Herta wins race, Palou repeats as IndyCar Series champ

Sep. 17—GLADEVILLE — Colton Herta won the season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on his "local" track Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, a faulty seat belt didn't cost Will Power his life, but it denied him a last chance to challenge for the IndyCar Series championship as Alex Palou repeated as series champ, taking his third title in four years.

Herta, who recently moved from California to Nashville, became the first local Indy driver to win here since Dario Franchitti took the Firestone Indy 200 in 2005. Franchitti was also the last driver to repeat as series champion until now. Palou, 27, is the second youngest driver, behind Sam Hornish Jr., to win three titles, and has done so without winning a single oval race. It was also owner Chip Ganassi's 16th Indy championship.

Another middle Tennessee driver, Hendersonville's Josef Newgarden, finished third in the race.

Herta passed Pato O'Ward in traffic on Lap 201 of the 206-lapper on the way to his first win on an oval track.

"We needed a little bit of help, and that was in the form of a little bit of traffic, to pass Pato," Herta said after leading 24 laps. "From my perspective it was a really exciting race to close out like that."

O'Ward finished second, pole-sitter Kyle Kirkwood fourth and Scott McLaughlin fifth.

Herta also finished second in the points standings. As race champion, Herta, who performs with a rock band, won the Gibson Guitar.

Power started the day 33 points behind Palou in the standings. But his lap belt came loose and had to pit under early green, forcing him four laps down and giving Palou an insurmountable lead.

Palou was one of six drivers who were docked starting grid spots due to unapproved engine changes. He started 24th out of 27 drivers and finished 11th.

"At the beginning I had take some chances to make up some spaces," Palou said. ""When I saw the 12 (Power) going to pit lane, at first I was like, 'Oh, what strategy are they going to do?

"Unfortunately, that's not the way. Obviously, you don't want your biggest competitor to go down that way in the season finale. It was very dangerous what happened to him."

Kirkwood held off an immediate challenge by Newgarden, who started second and inherited the lead when Kirkwood pitted on Lap 55.

The timing couldn't have been worse for Kirkwood, who was in the pits when Felix Rosenqvist's right front tire went down, sending him into the wall in Turn 2 to bring out the race's first caution. Kirkwood fell a lap down while the top 11 cars stayed out.

Newgarden, racing on his home track for the first time, was still leading when Katherine Legge hit the wall coming out of Turn 4 and went into the infield grass on the front stretch on Lap 90, bringing out the second caution and sending the leaders to the pits.

Alexander Rossi, another driver forced to near the rear, stayed out and inherited the lead and remained ahead of Newgarden until pitting under green on Lap 125.

Newgarden was leading Herta when Marcus Ericsson hit the wall in Turn 4 on Lap 136 to bring out the yellow once more.

With the field pitting, O'Ward stayed out and moved into the top spot.

Herta and David Malukas battled for second as Newgarden, battling a vibration, fell back to fourth.

O'Ward had to relinquish the lead to pit and did so on Lap 162, handing the lead back to Herta.

Meanwhile, Kirkwood had fought back from his early misfortune and reclaimed the lead when his Andretti Global teammate Herta pitted on Lap 183.

Kirkwood pitted for a splash of gas on Lap 194 as Malukas assumed the lead.

That lasted until Malukas pitted on Lap 201, leaving O'Ward and Herta to battle it out for the lead. Herta used a lap car as pick and went low to pass O'Ward.

This race saw a total of 653 passes on the track and 237 for position, records for IndyCar in this series, which returned to the 1.3-mile concrete oval for the first time since 2008. The return, another race is scheduled here next Aug. 31, is expected to be temporary as the Music City Grand Prix began three years ago as a street course race in downtown Nashville. But when construction began on the new Titans stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2027, the race couldn't be held there. It was find a temporary home or come off the schedule. Big Machine CEO Scott Borchetta hooked up with the track located just inside the Wilson County line from Rutherford County.

"I thought the race was incredible," Newgarden said. "It's what we wanted. We put on a good show.

"Really thankful to Nashville and the surrounding areas here and Scott Borchetta and everyone who put this on... It's great to be here at this facility. I just want to (recognize) everything Scott's done with Big Machine to make sure that we maintain this venue on the calendar. It was really, really important. And we had an incredible crowd for making the shift over here. Everybody should to be applauded and should be super thankful for what they've done. It should be on the calendar. I'm so happy that we were here. If nothing else, it's great to end the (year) in the Nashville area."