Scott Dixon survives to make history in the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix

On Sunday afternoon, the NTT IndyCar Series were on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. The race was delayed for several hours due to lightning in the area. Once the weather cleared up, fans were treated to bumper car racing.

Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin led the field to the green flag. On the third lap, Colton Herta made contact with Dalton Kellett at turn four and clipped the wall, breaking the front wing. He limped the car to pit road and fell a lap down.

The first caution came out on the eighth lap for last week’s winner Alexander Rossi, who locked up the brakes heading into turn ten, and the car shut off. Track crews were able to get him refired to rejoin the race. McLaughlin was still the leader, with Romain Grosjean behind him for the restart on the eleventh lap.

On lap 22, Helio Castroneves went around at turn three for the second caution. Just before the caution came out, Alex Palou went to pit road. He was the new leader after the leaders pitted, and Jimmie Johnson was sitting in second.

The restart lasted one lap. On lap 26, Will Power got sideways, checking up with Grosjean in front of him, and Pato O’Ward slowed up before getting hit from behind by Graham Rahal with several other cars involved. In addition to O’Ward and Rahal, Dalton Kellett, Callum Ilott, Simona De Silvestro, and Scott Dixon were involved. Once the mele was cleared, O’Ward, Kellett, and De Silvestro were out of the race.

Alex Palou was still the leader with Simon Pagenaud behind him for the restart on lap 33. Like the last restart, it only lasted a lap when Devlin DeFrancesco and Takuma Sato made contact at turn ten, bringing out the fourth caution. Sato wanted to say a few words, but crews held him back.

Alex Palou led the field back to the restart on lap 41. Scott McLaughlin was aggressive on the restart, moving up to second place in five laps. Meanwhile, Simon Pagenaud slipped several spots to sixth place. Colton Herta worked his way to un lap himself in the race and, on lap 50, cracked the top ten.

On lap 52, Graham Rahal went wide at turn four, and Rinus VeeKay hit him, bringing out the fifth caution. VeeKay’s car did not suffer significant damage and was able to continue the race. Meanwhile, Rahal was out of the race. Just before the caution came out, Scott Dixon and several other drivers pitted for the final time.

Alex Palou pitted during the caution, and Josef Newgarden was the new leader. Newgarden had pitted on lap 38. During the restart, Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas got together, with Kirkwood’s car getting buried under Malukas’s car at turn nine for the sixth caution. Newgarden pitted during the caution, and Scott Dixon was the new leader.

There were two more cautions while Dixon was leading the race. The seventh caution came out on lap 73 when Jimmie Johnson got loose and slammed the wall at turn four, and the eighth caution happened on the 76^th lap when Josef Newgarden went inside of Romain Grosjean and Romain hit the wall. The race went to red flag for several minutes.

Once the red flag was lifted, there was a one-lap shootout. Scott Dixon held off a charging Scott McLaughlin and beat him by .1067 seconds. It was Dixon’s 53^rd win, which puts him in sole possession of second place on the all-time wins list. He is now 14 wins away from tying the great A.J. Foyt.

The rest of the top ten finishers were Alex Palou third, Alexander Rossi fourth, Colton Herta fifth, Josef Newgarden sixth, Felix Rosenqvist seventh, Christian Lundgaard eighth, Simon Pagenaud ninth, and Jack Harvey tenth. There were three lead changes and eight cautions for 36 laps.

“I think the tuff thing all weekend was our new PNC Bank No. 9 was super-fast. We printed that in warmup. We just didn’t have consecutive laps,” said Dixon. “Kudos to the team. We had a big crash there that took half the floor off the car. We had to take four turns of front wing out, so we had no grip. Nashville is so awesome.”

When Dixon was asked about the final laps, he said, “We were worried about him (McLaughlin) because I knew he would take chances. He kind of has to with the standings at the moment. He was super-fast, as well. He had fresh tires, too. I was a sitting duck. If there had been a lap or two more, it would have been really tough to do.”

“One lap. We were alongside across the finish line,” said McLaughlin. “But man, we were 16^th on the last pit stop exchange. Had an awesome restart, and then the car was fast. Just fell short at the end. Congrats to Scotty. Always dreamed of racing him to the finish. That was a proper duel.”

Scott Dixon is now six points behind Will Power for the championship. The NTT IndyCar Series’ next race is on Saturday, August 20^th, from World Wide Technology Raceway at 6 pm on USA Network. Tickets for the race can be purchased on StubHub.

Finishing Order: