Second IndyCar win for Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood – Alex Palou with poker and luck in P3 behind Scott McLaughlin – Late red flag
Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti-Honda) won the third running of the Music City Grand Prix, the IndyCar Series city street race in Nashville.
Unlike the past two years – there was plenty of chaos in both the 2021 debut and the 2022 follow-up – this time the race included long green flag runs and featured a variety of strategies. It came to an end after a short red phase due to a late incident.
The basis for the victory for Andretti driver Kirkwood, who had started from P8, was a slightly different tyre strategy compared to the competition. Kirkwood used the soft set of tyres in the second of three stints in the race. That was the deciding factor in the end.
For Kirkwood and also for Andretti Autosport, it is the second win of the season after Long Beach in April, with it also being Kirkwood’s second IndyCar win ever.
Polesetter Scott McLaughlin leads at start
Scott McLaughlin (Penske-Chevrolet) started the Nashville city race over a distance of 80 laps from the pole, just like last year. McLaughlin entered the first turn after the flying start, which according to the official counting of the track layout is turn 9, as the leader ahead of Patricio O’Ward (McLaren-Chevrolet) who started from P2.
NashVegas! HERE. WE. GO.
The MusicCityGP is GREEN!
: @nbc & @peacock INDYCAR // @MusicCityGP pic. twitter.com/8eymfUmU89
– NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 6, 2023
The first of only three yellows occurred after twelve laps. This was triggered by David Malukas, who had started from P5, and whose Coyne-Honda’s rear wing collapsed at, of all places, the fastest spot on the track. However, Malukas was able to avoid a crash. He brought the car to a safe stop in the run-off zone of turn 9 with the wing hanging down.
This first yellow phase was used by numerous drivers for their first pit stop. Some others had even been in earlier to change from the green marked soft tyres to the unmarked hard tyres (blacks). But leader McLaughlin and chaser O’Ward were not among those who stopped.
Different strategies shape the course of the race
At the first restart, McLaughlin led ahead of O’Ward and other drivers who were also still running on the first set of tyres. These were McLaughlin’s Penske teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden, Ganassi drivers Scott Dixon and Marcus Armstrong and Andretti drivers Romain Grosjean, Kyle Kirkwood and Devlin DeFrancesco. All the others were already on the second set of tyres at this point.
But the first set of tyres still on meant soft only for McLaughlin and O’Ward. The aforementioned pursuers, who also had their first pit stop ahead of them, had started the race on the Blacks. In the end, a slightly different tyre strategy for Kyle Kirkwood proved to be the winning one, while a slightly different tyre strategy for Romain Grosjean proved to be unsuccessful.
When McLaughlin pitted on lap 25 in the lead for a change to hard tyres, Grosjean briefly took the lead until he too pulled up for a pit stop. After the others had also been serviced, the leader was someone who had pitted early under green to change to the hard tyres: Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi-Honda). Alexander Rossi (McLaren-Chevrolet) followed the same strategy.
Meanwhile, championship leader Alex Palou (Ganassi-Honda) tried a very long second stint. When the different strategies were sorted out, Palou led the race, followed by Kirkwood, Lundqvist, Grosjean and McLaughlin. The pole setter had fallen behind Kirkwood and Grosjean in the course of his first pit stop. Unlike Grosjean and McLaughlin, however, Kirkwood was also on the soft tyres in the second stint.
Mistake by Romain Grosjean in duel with Scott McLaughlin
Alex Palou made his second pit stop while leading on the 45th of the 80 laps. And that was actually the last one of the race for him. Behind the new leader Kyle Kirkwood, who had soft tyres, the focus from then on was on the duel Romain Grosjean vs. Scott McLaughlin. It was anything but the first duel between the two this season.
On the 49th lap, Grosjean made a small mistake in turn 9, which was immediately exploited by McLaughlin. This restored the original order in this duel.
