Alex Palou joined the immortals of more than a century of North American open-wheel racing, winning his third NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge at Nashville Superspeedway.
Palou finished 11th in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, more than enough to clinch his third Astor Challenge Cup in the last four years. His closest title rival, Will Power, went five laps down early in the race due to a disconnected seat belt in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet and finished 24th, eight laps down.
While the title race all but over just 13 laps into the 206-lap race due to Power’s troubles, Colton Herta hunted down and passed Pato O’Ward on Lap 202 to earn his first career oval victory in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian. Nashville-area resident Herta outraced O’Ward’s No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet to victory by 1.8106 seconds and climbed from fourth to a career-best second in the final NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings.
It was the first oval victory for the Andretti team since Alexander Rossi won in 2018 at Pocono Raceway.
Palou’s list of accolades matches many of the all-time greats of INDYCAR SERIES racing. He became just the 13th driver in history to earn at least three championships and just the seventh to win three titles in four years; Dario Franchitti was the last – also for Chip Ganassi Racing – when he won three straight from 2009-11.
Spaniard Palou, 27 years, 5 months, 14 days, became the second-youngest driver to win three INDYCAR SERIES championships. Only Sam Hornish Jr. was younger, 27 years, 2 months, 8 days when he earned his third title in 2006.
Nashville Superspeedway PR
