LEBANON, Tennessee — While Alex Palou was celebrating his third championship in four years at Nashville Superspeedway, Colton Herta had his own reasons to party after the Music City Grand Prix.
The Andretti Global star scored the first oval victory of his NTT IndyCar Series career and catapulted into a career-best second in the championship standings.
Herta finished 31 points behind Palou with the first oval victory for the Andretti team since Alexander Rossi at Pocono Raceway in 2018.
Alex Palou clinches third IndyCar title after loose seat belt stymies Will Power
He becomes the first back-to-back champion since Dario Franchitti in 2009-11.
“I think there’s been multiple times where I thought we could have won or should have won (on an oval), and numerous things would have happened to stop us from doing that,” Herta said. “Luckily, today we got it all right.
“There’s a whole bunch of things we could have done to win the championship this year. I think we’ll reflect on that going into the offseason. It does hurt a little bit when you think about winning the last race, and (Palou) didn’t have a particularly strong one, so we could have made up a lot of points today if we needed to in that championship fight.
“That’s something that we’ll look into in the offseason, how to shallow out the lows and make them a little bit better.”
How Will Power’s IndyCar championship battle became unbuckled
When the Team Penske driver’s seat belt popped open, it ended his chance at a third IndyCar Series title after only 13 laps.
Pato O’Ward finished second, followed by Josef Newgarden, Kyle Kirkwood and Scott McLaughlin, who tied a career-best by finishing third in the championship standings.
Will Power, who entered the race with the only chance of catching Palou for the title, finished five laps down in 24th after a seat-belt malfunction on Lap 13. He slipped to fourth in the final points standings.
Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway:
RESULTS
Click here for the official box score from the 206-lap race on a 1.33-mile oval in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Here is the finishing order of the Music City Grand Prix with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):
1. (9) Colton Herta, Honda, 206, Running
2. (7) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 206, Running
3. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 206, Running
4. (1) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 206, Running
5. (18) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 206, Running
6. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 206, Running
7. (12) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 206, Running
8. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 206, Running
9. (5) David Malukas, Honda, 206, Running
10. (6) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 205, Running
11. (24) Alex Palou, Honda, 205, Running
12. (10) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 205, Running
13. (20) Jack Harvey, Honda, 205, Running
14. (25) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 205, Running
15. (26) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 205, Running
16. (13) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 204, Running
17. (11) Scott Dixon, Honda, 204, Running
18. (27) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, 204, Running
19. (21) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 204, Running
20. (23) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 204, Running
21. (16) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 204, Running
22. (17) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 202, Running
23. (19) Graham Rahal, Honda, 202, Running
24. (4) Will Power, Chevrolet, 198, Running
25. (15) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 136, Contact
26. (22) Katherine Legge, Honda, 85, Contact
27. (3) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 55, Contact
Winner’s average speed: 159.207 mph; Time of race: 1 hour, 43 minutes, 15.2534 seconds; Margin of victory: 1.8106 seconds; Cautions: Three for 31 laps; Lead changes: Eight among six drivers. Lap leaders: Kirkwood 1-53; Newgarden 54-91; Rossi 92-123; Newgarden 124-139; O’Ward 140-160; Herta 161-179; Kirkwood 180-193; Malukas 194-201; Herta 202-206.
POINTS
Click here for the points tally in the race.
Here are the points standings after the season finale:
Top 10 in points: Palou 544, Herta 513, McLaughlin 505, Power 498, O’Ward 460, Dixon 456, Kirkwood 420, Newgarden 401, Ferrucci 367, Rossi 366.
Rest of the standings: Lundgaard 312, Rosenqvist 306, VeeKay 300, Armstrong 298, Ericsson 297, Lundqvist 279, Grosjean 260, Rahal 251, Fittipaldi 186, Robb 185, Simpson 182, Rasmussen 163, Siegel 154, Malukas 148, Harvey 143, Daly 119, Agustin Canapino 109, Theo Pourchaire 91, Legge 61, Tom Blomqvist 46, Ed Carpenter 45, Toby Sowery 45, Callum Ilott 39, Luca Ghiotto 27, Helio Castroneves 26, Kyle Larson 21, Takuma Sato 19, Tristan Vautier 12, Juri Vips 11, Colin Braun 10, Ryan Hunter-Reay 6, Hunter McElrea 6, Marco Andretti 5.
Next race: The IndyCar Series will return in 2025 with the March 2 season opener at St. Petersburg, Florida.
