IndyCar News: Nashville Native Newgarden Wins IndyCar Finale
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden beat the Series Champion Alex Palou to the finish line to win the season finale. This is the Tennessee native’s 32nd win of this IndyCar career.
Newgarden led the race from Lap 147 to Lap 185, when he pitted and teammate Scott McLaughlin became the leader of the race. Newgarden regained the lead when McLaughlin ran wide on Lap 204, and led the final laps to the end.
Alex Palou had to settle for second by a margin of 0.521s. The Spaniard took the lead for the first time in the race on Lap 195 but only held it for five laps before Scott McLaughlin made a pass for the lead.
Scott McLaughlin finished third after leading from Lap 187 to Lap 204, when he went wide in Turn 2 and made light contact with the wall. His teammate Newgarden took the lead and kept it to the end.
“I had an absolute blast in the race, man. That was so much fun. Restarts were intense. Yeah, it did string out a little bit, as it always does, mid to late stint. I think the exchanges and the restarts were phenomenal.”
“Yeah, obviously bittersweet for me. Third is great. I’m glad I sort of held on to that at the end. I felt like I could have held off Josef there. He was controlling his lane. I just turned a little late, got caught. Nearly saved it. Once you’re sort of out there, it’s hard to get it back.”
“I have to give massive props to Kyffin Simpson. Probably the best oval race I’ve had. Felt like 2006 or something. Pinned around the outside, gave me some room. If he came up, I was in the fence hard. Big props to Kyff. Really, really happy to race him.”
Pato O’Ward led the race from Lap 1 to 126, when he made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2 with a left front tire failure. The young Mexican was seen and released from the medical center.
David Malukas was running in second place on Lap 83, the AJ FOYT driver made contact with Louis Foster while attempting to get around him and ended up spinning up into the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2. Malukas was pulled out of his car and airlifted to a local hospital.
Louis Foster, Rookie of the Year
The 2024 INDY NXT by Firestone Champion won the INDYCAR 2025 Rookie of the Year for this season, Louis Foster, driver of the No. 45 Desnuda Tequila Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
“The RLL team have been absolutely incredible all year. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I think we’ve been able to bounce back from those downs pretty damn well. Yeah, obviously all credit goes to them.”
“Coming into INDYCAR is a tricky business. The qualifying performances this year have been pretty stellar, especially on road and street courses. That’s the part that you do as
a driver all the way up to INDYCAR, right?”
“The races, double the length, never done a pit stop before, fuel saving. There’s a lot to learn in the race that we definitely missed out for sure. A lot to learn in the off-season.”
Results Sunday of the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot 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):
- (6) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 225, Running
2. (4) Alex Palou, Honda, 225, Running
3. (7) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 225, Running
4. (8) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 225, Running
5. (24) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 225, Running
6. (11) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 225, Running
7. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 225, Running
8. (12) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 225, Running
9. (18) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 225, Running
10. (19) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 225, Running
11. (13) Colton Herta, Honda, 225, Running
12. (5) Scott Dixon, Honda, 225, Running
13. (26) Rinus VeeKay, Honda, 225, Running
14. (17) Robert Shwartzman, Chevrolet, 224, Running
15. (15) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 224, Running
16. (20) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 224, Running
17. (16) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 224, Running
18. (22) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 224, Running
19. (14) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 224, Running
20. (23) Louis Foster, Honda, 223, Running
21. (10) Will Power, Chevrolet, 222, Running
22. (21) Graham Rahal, Honda, 220, Running
23. (27) Jacob Abel, Honda, 215, Retired
24. (1) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 126, Contact
25. (3) Christian Lundgaard, Chevrolet, 122, Mechanical
26. (2) David Malukas, Chevrolet, 82, Contact
27. (25) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 0, Contact
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 156.342 mph
Time of Race: 01:54:50.6727
Margin of victory: 0.5021 of a second
Cautions: 4 for 46 laps
Lead changes: 20 among 12 drivers
Lap Leaders:
O’Ward, Pato 1 – 9
Palou, Alex 10 – 11
O’Ward, Pato 12 – 13
Palou, Alex 14
O’Ward, Pato 15 – 55
Malukas, David 56
Herta, Colton 57
Dixon, Scott 58
Power, Will 59
Armstrong, Marcus 60
VeeKay, Rinus 61 – 62
O’Ward, Pato 63 – 126
Power, Will 127 – 130
Rossi, Alexander 131 – 146
Newgarden, Josef 147 – 185
McLaughlin, Scott 186 – 187
Daly, Conor 188 – 189
Herta, Colton 190 – 191
Palou, Alex 192 – 199
McLaughlin, Scott 200 – 204
Newgarden, Josef 205 – 225
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 711, O’Ward 515, Dixon 452, Kirkwood 433, Lundgaard 431, Rosenqvist 372, Herta 372, Armstrong 364, Power 357, McLaughlin 356, Malukas 318, Newgarden 316, Rasmussen 313, VeeKay 305, Rossi 297, Ferrucci 293, Simpson 282, Daly 268, Rahal 260, Ericsson 234, Ilott 218, Siegel 213, Foster 213, Shwartzman 211, Robb 181, DeFrancesco 171, Abel 123, Takuma Sato 36, Helio Castroneves 20, Ed Carpenter 16, Jack Harvey 12, Ryan Hunter-Reay 10, Kyle Larson 6, Marco Andretti 5
Lucille Dust reporting live from Nashville