LEBANON, Tenn. — Alex Palou easily drove to his third IndyCar Series championship in four years when challenger Will Power’s seatbelt came loose minutes into the season-deciding finale Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway.
“When I saw (Power) going to pit lane, at first I was like, ‘Oh, what strategy are they going to do?’” Palou said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the way. Obviously, you don’t want your biggest competitor to go down that way in the season finale. It was very dangerous what happened to him.”
Colton Herta, who earlier this year moved to Nashville, won the Music City Grand Prix for the first oval victory of his IndyCar career and the second win of the season for Andretti Global. Herta topped Pato O’Ward in a wheel-to-wheel battle in the closing laps.
“I couldn’t ask for a better ending to the year,” Herta said.
The main event drawing all the attention, though, was the championship battle as Palou, a 27-year-old Spaniard who won his first title in 2021 in his first season driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, earned back-to-back championships on the premier American open-wheel circuit.