IndyCar’s Music City Grand Prix finale had just about everything one could think of, from track drama to moving weather fronts and even reliability issues for both championship protagonists.
The series’ first visit to the Nashville Superspeedway since 2008 hosted a thrilling title fight between Alex Palou and Will Power.
While it was over a matter of laps into the 206-lap race, much of the drama surrounding the weekend had already passed.
Looming storms over the area posed questions as to whether there would even be a race on the Sunday, placing the last race of the season in jeopardy.
Alex Palou received ‘bad news’ regarding engine and weather before Nashville
It was a shock to the paddock when it was announced that Palou would be taking a nine-place grid penalty for an engine change early on in the weekend.
After qualifying 15th and starting 24th, it looked like he might have his hands full during the race if Power could get his act together.
But, as he revealed to Conor Daly’s YouTube channel, that may not have been the most stressful part of the weekend for him.
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“I would say a week before the race, they called me and they said ‘Alex, we have bad news, we need to change the engine’. I was like ‘oh no!’, maybe that’s not exactly what we needed?
“It’s nine positions [lost] on an oval that I’ve never been [to] and I didn’t qualify very well on any ovals this year. Get to the track and the weather is looking horrible.
“I didn’t know if we were going to race Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. Are we going to race at all? It looked really bad at some point. I thought we were not going to race at all.”
Palou’s chances of a three-peat in 2025?
The older Palou gets, the wiser he gets too, and the experience that comes along with it will no doubt make him a serious contender for the title over the next decade or so.
But that’s not even the scariest factor behind why he could dominate over the next few years, with one key change for 2025 that his rivals should be scared of.
The incoming charter system means that his Chip Ganassi Racing team will be downsizing from five to three cars.
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Increasing their focus on Palou’s efforts, and giving him more to work with at every event in 2025 as he attempts to defend his crown.
It’s yet to be announced who his teammates will be, but it’s expected to be Scott Dixon and Kyffin Simpson again, with the three now carrying the hopes of the team on their backs.