Winners and Losers: Music City Grand Prix

Morgan Holiday
6 hours ago
6 min read

Written by Morgan Holiday

Josef Newgarden pulled out a win for the final race of the 2025 IndyCar season at the Nashville Superspeedway. It was an emotional victory after his toughest year in the category to date, sealing the end of the year on a high note.

As the year comes to a close, DIVEBOMB takes a look at the winners and losers of IndyCar’s final race weekend in 2025.

Winner - Team Penske

2025 was one of Team Penske’s toughest years in the series to date. On the second day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 it was announced that all three Penske cars would start at the back of the field as part of their punishment for illegally modifying the rear attenuators.

It only went downhill from there, as all three drivers suffered continual retirements and poor results throughout the season. But none of them had a worse year than Josef Newgarden, who, after winning back to back Indy 500 victories in 2023 and 2024, had his worst finishing position in the standings in over 10 years. Since 2015, Newgarden has finished in the top 10 in points, but 2025 saw him finish a lowly 12th after scoring just three podiums and finishing outside the top 20 seven times throughout the year.

Nashville saw a return of the Newgarden we know from previous years, as he qualified sixth and had a steady race that saw him climb through to take his first and only win of the year.

Scott McLaughlin also had a good weekend, qualifying eighth and finishing third, putting two Penske cars on the podium in what ended up being a major redemptive weekend for Roger Penske’s team.

Penske and their drivers have been in the losers column more often than not this year, so a first and third place result in the final race of the year is a breath of relief and a happy end to a dismal year for Newgarden and the rest of the Penske team.

Winner - Louis Foster

It really wasn’t Foster’s weekend in terms of on-track results, a 24th place finish in Saturday’s qualifying and then finishing Sunday’s race in 20th place isn’t a particularly impressive or exciting result.

The win that Foster secured this weekend is one he’s been working for all season, the Rookie of the Year Award. He pulled out a last minute victory over PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman, who finished just two points below him in the standings.

While Shwartzman had higher highs in his fight towards ROTY (pole position at the Indy 500 and two top 10 finishes), he didn’t quite manage the necessary consistency to beat out Foster for the title.

Foster took his maiden pole position at Road America over the summer, where he matched his career best finishing position of 11th place, and went on to spend the rest of the season lingering in the middle of the pack instead of towards the back.

In Nashville, it looked like Shwartzman might swoop in for a last minute victory in the rookie standings as he looked for a top 12 finish, but as he ended the race in 14th place, the honors went to Foster, who will be happy with the victory in what was otherwise a pretty forgettable weekend.

Winner - Álex Palou

We would be remiss not to take one last chance to applaud Palou’s generational performance this season, which he capped off with a final podium by finishing in second in Nashville this past weekend.

Palou only finished off the podium four times in 17 races on his way to a dominant fourth IndyCar title, scoring a total of 711 points, almost 200 more points than he scored last year. He ended the year almost 200 points ahead of his nearest rival, Pato O’Ward, and sealed the title with two races still to go.

In Nashville, Palou qualified fourth and predictably fought for the win for a good portion of the race. While it was Newgarden who swooped in to take victory, Palou finished in a close second, ending his year with his 13th podium. He was able to fully celebrate his title in fashion at the Nashville Superspeedway, and this year will go down in history as one of the most impressive championship runs of all time.

Loser - David Malukas

In a weekend where silly season rumours were running rampant, a driver who desperately needed a good result was Malukas.

Currently driving for A.J. Foyt Racing, Malukas has been the big name brought up to fill the place Will Power just vacated at Team Penske. While one bad result isn’t likely to sway the team’s decision (assuming it hasn’t already been made), it would have been a good look for Malukas to secure a podium, or even a maiden race win.

The weekend in Nashville got off to a good start for Malukas, as he put his car on provisional pole in qualifying and held it until he was beaten by O’Ward. As a result, he lined up second for the race, which put him in a good position to score that podium or win.

Instead, the race devolved less than halfway through as Malukas battled for the lead but made an error on Lap 82 while fighting for position that resulted in him hitting the wall and having to retire.

It was an obvious misjudgement on his part, and while it is one that likely won’t sway the opinion of any team looking to sign him for next season, it isn’t a good look for the young driver nor was it a good way to end his season.

Loser - Jacob Abel

While Foster came home in 20th in the race to take the ROTY honors, Abel finished a difficult rookie year with a 23rd place finish after retiring on Lap 215.

Abel’s rookie season with Dale Coyne Racing saw him finish 27th in the standings, last of all the full-time drivers and last in the rookie standings. His best result of the year came in Race 2 in Iowa, where he came through to finish 11th. But that performance was one of just two top 20 finishes that Abel would manage in 2025.

Speaking to DIVEBOMB at the track at Mid-Ohio in the middle of the season, Abel spoke plainly about his results saying: “Yeah, [my results] haven’t been great at all. We haven’t really had an issue free race yet, much less an issue free weekend.”

The young American driver went on to spend the rest of the season trying, and failing to have an issue-free weekend. Between errors you could blame on driver error and plenty of other issues outside of his control, it never quite panned out for Abel this year.

One more tough weekend at Nashville, a weekend that saw him qualify dead last and finish 23rd, and that rounded out a year to forget for Abel, whose IndyCar future now hangs in the balance.

Loser - Arrow McLaren

The final race weekend of the year started out well for the Arrow McLaren team, as O’Ward qualified on pole with his teammates Christian Lundgaard and Nolan Siegel behind him in third and seventh.

But the race quickly fell apart for O’Ward and Lundgaard, the pair who have been battling for dominance as McLaren’s top driver all year. Lundgaard retired with a mechanical issue on Lap 123, losing his chance to score a good result and challenge Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood for fourth in the standings. His 25th place finish at Nashville put him fifth overall in the standings, still, to be fair, an incredible result for the Danish driver.

O’Ward was leading the race on Lap 126 when he got too high going into a corner and hit the wall, effectively ending his day as well and dropping him to a 24th place finish. It didn’t affect his second place in the overall standings, but it was a chance lost for what could have been his third race win this year.

That incident left Siegel as the sole running McLaren, and he sidled home to a 17th place finish. After having all three drivers start in the top seven, not having any drivers finish in the top 10 is a dismal way for McLaren to end the 2025 season.

All photos in this article were taken by DIVEBOMB Photographer, Dominic Loyer. You can find Dominic's work on Instagram (@dominicloyer_photography)