Alex Palou captures Music City GP win at Nashville

LEBANON, TENN. — Alex Palou survives a late restart with under 30 laps remaining to win the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.

This is his fifth win of the season and his 24th NTT INDYCAR Series win overall.

Spain didn’t have to wait long to celebrate once again. Their championship winning INDYCAR driver found victory lane the day after their international soccer team won as well.

Palou captures not only his third win on an oval in his career, but Chip Ganassi Racing’s 150th INDYCAR win as well. The victory also ties him with Bobby Rahal and Ralph DePalma for 18th all-time.

Palou qualified fourth and was in contention for the win the whole race. He took the lead on the 131st lap and never let go.

The deciding moment for his victory came from the final pit cycle. Palou crucially found himself on the right side of the strategy when Dennis Hauger stalled on track with little race distance remaining.

Alex Palou was able to fend off the Team Penske trio from there and leaves Nashville a day later than he expected with an 83 point buffer to David Malukas in second.

The Top Ten

The hometown man, Josef Newgarden wheeled himself to a second place result from second place on the grid. While he never led in the race, Newgarden will relish the top five result and the 17 day break from on-track action to continue to heal.

From the hospital on Saturday to the podium on Monday, David Malukas finished third after he dubbed the Music City GP as the “hardest race of my life”.

Malukas climbed from the final spot on the grid and took advantage of the track position he gained from the first caution of the day.

Their alternative strategy call garnered him his fourth podium in his previous seven races.

Malukas summed up his turbulent weekend gone right, “That was a team effort…I’ve never driven so hard in my life”.

Team Penske completed their team top-five performance with Scott McLaughlin who finished fourth.

He was on the wrong end of the final caution which essentially took him out of winning contention. However, McLaughlin made the most of his misfortune. he restarted outside the top ten and set the fastest lap in route to his top-five.

Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five from fifth. Marcus Ericsson slotted in as the highest finishing Andretti Global driver in sixth.

Pato O’Ward ran mid-pack until the end and found himself with a redeemable seventh place finished.

Mick Schumacher continues to improve on ovals. The rookie scored his first career top ten on the second largest oval of the season from eighth.

Finally, Kyffin Simpson crossed the line in ninth and the polesitter, Kyle Kirkwood, came home in tenth.

The full results of the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix can be found below.

Full Results