Oilpressure

First, I want to start with an update on my wife’s health. Fortunately, it’s a positive update. Susan had her surgery on Wednesday afternoon, but I was wrong on one thing – it was not laparoscopic. They cut her wide-open, but that was the only negative to the entire day. The surgery was completely successful. They did what they needed to do, and she is well on her way to recovery. Most importantly, there was no evidence of any new cancer – or old cancer, for that matter. As her surgeon suspected, the intestinal blockage was caused by scar tissue from her radiation treatments three and a half years ago, that had shifted. She will most likely not attend the race this weekend, but her recovery is going very well. She is alert and in good spirits. Thanks to everyone for all of the thoughts, prayers and kind words. Now onto this weekend’s season finale at Nashville Superspeedway…

Since it was announced over a year ago that the Music City Grand Prix would be run on a portion of Broadway in downtown Nashville, there have been many changes and missteps along the way. Finally in February, it was announced that the downtown race would move east to Wilson County and to Nashville Superspeedway. While I was ecstatic that the NTT IndyCar Series would add another oval to the schedule, and it would be in our own backyard – it was a little embarrassing how they got there. It seems some of the race and event officials failed to secure the needed permits to race downtown.

It’s probably just as well. Construction for the new Titans stadium is spilling out into what had been proposed to be the track. Also, the Titans home-opener (against the NY Jets) is Sunday. To have both of those events going on at the same time would have been impossible.

The fact that the Titans are playing in town will have a huge affect on the crowd. I’ve talked to several personal friends here over the last couple of weeks. They said if the Titans weren’t in town – they would go to the race, but they aren’t missing the Titans game (no matter how bad they were last week).

If that wasn’t enough to cut down on ticket sales, the remnants of Hurricane Francine will pretty much destroy any potential walk-up crowd. As I write this on Thursday night, the forecast for the weekend is very wet. It has hardly rained any in Nashville for over a month. It is so dry here, everything has turned brown. The former hurricane is supposed to dump a lot of water over the area in the next few days.

Not only is that not good for the crowd, it’s not good for the teams and drivers. For the first time this season, teams will have two different tire compounds to choose from. Red alternate tires were available at Gateway last season, and will be used again at Nashville this season. Some have called this a gimmick for deciding the championship, but I like it. It throws in another level of tactics and strategy.

The bad thing is, only three drivers entered into Sunday’s race – Scott Dixon, Will Power and Graham Rahal – have ever raced on this track before. This is a unique track. The 1.33-mile oval is paved with concrete – the same concrete it was paved with when the track opened in 2001. Nashville doesn’t have winters like Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan; but that doesn’t mean we are in the tropics. We’ve had some pretty harsh winters over the past twenty-four years, and I’m sure it’s a lot rougher now than it was the last time IndyCar raced there in 2008 – and it wasn’t smooth then.

The championship is down to two drivers – Alex Palou and Will Power. Power trails Palou by 33 points. It’s unlikely Power will catch and pass Palou, but it’s not impossible. As Curt Cavin outlined on Trackside the other night – it’s pretty simple. For Power to win; Palou must finish tenth or worse, and Power needs to finish on the podium. If Palou finished tenth, Power must have bonus points if he finishes third – in order to win the championship. If Palou wins the pole, or leads the most laps – it gets even tougher for Power. It may be a tall order for Power, but there will still be a lot of drama going into the race. It makes the late restart at Gateway even more critical, when Power was taken out of a likely Top-Five finish.

I am hoping most of the weather forecasts are wrong, and there is not a huge interruption due to weather. To me, the worst scenario possible would be for the race to reach the halfway point, but then weather dictates that they call the race before the 206 laps are complete. I would hate to have a championship decided that way.

This is a two-day event, with no track activity on Friday. Practice One will kick things off at 10:00 am local time (CDT), and will run until 12:30 pm CDT. Qualifying will begin at 1:15 pm CDT, only 45-minutes after the end of Practice One (can that be correct?). The High-Line Final Practice gets underway at 4:15 pm CDT Saturday. All of Saturday’s track activity will be carried live on Peacock.

Sunday’s race broadcast will begin at 2:00 pm CDT on Big NBC and the green flag waves at 2:30 CDT. Of course, this is all weather dependent. If there is a significant rain delay on Sunday, all bets are off where the race ends up – most likely CNBC, but that’s just my guess.

This will be a bittersweet weekend for NBC. It will be the final broadcast for a group that saved IndyCar fans from the doldrums of ABC/ESPN. Starting out as Versus, then NBCSN – NBC gave IndyCar fans a fresh perspective for IndyCar viewing. Fans longed for the day when NBC would completely take over from ABC/ESPN. As soon as that happened, fans turned on NBC. I was in the minority, as I was not in favor of IndyCar bailing on NBC. I understand it was an offer they couldn’t refuse – more money and all races on network TV – but I hated to see that talented group kicked to th4e curb. I realize most will disagree with me, but as I say – Change is Bad!

Who will win Sunday’s race and the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series Championship? Recently, we have seen one driver embrace tracks he has never been to before. Santino Ferrucci and AJ Foyt Enterprises have been showing steady improvement all season long. They have been knocking on the door for the second half of the season. It was announced on Thursday that Ferrucci has been confirmed to return to the No, 14 for 2025. I think Ferrucci will celebrate by winning fis first career IndyCar race at Music City.

As for the championship, I think Will Power will make things interesting, but I think too many things have to fall just right. Alex Palou will win the championship, marking the third time in four seasons that he has hoisted the Astor Challenge Trophy.

On a personal note; IndyCar raced at Nashville Superspeedway from 2001 through 2008. Susan and I attended every single one of those races as fans in the stands. I started this site in May of 2009, just ten months after IndyCar parted ways with the track here. It was always a dream that some day, IndyCar would return to the concrete oval in Gladeville, TN, while I was still running this site, and I could cover the race here. That day will finally be here this weekend. My only regret is that (most likely) Susan will not be able to join me. But after such a wild week with her health and how bad things could have been with this condition – if her not being there is the worst thing about it, we can both live with that. But I do want to stress – she is very much in favor of me going both days this weekend. And yes, I’m going to do it.

I will be posting throughout the weekend, starting Saturday morning. However, what photos I post on here will be from my phone, and not through Susan’s real camera – so bear with me. Please check back tomorrow morning and keep fingers crossed for decent weather.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on September 13, 2024 at 4:03 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.