at the end and I was struggling with the balance of the car. I wasn’t sure if we had it. But luckily, I was able to keep him at-bay and finish with a win.”

Results of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix presented by Gainbridge NTT IndyCar Series event on the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., 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

Final 2024 NTT IndyCar Series point standings _ 1, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, 544; 2, Colton Herta, Andretti Global, 513; 3, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske, 505; 4, Will Power, Team Penske, 498; 5, Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren, 460; 6, Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, 456; 7, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, 420; 8, Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, 401; 9, Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Racing, 367; 10, Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren, 366;

11, Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 312; 12, Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 306; 13, Rinus VeeKay, Ed Carpenter Racing, 300; 14, Marcus Armstrong, Chip Ganassi Racing, 298; 15, Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global, 297; 16, Linus Lundqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing, 279; 17, Romain Grosjean, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 260; 18, Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 251; 19, Pietro Fittipaldi, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 186; 20, Sting Ray Robb, A.J. Foyt Racing, 185;

21, Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing, 182; 22, Christian Rasmussen, Ed Carpenter Racing, 163; 23, Nolan Siegel, Arrow McLaren, 154; 24, David Malukas, Meyer Shank Racing, 148; 25, Jack Harvey, Dale Coyne Racing, 143; 26, Conor Daly, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 119; 27, Augustin Canapino, Juncos Hollinger Racing, 109; 28, Theo Pourchaire, Arrow McLaren, 91; 29, Katherine Legge, Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing, 61; 30, Tom Blomqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, 46;

31, Ed Carpenter, Ed Carpenter Racing, 45; 32, Toby Sowery, Dale Coyne Racing, 45; 33, Callum Ilott, Arrow McLaren, 39; 34, Luca Ghiotto, Dale Coyne Racing, 27; 35, Helio Castroneves, Meyer Shank Racing, 26; 36, Kyle Larson, Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren, 21; 37, Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 19; 38, Tristan Vautier, Dale Coyne Racing, 12; 39, Juri Vips, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, 11; 40, Colin Braun, Dale Coyne Racing, 10;

41, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Cusick Motorsports, 6; 42, Hunter McElrea, Dale Coyne Racing, 6; 43, Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb Agajanian, 5.