NASHVILLE Superspeedway (Lebanon, Tenn.) — Alex Palou got the track position, and then everyone knew he had the talent that makes him hard to beat.
Palou was able to sneak in the pits just before the caution came out with 102 laps remaining, and then was able to keep that track position, including holding off defending Nashville winner Josef Newgarden in the final 31-lap green-flag run Monday for his fifth win of the year.
The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, the three-time defending series champion, now has an 83-point lead in the standings with six races left in the season as he seeks his fifth overall title.
“I’m just so happy that everything worked,” Palou said in his postrace news conference.
Alex Palou followed up celebrating Spain’s World Cup victory with a win at Nashville.
Here are my takeaways from the race that was postponed from Sunday night because of heavy downpours on the 1.33-mile concrete oval:
1. Newgarden Frustrated
Josef Newgarden, even being on the softer tires that should have allowed him to be a little faster for at least a few laps while Palou chose the hard tires for his final run, couldn’t catch Palou down the end.
The Team Penske driver believed Palou would have had to make a mistake for him to get by: “The restart was what it was. Unless you have a full stint, there’s your stack right there [to the finish].”
Palou felt he could be in trouble, not believing that simply track position would mean he would prevail: “I knew it was going to be very tough just because I saw how [Newgarden] was racing at the beginning of the race with Kyle [Kirkwood]. They were both flat out. … I was not confident at all.”
Josef Newgarden was frustrated with his second-place finish on Monday.
2. Malukas’ Big Comeback
Two days after going to the hospital for X-rays and scans on his badly bruised right knee, David Malukas recovered from that crash in practice and starting 24th to finishing third.
So while his teammate Newgarden was frustrated ahead of him, Malukas was excited even if he was thoroughly exhausted from the heat, which had already spurred INDYCAR officials to announce Sunday night that the event would be reduced from 300 laps to 225 laps.
“I had almost no time the past few days to get fluids,” Malukas said in his postrace news conference and after his visit to to the medical center. “We weren’t even getting fluids yesterday.
“After that race we knew it was probably going to be a thing. I felt really good, the adrenaline started to wear off, things started to get a little spinny there. I got fluids, picked me up on a little bit of sugar. I’m good.”
David Malukas recovered from a crash in practice for an impressive third-place finish.
3. Schumacher’s First Top-10
Former Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher earned the first top-10 of his career as he placed eighth at Nashville. Some would say that was because it was more of a track position race, but Schumacher did consistently get track position and didn’t make mistakes.
“The pace has always been good enough for a top-10,” he told me and another reporter after the race. “To actually put it on track is a great achievement — but I knew it was possible all along. … It was consistent on the communication, we had no issues in the pits, a nice, solid race.”
Schumacher’s future in INDYCAR is unclear whether he will return to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing or possibly go to another team or even make the INDYCAR experience a one-year-and-done quest.
Maybe finishing top 10 on an oval is just what he needed to show what he can do.
“The pace overall this year has been showing that anyways,” Schumacher said. “People know what they get, and obviously, this hopefully will put it into the books that we are able to do this consistently.
“I think there’s a high chance that I’ll be here next year.”
Former F1 driver Mick Schumacher earned the first top 10 of his INDYCAR career.
4. Dixon-Rossi Strange Crash
Scott Dixon slammed into the back of Alex Rossi when Rossi slowed to pit in a strange accident.
Rossi seemed flabbergasted when he talked to reporters outside the INDYCAR medical unit: “It’s insane. I love Scott. I don’t want to say anything bad. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do in that situation.”
Dixon seemed just as curious about how it all unfolded.
“He was kind of struggling a little bit,” Dixon told me and another reporter. “He was kind of running the high line. I had a pretty good run, went to the low—the same with the lap before, and then he kind of covered the low side. And then on the next lap, when I had a better run, I went to the low side.
“Then he went low, and so I went lower, and then all of a sudden he kind of moved back up again, which I thought he was kind of letting me go. And then he slammed on the brakes to come into the pits. So I had no idea that he was coming into the pits [from the] middle of the track. It was unfortunate.”
4 ½. What’s next: Portland
The INDYCAR Series takes two weeks off before racing Aug. 9 in Portland.
That will start a brutal five-week stretch with six races to finish off the season: Portland, Markham (Toronto suburb), Washington D.C., Milwaukee (two-race weekend) and Laguna Seca.
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