IndyCar Took Over Nashville This Weekend & It Was Friggin' Awesome

What a weekend. 

I needed some time to gather my thoughts and not have scrambled egg brain after living in Nashville for the last five days for the inaugural Music City GP. It was a historic weekend putting on a historic event, and sure, there will be some complaints. More time under caution than under green (1 hour 23 minutes vs. 55 minutes and 15 seconds) is never ideal for a race, but still that being said the weekend was incredible and so far the numbers are showing. 

And that's just the TV ratings. I spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday at and around the track and the place was packed. 60K easily. The stands looked reminiscent to something you'd see in Indy during the month of May - People shoulder-to-shoulder waving their hats as the cars sped by. Nissan Stadium's ramps overlooking the finish line were lined with people standing along them to get a full view of some of the tightest turns the series has had to offer. Then, of course you had the bridge. I watched the first half of the race from the pits (somehow), and then caught the second half in a breezy air conditioned bus thankfully because per usual Nashville in August was hotter than the surface of the sun. 

But for one weekend in Nashville the most prominent sound you heard wasn't coming from Honky Tonk or bachelorette party screaming on top of a bus - it was IndyCars. Every where I looked I saw Pato O'Ward, Alexander Rossi, or Romain Grosjean jerseys, a Hinch hat, or a Colton Herta Victory Taco's shirt. Every place I went into the bartender or clerk would ask "in town for the race? Looking pretty wild!". And multiple times walking around the track I heard, what I assume to be Nashville locals, telling their somewhat disinterested / overheated child about how they couldn't miss this because it's a part of history. 

There was a ton of excitement, a ton of intrigue. One I think because it's been over a month since we've seen the boys out hauling it on the track because of the Olympic summer break, and two because, well, I think a lot of us were interested in just how the hell the race itself would go. Sure, the bridge was a draw, an attraction, and like my pal Hinch (more on him later) said famously "We're racing over a friggin' bridge", and the shots of the cars sending it over that thing were super cool. 

But it's a brand new course that the guys got two actual runs on before qualifying for a grand total of four before they were battling for a checkered. The streets were narrow - like hallway narrow - and a lot of the turns were damn near 90 degrees. They were coming down from the bridge at their top speed only to have to tone it down quickly to get into another tight turn with, oh by the way, 28 cars bumping next to them. 

So, yeah, of course the first half of the race was a bit of a mess. Like I said, I was standing just outside Alexander Rossi's pit watching on the monitor from there when we went green and quite literally everyone was holding their breath before the first turn and the relief felt when they all made it through was palpable. 

But then this happened during a caution on lap four. 

Uhhhh what? I mean WHAT?! The dude was in the air! His wing got more fucked up than half of Broadway yet he ended up…winning the race. Absolutely insane. But let's talk a little bit more about the race itself. 

Marcus Ericsson

Let's start with the winner himself. What a year for him. No checkereds for eight years then has come through with two in the last five races. And I mean…I still just can't believe he was able to go through the air and end up winning it. Crazy. I know, I know, it was just the wing that they could replace but still on the surface you see that video and you're more concerned about the safety of the driver than thinking about him finishing the race let alone winning. Air-iccson. Big weekend for Ganassi, huh?

Colton Herta

Maaaan I dropped to my knees when he slammed into the wall with seven laps to go. He was the prop bet play for the weekend on the Barstool Sportsbook because he absolutely dominated the entire weekend. His car was ripping through the streets. Qualified P1, and was passing MFs left and right like it was one of us driving on the interstate to catch a reservation on time. But it looked like his fearless aggression from the first practice on Friday on kinda did him in on Sunday. He was hauling ass over that bridge before the turn and it just locked up on him. Brutal for Team Andretti. But Marco made a great point after the crash. 

Alexander Rossi

Felt badly for Alex, too. Ran great all weekend. Qualified P3. Just another cartoon anvil for him on race day after he was near the top throughout. I got to watch from his pit and his bus, though, so thanks man. 

James Hinchcliffe

HIIIIINCH. The saving grace for Andretti this weekend. So pumped for him. Been a tough year and he'll be the first to admit it, but he hopped from 10 to finish three and snag his first podium of the season. I was really worried that RHR was going to make a pass on him over the bridge on one of the final two laps after the restart but my guy held him off and brought it home. 

Graham Rahal

Another top 10 finish for Graham. The dude has just been relatively quietly hitting doubles all year long so he finds himself 6th in the standings with five races left. Every race this year (besides the 500) I feel like I don't hear much about him or his car on the broadcast then I just look up and he's got another top 5 finish. Went to his sponsor event on Friday night before the race, and I think my Nashville BBQ casual attire (as stated in the invite) helped him have another solid day. Just maybe. 

Josef Newgarden

Kind of a weird weekend for Brosef. I mean he's a big, big reason why this race even happened in the streets of Nashville to begin with being the hometown kid. But he just never really got it going. Kind of middle of the pack in all the practices, qualifying, and the same happened for the race. He'd been the hottest driver in the series for all of June and finally got through the unfortunate luck skid in Mid-Ohio, but I went into the weekend thinking it was basically Josef's race to lose and i don't know, it just wasn't really there for the #2 car. But again, a big cowboy hat tip of the cap to him and his squad for being such a large pusher and reason for the Music City GP to even be a thing. It was a phenomenal weekend. 

Let's go racing.