IndyCar News: Herta out duels O’Ward in Nashville, Palou wins title

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta passed Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward with five laps to go on the Nashville Superspeedway oval to win the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES race.

O’Ward hung on for 2nd place, 1.81s behind Herta and just 0.15s ahead of a hard-charging Josef Newgarden

Alex Palou stroked it to an 11th-place finish to clinch his 3rd IndyCar title in four years. Once Will Power lost five laps early to get his seat belts tightened, Palou just about had the title clinched and just had to avoid being taken out in an accident and bring his DHL Ganassi Honda home in one piece.

O’Ward made his final pit stop at the end of Lap 161, taking the Firestone alternate tires for the mandatory second time. David Malukas was forced to pit from the lead on Lap 201 in the No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda of Meyer Shank Racing, as he made his previous stop on Lap 139 and didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the finish.

Meanwhile, Herta was hunting down O’Ward after he made his final stop at the end of Lap 180, 19 laps after O’Ward’s final trip to pit lane. Herta took more durable Firestone primary tires after using his two mandatory alternate sets earlier in the race and used that fresher rubber to claw ground on O’Ward, also helped by slower traffic blunting O’Ward.

As Malukas was in pit lane for his final stop, Herta dove under the lapped No. 41 Goodheart Vet/Pray.com Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises in Turn 1 at the start of Lap 202, with O’Ward on the outside in a nerve-fraying race for the win. O’Ward was forced slightly up the 1.33-mile concrete oval by the three-wide action, and that let Herta power past for the lead for good at the end of the back straightaway and into Turn 3.

Herta never trailed thereafter for his second victory of the season – he also won on the streets of Toronto in July – and his ninth career victory. The decisive pass was one of 653 on track and 237 for position, records for the INDYCAR SERIES at this track in its return here for the first time since 2008.

“I’m so happy,” Herta said. “We knew we were going to have a hot rod in the race. It’s been an amazing year. I just saw I finished second in the championship, which is awesome. Hoping to do a little bit better next year.”

“Man, I’m so happy. The Group 1001 Gainbridge Honda has been so fast this whole weekend. We didn’t get to show it in qualifying, but we knew we were going to have a hot rod in the race. So, thanks to everybody involved this season. It’s been an amazing year. It’s awesome to wrap things up second in the Championship, and I’m hoping to do a little better in 2025. I couldn’t ask for a better ending to the year. These guys [No. 26 Gainbridge Honda crew] behind me have been rock stars all year, and today we showed it. Strategy was great and we just put everything together to have a good race.”

Penske Chevy driver Newgarden was third, 1.96s behind Herta. Both Herta and Newgarden live in the Nashville area.

Polesitter Kyle Kirkwood came home 4th, 4.71s behind Herta, giving Andretti Global two cars in the top-4.

Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top-5, 7.78s behind Herta.

“The team did an incredible job today,” said a defeated O’Ward.

“I was really pushing, and we took these tires to the limit. I don’t know if we would have been able to make two or three more laps. It was a bummer we got struck in traffic and couldn’t make a run on Colton. That one stings a bit that it got taken from us pretty late, but the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix was a fantastic race. It was a really good way to end the season.

“We will have good momentum heading into the offseason, but we have work to do and we will put our heads down to make the car go faster. We’ll look to challenge again for the championship, and this time, we’ll be in position to come out on top.”

“I was driving down the front stretch there, and I just felt a pop on the lap belt,” Power said. “That’s a very abnormal thing. I don’t know what went wrong. Very strange failure. I’ve never had that before. You have engine failures, gearbox failures; I had a belt failure.

“Disappointing, but big congrats to Alex. A tough guy to beat. Ganassi did a great job. It’s been fun racing those guys this year.”

There were 653 on-track passes during the race, 237 for position, 117 for the top 10, and 42 for the top five.

On Lap 56, there were 11 laps of yellow for Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist, who made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2.

Dale Coyne Racing’s Katherine Legge caused the second yellow for nine laps when her No 51 e.l.f. Honda made light contact in Turn 4 and stopped on the infield grass.

On Lap 135, Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 4.  Once the pit lane was opened, the race leaders were able to pit.

“I think the today’s race sums up our season pretty well. A lot of potential, a lot of speed, but just no result to show for it. So, I’m super disappointed. The Delaware Life Honda was really good. The Delaware Life crew did a tremendous job on pit lane, so it’s a shame to go out like that.”

Colton Herta

Colton Herta had never won an oval race before today. The 24-year-old American moved to Nashville last year and now calls it home.

“The main thing I moved here was getting out into the Midwest or the top of the south, being closer to a lot of the races.  We definitely do a lot of traveling in our year of racing. I don’t have a plane like Pato. Anything to limit the travel down makes it easier.”

Herta comments on his win today.

“It’s about time. I think there’s been multiple times where I thought we could have won or should have won, and numerous of things would have happened to stop us from doing that.”

“Luckily, today we got it all all right. We needed a little bit of help. I think that was in the form of a little bit of traffic to  catch back up to Pato (O’Ward).  I think it was, from my perspective, a really exciting race for it to close out like that right in the last few laps, have me battle Pato, then Josef close to battling Pato.”

“What a great weekend for Andretti Global at Nashville Superspeedway, said team COO Rob Edwards. “Starting with the No. 28 crew winning the Pit Stop competition downtown on Friday, Kyle and Louis capturing the pole yesterday, Louis winning the INDY NXT race today as the Champion and then Colton winning the big race today is just amazing across the board. I’m just really proud of every single person on the team’s hard work this season. We’ve made so much progress from where we were last year. I can’t wait for 2025.”

Alex Palou

“We just had to keep on going,” Palou said of his focus after he learned of Power’s troubles. “I have to thank everyone working on the 10 car. Super proud. It’s been an amazing year, and I’m happy we got the championship back home.”

2024 Nashville IndyCar Race Results

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 159.207 mph
Time of Race: 01:43:15.2534
Margin of victory: 1.8106 seconds
Cautions: 3 for 31 laps
Lead changes: 8 among 6 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Kirkwood, Kyle 1 – 53
Newgarden, Josef 54 – 91
Rossi, Alexander 92 – 123
Newgarden, Josef 124 – 139
O’Ward, Pato 140 – 160
Herta, Colton 161 – 179
Kirkwood, Kyle 180 – 193
Malukas, David 194 – 201
Herta, Colton 202 – 206

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings:
Palou 544, Herta 513, McLaughlin 505, Power 498, O’Ward 460, Dixon 456, Kirkwood 420, Newgarden 401, Ferrucci 367, Rossi 366, Lundgaard 312, Rosenqvist 306, VeeKay 300, Armstrong 298, Ericsson 297, Lundqvist 279, Grosjean 260, Rahal 251, Fittipaldi 186, Robb 185, Simpson 182, Rasmussen 163, Siegel 154, Malukas 148, Harvey 143, Daly 119, Agustin Canapino 109, Theo Pourchaire 91, Legge 61, Tom Blomqvist 46, Ed Carpenter 45, Toby Sowery 45, Callum Ilott 39, Luca Ghiotto 27, Helio Castroneves 26, Kyle Larson 21, Takuma Sato 19, Tristan Vautier 12, Juri Vips 11, Colin Braun 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay 6, Hunter McElrea 6, Marco Andretti 5

Lucille Dust reporting live from Nashville