A little wiggle from @RGrosjean and @smclaughlin93 is up to P2!
: @nbc & @peacock INDYCAR // MusicCityGP pic. twitter.com/JLM1Fm4uMs
– NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 6, 2023
McLaughlin’s main opponent in the fight for victory, however, was the deviating tyre strategy driving Kyle Kirkwood. McLaughlin made his second and final pit stop on lap 52 while leading. Grosjean came in a lap later. When the Frenchman returned to the track, he was still behind McLaughlin, and well.
The order was Kirkwood, McLaughlin, Palou going into the final 25 laps of the race. In terms of tyres, the entire leading group was on the hard compound in this final stint. Ten laps before the end, however, there was another yellow (see below for details) and this yellow phase played into Alex Palou’s hands because he no longer had to worry about his fuel consumption.
At the penultimate restart, which took place between turns 9 and 10 for the first time this year, Kyle Kirkwood defended his lead when there was a crash in the rear of the field. The cars of Felix Rosenqvist (McLaren-Chevrolet) and IndyCar rookies Agustin Canapino (Juncos-Chevrolet) and Benjamin Pedersen (Foyt-Chevrolet) got tangled up in turn 11 as Rosenqvist caught the tyre barrier in a duel with Ryan Hunter-Reay (Carpenter-Chevrolet).
After a short red phase for clean-up purposes, there was the final restart. Under the wheels was the one in the order Kyle Kirkwood, Scott McLaughlin, Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Romain Grosjean. And in this one, Kirkwood charged straight up and away. Behind them, too, everything went well. And with that, the positions were taken.
Kirkwood wins ahead of McLaughlin and Palou
Kyle Kirkwood led the most laps on balance to take his second IndyCar win. Scott McLaughlin finished P2 for the second year in a row at Nashville, starting from the pole.
“Winner winner, Nashville hot chicken dinner!”
Kyle Kirkwood gets his 2nd win of the year. pic.twitter.com/AIXgqG5Xtu
– INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) August 6, 2023
Third place went to Alex Palou, just ahead of his closest rival in the overall standings: Josef Newgarden. With P4, he achieved the best result in three years at his home race. Last year’s winner Scott Dixon was fifth.
For Romain Grosjean it was P6. He was the only one on soft tyres in the final stint of the race and had lost some ground on them in the long green flag run before the final caution periods. Seventh was Marcus Ericsson, the 2021 Nashville winner, followed by front row starter Patricio O’Ward and Christian Lundgaard (Rahal-Honda) and last year’s champion Will Power.
Linus Lundqvist with strong IndyCar debut
A strong IndyCar debut was shown by Linus Lundqvist. The latest of three substitute drivers for the still-out-of-action Simon Pagenaud made his debut in the race series in his 60 Shank Honda with P11 in qualifying and an even stronger showing in the race.
In his first qualifying session, Lundqvist directly distanced experienced teammate Helio Castroneves. In the race, last year’s Indy Lights champion was even in the Top 5 for a while. At the beginning, he was on the same strategy as Alex Palou. However, due to a lack of experience in saving fuel, the debutant did not manage to keep it up over the distance.
After an additional pit stop, Lundqvist was on course for a top-15 finish when he slid into the wall of turn 11 with ten laps to go. It was the young Swede’s only mistake on a strong debut weekend in which he directly secured the fastest race lap.
Next stop: Indianapolis
This means there are only four races left on the 2023 IndyCar calendar. The next one will take place in just under two weeks, on Saturday (12 August), on the circuit in the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It will again be a double-header with the NASCAR Cup Series, which will use this circuit for its race the following day.
In the 2023 IndyCar standings, championship leader Alex Palou now has an 84-point lead over Josef Newgarden. This means the Spaniard is still clearly on course for a second IndyCar title in the final year of his Ganassi contract. Scott Dixon in third and Scott McLaughlin in fourth are already 126 and 142 points behind Palou respectively.
