Oilpressure

Welcome to the Music City Grand Prix! More specifically, welcome to the bowels of Nissan Stadium. This is a first world problem that will generate no sympathy from anyone, but this is my least favorite media center of the tracks we’ve been to. It’s nice and all, but it is underground with no windows. Plus, it is on the far side of the stadium from the rest of the track. We enter the stadium on the track side, take an elevator down to the catacombs and then walk through the tunnels of the stadium around the north end-zone – until we reach the media center which is even with about the 30 yard-line. Due to being underground and the lack of outside sound, it is extremely quiet in here. Usually the media center is a lively place, but this is always like a library. It’s almost oppressive.

Anyway, I’m not really complaining. I’m always very grateful they let us into their world. I just always like to give a taste of what it’s like at each track we go to. Plus, they feed us well here. I’m always appreciative of that.

So far as today, as Donald Davidson would say – It was pouting with rain as we drove in this morning. It got no better once we arrived. Nashville is currently under a flood watch, with all the rain that is predicted for the next four hours on top of the rain we had yesterday. This was how the radar looked at 10:56 CDT. Keep in mind, the track is just east of downtown, so it looks like it will get worse before it gets better. So, I’m also grateful to be able to cower in the media center during a downpour.

We had a good time at last night’s event announcing the future of this event. We all pretty much knew that the Music City Grand Prix would be serving as the season-finale in 2024. We did learn the date (Sep 14-15), but no word if this was a one-year only thing for the Olympics or if it would be the finale for years to come. Here are a few photos from the rooftop event overlooking Lower Broadway.

They did unveil the new track layout. Reaction has been mixed with fans from a racing standpoint. It is essentially a few left turns, a right turn and a hairpin – with two long straight-aways over the bridge. The goofiest thing to me is pit-lane, which is in a parking lot and separated from everything else. Fans who get pit passes, will be far removed from all the activities around the start/finish line on 4th Avenue.

The Trans Am Series is the first track activity scheduled for the morning. They were to hit the track at 10:45 am local time, but there is nothing but shots of empty wet streets on the monitor. I’ll go above ground and poke my head out shortly. If it stops, we want to roam around the track. If not, we’ll hunker down in our underground bunker for a while.

The NTT IndyCar Series does not practice until 3:00 pm local time (4:00 EDT on Peracock). Hopefully, this will have cleared out and they will get a good practice in. I’ll be back here after practice with a wrap-up for the day. Susan plans to have a post on the fan-experience here (if it ever stops raining). Please check back later today.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on August 4, 2023 at 11:15 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.