Round 17: Big Machine Music, City Grand Prix. Nashville Superspeedway. Sep 13 - 15

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 17: Big Machine Music, City Grand Prix. Nashville Superspeedway. Sep 13 - 15


Here we are, the last race of the season and with the driver's championship still to be decided. Points leader and reigning champion Alex Palou, goes into the Music City Grand Prix with a 33 point lead over Will Power.

This year's season finale will be the fourth running of the Big Machine, Music City Grand Prix at Nashville but with a difference. It was decided on August 3rd, just before last year's Big Machine Grand Prix, that the race would be the season finale from 2024 onwards. However on February. 14 this year, Big Machine Label Group Chairman and Founder Scott Borchetta, announced the race would not be held on the downtown street circuit but instead would be held at Nashville's Superspeedway, which hadn't hosted an IndyCar race since the Firestone Indy 200 in 2008.

Reasons cited for the change of venue, were the start of construction on the new Tennessee Titans Stadium, plus the proposed new layout of the street circuit would mean several key locations and the space around the stadium, allocated for teams and spectators would no longer be available.

The change of venue also means the season finale will be run on an oval for the first time since 2014, when Team Penske’s Will Power was crowned champion for the first time at the MAVTV 500 at the California Speedway in Fontana. Can he do it again?

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History

In 2021 Nashville, the music capital of Country and Western, hosted the innaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. After three years of negotiations between Nashville sports and tourism officials and IndyCar series executives, which previously had resulted in three failed proposals to hold the race, it was announced on September 16, 2020, the NTT IndyCar Series would add the Music City Grand Prix to the 2021 calendar.

The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix marked the return of IndyCar to Nashville since the Firestone Indy 200, which had been held at Nashville Superspeedway between 2001 and 2008. It was also the first new street race for the IndyCar Series, since the Grand Prix of Houston in 2013.

The race was won by Marcus Ericsson, driving a Dallara IR18-Honda HI21TT Indy V6, for Chip Ganassi Racing. However it was marred by 9 caution periods, totaling 33 laps and 2 red flags. The 2022 race was not much different, with 9 caution periods, totaling 36 laps and 1red flag.

There was also a big delay to start of the race, which was scheduled for 3:30 PM ET, due to lightning in the area. The race didn't start until 5:13 PM ET. 2023 was better, with only 4 caution periods, totaling 8 laps and 1 red flag.

Some Trivia
Driver with the most wins: 0
Team with the most wins: 2 Chip Ganassi Racing, 2021, 2022

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Nashville Superspeedway
The track is a concrete oval track 1.333 miles (2.145 km) long, with 14 degree banking and was opened in 2001 to host IndyCar and the NASCAR Busch Series, now known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Since the track's opening, owners Dover Motorsport Inc. had tried to host a round of the lucrative NASCAR Cup Series race. However by 2011, still unable to get a Cup Series race all the major racing series had gradually left due to poor attendance, with the track and facilities essentially left desolate and abandoned for nearly a decade.

In early 2020, Cup Series drivers, Clint Bowyer and Chase Elliott, called for the series to return to the Nashville, with races to be held at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, due to it being nearer to the Nashville metropolitan area than Nashville Superspeedway.

In June 2020, owners Dover Motorsports Inc. announced plans to hold future Cup Series races at Nashville Superspeedway instead, starting in 2021. The decision came as a surprise, because of the Superspeedway's less favouranle location compared to that of the Fairgrounds.

However, because the approval processes to resume racing at the Superspeedway was simpler than the approval processes for the Fairgrounds, Dover Motorsports Inc., choose the Superspeedway over the Fairgrounds. The first Cup Series race took place on June 20, 2021, with Kyle Larson winning for Hendricks Motorsport.

In December 2021 Nashville Superspeedway was bought from Dover Motorsports Inc., by Speedway Motorsports, LLC, who own a number of other race tracks including Charlotte, Dover, Sonoma and TMS, for $131.5 million.

Track Layout



Length: 1.333 miles (2.145 km)
Turns: 4

Lap record
Sam Hornish Jr., July 19, 2003, 0:22.9685 Sec., 208.461 Mph (334.744 km/)
Team Penske, Dallara IR-02,
IRL IndyCar Series

Previous race at Nashville Superspeedway
Firestone Indy 200, Saturday, 12 Jul 2008

Pole
Hélio Castroneves
Team Penske
Dallara IR-05-Honda Indy V8

Winner
Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing
Dallara IR-05-Honda Indy V8

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Last year's race
https://www.indycar.com/news/2023/08...ille-nics-race

Pole
Scott McLaughlin,
Team Penske
Dallara IR18-Chevrolet Indy V6.

Winner
Kyle Kirkwood
Andretti Autosport
Dallara IR18-Honda HI23TT Indy V6

Laps: 80
Distance: 173.6 Miles (279.38 Km)
Race Time: 1:58:02.3028
Average Speed: 85.396 Mph (137.432 Km/h)

Fastest lap
Linus Lundqvist - Meyer Shank Racing
Lap 57, 76.7115 sec.
98.551 Mph (158.602461 Km/h)

Cautions: 4
Laps: 8

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Practice and Qualifications

Practice 1
Saturday, Sep 14
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM ET

Qualifications
Saturday, Sep 14
2:15 PM - 3:15 PM ET

Final Practice
Saturday, Sep 14
5:15 PM - 7:00 PM ET

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TV Coverage
Sunday, Sep 15
NBC, Peacock. 3:00 PM ET 7:00 PM UTC
Sky Sports F1, 8:00 PM BST