Home-hero Newgarden wins electrifying race in Music City

Evan Roberts
1 day ago
6 min read

Written by Evan Roberts

What a fantastic finale! Drama up front saw incidents aplenty with the lead changing hands numerous times throughout the race before Josef Newgarden would eventually be the one to grab the race with both hands and put a shine on a tumultuous season for both him and Team Penske.

Race Report

With 16 races down and the Drivers Championship already wrapped up you'd be forgiven for thinking the Music City Grand Prix would lack the usual intensity of a finale.

This is IndyCar though, and that's not how they do things stateside. There was still plenty left to play for with contracts on the line and a Rookie of the Year to be crowned.

As the green flag waived to start the race for the final time in 2025, reflection would turn into action as Pato O'Ward led the field. He would manage to maintain that lead over the first lap after catching David Malukas napping before we would encounter the first caution of the race.

The caution came thanks to Christian Rasmussen who fresh from a maiden win in Milwaukee would face the music in Music City as his 'win it or bin it' attitude would unfortunately leave him in the wall on this occasion as he would lose the back end of his car on the exit of Turn Two.

Amidst the early chaos Felix Rosenqvist would pick up a penalty for a false start.

When the race would eventually be restarted, Álex Palou who had gained a couple of positions from the start would look to take the lead yet again. In an attempt to hold it around the outside the pair who have already secured the top two spots in the Championship would go wheel to wheel for almost ten laps in a brilliant display of driving.

Whilst Palou was unable to get past O'Ward he would keep the Mexican honest throughout the opening stages of the race. Elsewhere, there would be big moves being made.

Last year's winner in Nashville Colton Herta would be one of those, making his way all the way up to sixth before Santino Ferrucci would steam past his fellow fast-starting American.

The leaders would begin to encounter lapped traffic on Lap 37 which would start to stretch the front of the field as Palou would be stuck behind both Jacob Abel and Graham Rahal. As a result O'Ward would hold a gap of four seconds to Palou.

As the traffic began to be more difficult to overtake the gap at the front would ebb and flow before a shock puncture to the Chip Ganassi Racing car of Palou would force the Spaniard to make a very early opening stop.

Seeing this, the rest of the teams would decide to follow him in not wanting to face the same fate. What this would mean is Palou would face a minimal loss and miraculously only be shuffled down to third.

Some of the biggest moves throughout the pit cycle would come from Malukas who would get back up into second having lost some positions at the start.

With that shock the strategy would be thrown completely up in the air as much higher tyre wear than expected meant what was meant to be a three-stop started to look like they would need to make four or five.

As the race settled into a rhythm, for the second time the driver closest to challenging O'Ward would be involved in an incident. This time Malukas would come off way worse as in an attempt to lap Louis Foster he would make contact with the Briton and end up backwards in the wall.

It would be a big accident and one that left Malukas visibly shaken up as he gingerly exited the car. He would later be transferred from the medical center to the local hospital for further precautionary checks.

This brought out the second caution of the day. As the clean up commenced the drivers would take the opportunity to make their second stops. It would be a slightly longer caution than usual as there was a fix required to the barrier.

Amongst the drama a number of penalties would be handed out. Firstly, for Foster who was deemed the driver to blame for the incident with Malukas and would be given a drive through penalty.

As well as this Ferrucci would be made to drop to the rear of the field due to improper pitlane procedure in a strange scene that would see the American almost stationary heading into the pits.

The driver on the move at the restart would once again be Herta who would make his way all the way up to second in the matter of a single lap. As well as Herta hustling his way up the pack there would be a major battle among the Team Penske drivers as they all wanted to be the ones to challenge for the podium.

Interestingly the driver to come out on top was the one that looks set to be pushed out of the team once the season comes to a close. Will Power would be the next one to take the seemingly cursed second place as he moved past Herta and charged after O'Ward.

Having led the entire first half, O'Ward's race would be cruelly cut short as a tyre delamination right as he turned into the final two corners saw him in the wall and out of the race.

Following that race defining incident Power would be pushed into the lead. Unfortunately for the Australian, he would overshoot his pit box before proceeding to stall twice whilst trying to make up lost time which saw him go from first to last and a lap down.

Strangely he would not be the only one as having inherited the lead after incidents for the two drivers in front of him, Herta would be forced to the rear of the field as a penalty for an unsafe release meant his hard work would be cruelly undone.

Going off strategy was Alexander Rossi who would stay out under caution and lead the field to the green flag. He would impressively manage to maintain that position for a number of laps before inevitably being passed by Newgarden on Lap 149.

Among the chaos the race for third in the Drivers Championship would be decided by mechanical failure. Unfortunately for Arrow McLaren it was Christian Lundgaard who was forced to retire from the race to compound McLaren's misery whilst also confirming Scott Dixon as third in the standings.

First to dive in for their final stop was Palou, not wanting to repeat the puncture that saw him drop back at the start of the race. Race leader Newgarden would pit a few laps later only to cruelly see the yellow and red No.10 car of Palou ahead of him.

Unlike so many races this season Palou did not hold all the cards as an inability to make moves past lapped traffic left him vulnerable to the Penske's behind who would pounce to go past the Spaniard.

In yet another twist of the tale, having just made his way to the front of the field Scott McLaughlin would be caught out running too high and drift up the track. Extraordinarily he would manage to gather the car together and keep himself out of the wall, only losing position to teammate Newgarden.

Seeing the Penske car heading towards the wall race direction made the right decision to deploy the caution. What this meant was for the second weekend in a row there would be a sprint finish with a clear track and drivers with nothing to lose.

Out of nowhere with the laps counting down Kyffin Simpson put his name into the running as he flew past Conor Daly before an incredible battle with McLaughlin saw him move up into the podium places.

In what was a nightmare season for Newgarden with only one lap to go he was never letting go of that lead. So many times this season the Team Penske driver has been faced with bad luck it was about time the hometown driver turned his season around. Whilst it is too late to have any lasting effect on his championship position it will extend his record of scoring at least one win over the past 11 seasons.

Joining him on the podium was 2025 Drivers Champion Palou who despite having had a relatively off weekend still managed to finish second. Third would go to McLaughlin having made his way back past Simpson on the final lap.

Rookie of the Year would eventually go to Foster as a late penalty for Robert Shwartzman saw the Briton take home the honors.

With that the season comes to a close. Thank you IndyCar, until next year.