1. Some days things just go your way. After not really showing great pace and showing to be the threat this weekend at Nashville, Scott Dixon won the Music City Grand Prix. Dixon had a caution fall at the right time to put him at the front and while chaos ensued around him, Dixon missed it all. The legend wasn't going to slip and once in the lead, he held on to win for the 53rd time in his IndyCar career, moving him to second alone behind only A.J. Foyt.
Oh, and this victory, along with the combination of everything else that happened today, Dixon is now second in the championship, six points behind Will Power. I joked a few races ago the scariest position in IndyCar is to be only 35 points ahead of Scott Dixon in the championship with five races to go. What is being up six points with three races remaining going to feel like?
Dixon has turned what has been far from his greatest season into a championship-caliber run. Today was a day of breaks, in many ways. For Dixon, it is overcoming a poor starting position and getting in a bit of the jumble of the race to win this race. It wasn't the prettiest drive of his IndyCar career, but Dixon will take it.
2. In a race as chaotic as this, being the leader is a vulnerable position. It is bound to hit the fan when you least want it. For Scott McLaughlin, he overcame being shuffled back with untimely cautions, and he even overcame a botched pit stop. Second is impressive considering where his race was with about 20 laps to go. McLaughlin was dodging bullets today and he got second-place out of it. Still a great day even if it wasn't exactly how he wanted it to end.
3. At first, it appeared Álex Palou would be the lucky duck of the day when an early caution came after he was one of the first cars to stop. It didn't quite work out that way for Palou, but he remained at the front for most of this race and finished third with a broken front wing. Though it wasn't a victory, Palou keeps his championship hopes alive. He actually put himself in a much better position after today.
4. Andretti Autosport shot off most of its toes in about the first 15 laps and it still had two cars finish in the top five! Alexander Rossi went onto an alternate strategy early. It would have been interesting to see how it played out but then Rossi brought out a caution and lost a lap when his car unexpectedly lost power when he locked up the rear tires.
Of course, this race was a mess and what should have hindered Rossi's race is completely forgotten because Rossi went from a lap down to fourth. Rossi hung on for the first half of the race, let the field take itself out, climbed back onto the lead lap and then made up ground to finish fourth. This was a disaster and somehow it turned into a respectable result.
5. That last sentence also applies to Colton Herta. Herta got into the barrier after contact from Dalton Kellett and it looked like it was race over for Herta. He lost a lap getting repairs and was still complaining about the feel once back on the track. And like Rossi, Herta let the field take itself out, cycle back to the lead lap and work his way forward.
For Herta, it got him fifth place. Considering Rossi started 17th and Herta started 23rd, all the errors of the opening quarter of the race are forgotten. Take the result and run.
6. Josef Newgarden rolled the dice in the middle of the race, making a pit stop and hoping cautions would get him to the end. It got Newgarden to the lead and had him ahead of Dixon, but with just under 15 laps to go, Newgarden came in for a splash under a caution. It worked out as Newgarden had fresh tires and went hard on each restart, gaining positions.
Newgarden did arguably step over the line on the penultimate restart, trying to go from about ninth to sixth and putting Romain Grosjean into the barrier. IndyCar called no penalty. Newgarden was far along the inside of Grosjean, but if Grosjean's car wasn't there, I think Newgarden hits the barrier. I didn't like the move. It was overly aggressive from Newgarden. If that is allowed, we are going to have nine cautions in every IndyCar street race. It is a dangerous precedence to set.
7. Felix Rosenqvist survived and finished seventh. I am not sure Rosenqvist was noticed until the end. He took fresh tires late and was making up some ground. He stalled out on the final restart and could only finish seventh. It is a good day for him. Not many drivers can say they had good days after this one.
8. A poor set of restarts late saw Christian Lundgaard go from second to eighth in the final results. I don't know if Lundgaard had a problem with the car or if he couldn't get heat into his tires before those late restarts. It sucks because I felt a top five would have been justifiable for Lundgaard's performance. A podium would have been flattering. He has had a great last few races and solid summer in general. This was stings a little though.
9. Simon Pagenaud was one of the cars to benefit from an early caution, like Palou, and Pagenaud looked racy going for the lead. The rest of the race didn't quite pan out in Pagenaud's favor though. He gets a ninth-place finish. Eh. That is a little harsh. I felt his day was better than this. There are many drivers we could say that about after this one though.
10. Jack Harvey gets his first top ten finish of the season in tenth. Honestly, this was the day Harvey needed, just avoid the worst of it and you will get a presentable finish. When your season has been as bad as Harvey's you will take a top ten finish in any way shape or form.
