Colton Herta wins at Nashville and Alex Palou is the 2024 Champion

The NTT IndyCar Series concluded the 2024 season on Sunday afternoon at the Nashville Superspeedway for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood started on the pole with Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden starting second.

Drama unfolded in the first 12 laps of the race when Will Power went to pit road to fix his lap belt and once the crew fixed it, he was four laps down. Kyle Kirkwood led the opening 53 laps before making a pit stop on lap 54 and Josef Newgarden was the new leader.

Two laps later, Felix Rosenqvist made contact with the wall at Turn 2 to bring out the first caution. It took ten laps to clean up the track before the race could resume on lap 67 with Newgarden still in the lead. Newgarden led until lap 92 when he made a pit stop and Alexander Rossi was the new leader.

On lap 89, Katherine Legge made light contact with the wall at Turn 4 sending her to the grass that brought out the second caution of the day. Alexander Rossi continued to lead until lap 124 when he made a pit stop and Josef Newgarden was the new leader.

On lap 135, Marcu Ericsson made contact with the wall at Turn 4 which brought out the third caution. Five laps later, Pato O’Ward passed Newgarden for the lead. On lap 180, Herta made his final pit stop with O’Ward ahead of him. Kyle Kirkwood led an additional 14 laps before David Malukas was the last car to not go to pit road.

While Malukas was leading, Pato O’Ward and Colton Herta were fighting for the lead. Late in the race, O’Ward went to the high lane to pass Sting Ray Robb, and Herta dove to the bottom almost hitting Robb. Herta passed O’Ward at Turn 3 and took the lead on lap 202. He led the last the last five laps to win his second race of the season and his first oval win beating Pato O’Ward by 1.8106 seconds. It’s also Andretti’s first win on an oval since Alexander Rossi at Pocono in 2018.

Alex Palou finished in 11^th place and won the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series Championship. It’s his second straight title and third in the last four years becoming the 13^th driver in history to do it. The last driver to win three titles was Dario Franchitti from 2009-11.

In addition, Chip Ganassi Racing won the Astor Challenge Cup for the third time in four years. The rest of the top five finishers were Josef Newgarden third, Kyle Kirkwood fourth, and Scott McLaughlin fifth. The NTT IndyCar Series season will resume on March 2, 2025, and will air live on FOX.

Finishing Order: