The IndyCar Afterburn: Nashville 2025

Today’s theme music: “Fast In My Car” by Paramore

The end of August means the end of the IndyCar season, and for the second straight year, it concluded with a Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway—or the Lebanon, Tennessee Intermediate Tri-Oval if we’re being pedantic. By any name, though, it was a welcome final stop, especially with how good the oval races have been this year.

Just like last season, we ended with a bang, as the lead changed hands 20 times and the big guns dropped like flies until our seventh unique race winner of 2025 got a sweet custom guitar for his trouble. So one last time, let’s get into the ups, downs, and all-arounds of the race before setting up to sail into the offseason.

Newgarden beats the clock

Josef Newgarden entered the day as one of two active drivers to win at least one race every year for a decade or more, but after a snakebitten campaign that did everything short of injuring him, that streak was in jeopardy. With his home crowd watching, though, the Tennessee native put on a show. With a strong qualifying and his ever-present talent on ovals, Newgarden just needed to let the race come to him and hit his marks when it did. That paid off handsomely, as Newgarden led sixty laps, made great moves on both offense and defense, and most importantly avoided the chaos around him to finally get the win he’d been chasing all year.

As Joey Plants breached the fence to celebrate with his people, he also took a coveted spot in our sport’s history. With the 32nd victory of his American championship open-wheel career, he breaks the tie with Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti, and Rick Mears to take the undisputed 10th spot on the all-time wins list. With how confident he felt by day’s end and how good he is on the streets of St. Pete, part of him probably wishes next season would start next weekend.

Palou takes sweet silver

Álex Palou may not have won today, but he was always in focus. Early in the race, he unsuccessfully challenged Pato O’Ward, but gave us the most thrilling individual battle of the season, as the season’s two best drivers ran side by side for the better part of ten laps before O’Ward finally won out. For a moment, it looked like the fight would come back to haunt Palou, as his right front tire cut open and sent him to pit row a few dozen laps later, but thanks to his presence of mind to get in the pits unscathed and some fortunate timing, the Spaniard bounced right back into the fight, leading 11 laps in total and coming just a half-second shy of the win.

With an unbelievable 13th podium of the year, El Gorila de Barcelona ends the year with 711 championship points. He is the first driver to get above 700 under the current points system, which debuted in 2013, and he made it 76.5% of the way to the theoretical perfect score of 929. Barring a series switch or unforeseen catastrophe, Palou will keep winning races and championships for years to come, but 2025 will likely be the single greatest campaign he ever puts together, and we’re all incredibly lucky to have witnessed it.

McLaughlin gets a bronze consolation

All three Penske drivers were in the mix at some point in the day, and if things had played out slightly differently, Scott McLaughlin might have been the one in victory lane. The Kiwi was right there with Newgarden and the other front-runners all day, and after stealing the lead from Palou on lap 200, he was all set to make it his day. But just five laps later, Scotty Mac kissed the wall just hard enough to hand Newgarden the lead on a silver platter, bringing out the final yellow of the season.

The former Supercars champion would have preferred to get his lead back, of course, but instead he found himself in a fierce final battle with Kyffin Simpson for the last spot on the podium. After a multi-lap wheel-to-wheel battle between the two, Simpson appeared to have won out, but McLaughlin got the place back to secure his second straight P3 and his third of the season. It’s nowhere near what he achieved last year, but it’s a strong note to end on, and whenever Penske gets their act together, he should bounce right back into the title picture.

Daly moves along to 5th

Whenever there’s an oval race, you can be sure Conor Daly will get some underdog spotlight from the broadcast, and he showed why with his best race of the season. Despite starting a lowly 24th, Daly and his All-American Rejects car were able to swing, swing through the tangles of the track thanks to his signature passing skills. He even led a pair of laps and threatened to steal his second podium in as many seasons going into the final shootout. While that wouldn’t pan out, he still managed to finally give Juncos Hollinger Racing a top-five finish this year, and that could be essential in securing the team stability that’s historically eluded him.

Rossi goes gambling

Perhaps inspired by his teammate Christian Rasmussen’s antics last week, Alexander Rossi tried to pull a fast one just after the halfway mark and stay out when everyone else pitted. For sixteen laps, the former Indy 500 winner enjoyed a free lead, even fending off Josef Newgarden with skill, before the fuel and tire numbers were just too screwed up to delay pitting any longer. His attempt to pit under the final yellow and get the places back didn’t pan out either, as he effectively gave away 5th to finish 10th, but it was still good for his seventh top-ten finish of the year.

Malukas gets chop-blocked

For the second straight week, David Malukas went from starting on the front row to finishing in agony, though this time to a much worse degree. After leading a lap early, Malukas got into it trying to get around and pass Louis Foster, who was having none of it and threw an illegal block in turn 2. That sent Malukas up into the wall so hard that the barrier needed to be welded together, and after a worryingly slow exit from the car, medical officials sent him to Vanderbilt Hospital in a helicopter. Fortunately, he received the all-clear a few hours after the race, and therefore should walk away relatively unscathed.

It’s a bitter end to a season where Malukas regularly hung with the big dogs and made people believe he could win on several occasions. However, if he had been seriously injured, it at least would’ve been at the end of the year and not the beginning, and he can spend the next six months recovering, training, and doing everything else he needs to do to make 2026 his best year yet.

The Sicko’s Guide to DNFs: Pato’s disaster dominoes

As for the DNFs that didn’t scare viewers senseless, we open on Christian Rasmussen, who went from first in Milwaukee to worst in Nashville by trying to go four wide on the opening lap and losing control of the car. He probably won’t complain much, though, given how much sting winning the week before took out of it.

A while after Malukas’s terrifying accident, Christian Lundgaard bowed out with a mechanical failure, but that was about to be overshadowed by his teammate. Pato O’Ward was out to match fellow McLaren man Oscar Piastri’s performance earlier in the day by winning this race from pole. For the first half of the race, that looked certain, and the Mexican fan-favorite led more of the proceedings than anyone, but on lap 127, Pato’s right front tire blew out and sent him up into the wall. That ultimately left Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal as the only two drivers to see all 17 checkered flags this season.

What followed under Pato’s yellow was absolutely bizarre, as the racing gods cleared out multiple potential winners on pit row without technically ending their days. Will Power, running what could be his final race for Team Penske, had just sliced up the field to 2nd and stood to inherit the lead, but his visit to pit lane started with him overshooting his marks and ended with him stalling as he tried to leave. That should have cleared the way for defending local champion Colton Herta, but before we went green again, the #26 got hit with an unsafe release penalty and had to drop to the back of the field. That all cleared the way for Newgarden, McLaughlin, and the rest of the second-half stars to play their parts the rest of the way.

Finally, our last DNF of 2025 goes to Jacob Abel, who retired the Dale Coyne #51 so quietly at the end of the race that nobody in the Fox booth mentioned it. If nothing else, it suits the way the year went for him.

Championship Collage: Foster squeaks it out

Despite the dark shadow his dust-up with Malukas cast over things, Louis Foster still left the Volunteer State with something to celebrate. As the Rookie of the Year battle came down to its final round, Robert Shwartzman pulled out all the stops, running ahead of Foster virtually the entire way and even getting Waka Flocka Flame in his corner. Coming to the final restart, Shwartzman was in the top 10 and looked poised to capitalize on Foster’s race-ruining penalty, but Shwartzy took one of his own with five laps left after blocking Santino Ferrucci.

Thanks to that, by a score of 213 to 211, Louis Foster is your 2025 Rookie of the Year. Compared to the glory of Scott McLaughlin against Romain Grosjean and Jimmie Johnson a few years ago, this wasn’t a prestigious or pretty fight for valedictorian honors. However, it could prove essential for Foster, who’ll be able to point to this accolade and argue he’s the man Rahal Letterman Lanigan should build around for the next few years.

Future Flames: the long road back to St. Pete

For some drivers in this field, the 2025 season isn’t quite over yet. That’s because a handful of IndyCar drivers, headlined by series emperor Álex Palou, will be competing in IMSA’s six-hour Battle on the Bricks and ten-hour Petit Le Mans. Both Palou and Scott Dixon will theoretically be in race-winning machinery, as their respective Acura teams have each taken a victory since the Indy drivers last visited sports car racing at Sebring.

For everyone else, silly season is in full effect. Everything is hinging on Will Power, whose contract with Team Penske expired when he crossed the finish line, and Colton Herta—who, according to a bizarre new surge of rumors, might get that F1 Cadillac ride after all, but would need to spend 2026 dunking on children in F2 to complete his super license. Either man making his move will pull the pin out of the grenade, and those looking to just stay in the series will have to fight with incoming debutantes like Indy NXT champion Dennis Hauger, would-be returnees like Romain Grosjean, and each other for however many spots turn out to be available. Given that the teams responded to the new cap on how many different drivers can pilot a car over the course of the season by running the exact same 27 full-time drivers all year long, it’ll probably be another tight squeeze with some notable names left in the cold.

Once the dust settles, we’ll kick things off in St. Petersburg, Florida on March 1st, 2026 with a shaken-up schedule, thanks to a mix of World Cup concessions and some changes in the tracks themselves. The Thermal Club is out, the brand-new Grand Prix of Arlington is in, and if recent reports prove accurate, Phoenix and Mexico City will both be back on the schedule after years away.

Finally, I’d like to end this one on a personal note. Starting this newsletter was a bit of a scary undertaking, and when it launched, I didn’t know if I was going to end up yapping at an empty room. Fortunately, that hasn’t been the case. To everyone who’s read, interacted with, and/or subscribed to The IndyCar Afterburn this season, I can’t thank you enough, and I hope you’ll keep coming back for silly season, next season, and whatever may follow.