Kiwi Scott McLaughlin has finished third in the US IndyCar Championship, with a fifth-place finish at the season-ending Nashville Grand Prix.
Spaniard Alex Palou was easily cruising to his third championship in four years, when nearest challenger Will Power’s seatbelt came off minutes into the race.
American Colton Herta, who moved to Nashville earlier this year, won the race for his first career victory on an oval and second victory of the season for Andretti Global, topping Pato O’Ward in a wheel-to-wheel battle in the closing stages the yards.
“I couldn’t ask for a better end to the year,” Herta said.
McLaughlin started the day third in the overall standings, 50 points behind Palou, and qualified ninth, but received a nine-place penalty and had to fight from 18th on the grid, after consecutive starts at the front.
He moved into the top five midway through the race and pipped Power in the final standings, but also lost a place to Herta.
All eyes were on the championship race as Palou, who won his first title in 2021 in his first season driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, won back-to-back titles.
“He never broke a sweat,” team owner Ganassi said.
The race for the crown was just between Palou and Power, the two-time champion from Australia, who won his last title in 2022 sandwiched between Palou’s runs.
Power had two chances in the last two races to reclaim the crown, but failed to capitalize both times. Palou had an engine problem two weeks ago at the Milwaukee Mile and Power was briefly in position to win the race, until the Australian spun on his own to finish a disappointing 10th.
That allowed Palou to take a 33-point lead into Nashville, where the downtown street race had been moved 55 miles away to the existing concrete oval, due to construction of the NFL Tennessee Titans’ new stadium. Palou had never raced on a concrete oval before, while Power finished 11th in his only career race at the superspeedway, IndyCar’s previous visit in 2008.
Things looked up for Power, as Palou had a disastrous qualifying effort in 15th place, and also had a nine-place grid penalty for an unauthorized engine change. That dropped Palou to 24th for the start and Power, who qualified fourth, had erased Palou’s lead to a paltry seven points when the race started, based on their current running positions.
Power still faced a lot of work to give Team Penske the title, as Palou only needed to rally to a ninth-place finish to win the title, regardless of where Power finished. He finished 11th in the race.
It became a moot point because on the 14th lap, when Power’s lap belt came off.
“My belt, my belt has come off!” he shouted into his radio.
Power had to go under green, so his crew could safely get him to buckle back up correctly, and Power dropped five laps off the pace as he got back on track.
Armstrong seventh
By then, Palou’s lead was back up to 46 points as he cut through the field. He raced from 24th to 12th in about 30 laps, while Power crashed to the finish.
After the race, he claimed the belt came off a second time in the closing laps.
Power ultimately finished 24th in the 27-car field, dropping to fourth in the final standings. Herta jumped up to second and was followed by McLaughlin, who finished the season as the top-ranked Team Penske driver for the second straight year.
O’Ward finished second in the race and fifth in the overall standings, while Nashville native and two-time reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was third in the race, but a distant eighth in the standings.
Kiwi Marcus Armstrong finished seventh – his eighth top-10 of the season – while compatriot Scott Dixon finished 17th in the race, dropping him to sixth in the overall standings. The six-time IndyCar champion had not finished lower than fifth in the standings since 2016.
Additional reporting by 1News
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