11. The final car on the lead lap was Will Power in 11th. That explains how nuts this race was. Oh, and Power was 11th after having his gearbox go in emergency mode, meaning he had to lift before every shift. It wasn't slowing him down through most of the final third of the race and it looked like Power was going to pull out a top five finish. But as the number of restarts piled up, Power lost ground. He nursed his car home. He lost points, but it could have been much worse today. The championship lead is still Power's but he will have more work to do.
12. Rinus VeeKay had a few unforced errors and drove into the back of Graham Rahal's car after Rahal got into the turn five barrier when trying to limp his damaged car around the track and hopefully pick off more positions as other cars fell out of the race. VeeKay might have gotten a top ten finish out of this one if he doesn't run into Rahal. It was far from the biggest mistake today, but it didn't help his cause. Twelfth is a good day.
13. I don't know how Hélio Castroneves finished 13th in this race. Castroneves had a spin on his own when he really wasn't in the conversation in this one. It just goes to show what you can get if you just keep the car out of the barriers on some days.
14. Marcus Ericsson's race ended early, and he had notable issues with the gearbox, which started after Herta bumped him from behind entering turn 11. Ericsson spent much of this race outside the top ten. In the final quarter of the race, it looked like Ericsson was going to have a shot at retaking the championship lead. Then the contact with Herta happened and Ericsson was trying to limp home, but when the red flag came out for Grosjean's accident it was game over for the Swede.
The good news is with many cars already out, Ericsson was still 14th and he only loses three points to Power.
15. Callum Ilott was 15th. Ilott was caught in the turn six stack up around lap 26. It was a case of wrong place at the wrong time.
16. Romain Grosjean deserved better today. Considering all the things that went wrong for Andretti Autosport in the first 20 laps, if you said two Andretti Autosport cars were going to finish in the top five and one was going to finish 16th, I definitely would have said Grosjean would be one of the top five finishers, and he should have been.
Newgarden went to the limit with his pass. I really think at another street race in different circumstances that would have been a penalty. Grosjean has had some terrible results due to things out of his control. This is just another one.
17. Conor Daly was somehow 17th and Jimmie Johnson had a big accident entering turn five. I am pretty sure Daly was one of the cars caught in the lap 26 turn six traffic jam. His result likely stemmed from something in that mess.
18. David Malukas and Kyle Kirkwood got together in turn nine when both cars were looking at possible top five finishes. Kirkwood was making the move to the inside and hit the inside barrier, ricocheting Kirkwood into Malukas and sending both cars into the outside barrier. This falls on both drivers. Kirkwood has torn up a lot of race cars this year. You would think with four races to go and with 17 laps left in the race, he would pick his spots better. He has to get the car home especially when he is solidly in the top ten.
As for Malukas, he squeezed Kirkwood a bit, and he made a few swerves today that were blocks. One was on McLaughlin into turn 11 and McLaughlin still made the pass. While both rookies showed promise today, they both showed areas for growth.
19. That is the top twenty drivers. Here is the rest of the field: Takuma Sato and Devlin DeFrancesco got together in arguably the most unnecessary accident of the season. Graham Rahal, Patricio O'Ward, Dalton Kellett and Simona de Silvestro were all victims of the lap 26 turn six traffic jam.
That incident is a product of this race course. Turns five through eight exist just to add maybe a quarter-of-a-mile to track length. It is a single-file, ragged ribbon of asphalt and it is only going to be a place where these kind of accidents with occur and take out four or five cars because everyone accordions together if there is the slightest bobble.
Rahal got into the back of O'Ward but if you put any other driver in Rahal's position, they are getting into the back of O'Ward as well.
People are excited about this Nashville event, but the track is slapstick. Even if the turn five through eight section didn't exist and there was only a hairpin on the other side of the bridge that would then be a left-hand corner back over the river, this course would still be reckless. Every restart was two-dozen drivers barging their way forward. I am surprised we didn't have nine more cautions in this race. The turn one-two section is narrow and pit exit is still a problem. Is this really the best IndyCar can do?
There are positives to draw from this race, but it feels like this is another IndyCar street race where it settles for 90% good and thinks the final 10% is optional. The problem is that missing 10% is notable.
It didn't help that this year's weekend was plagued with two thunderstorm affected days. That is a byproduct of racing in August in the Southern United States. But there aren't any better windows for this race. It cannot be any later because the football stadium is races by will be in use in about a week. July wouldn't be any better. The NASCAR race 45 minutes outside the city is in June. IndyCar is busy in May and its April isn't any more open.
We have to live with this and accept that most weekends are going to terribly hot, rainy or both. The delayed start to this year's race makes it hard to gauge how support was in year two. It looked good all things considered. Even the previous two days were encouraging, but will the heat and rainy weather dampen the mood for 2023? It has happened to plenty races before.
20. IndyCar has now completed its six-races-in-a-36-day stretch of the season. It gets a week off before heading to Gateway. Everyone needs a breather and an ice bath after this one.
