Oilpressure

Well, that was an odd race. Going in, Alex Palou had a thirty-three point lead on Will Power – but Palou was starting twenty positions behind Power. Most fans in attendance had visions of checking the scoring pylon to see where each contender stood in relation to the other. That drama lasted for twelve laps. When I saw Power duck into the pits after only twelve circuits, I knew the championship was most likely sealed.

I had no idea what brought him in, but I could see on the monitors that the crew with messing with something inside the cockpit. I thought maybe the data on his steering wheel had gone out and they were having to swap it out. But when I saw nothing come out and Power sat there helpless for five laps, I knew it was something else. I just had no idea what.

As I roamed the pits, I saw a friend of mine with one of the teams that had earphones on. He told me it was Power’s lap belt. All I could think of was “How does that happen, especially with a championship on the line?” I was somewhat relieved and somewhat skeptical when Power said the seatbelt malfunctioned just after race started. He knew he had to come in, because if he hit the wall – it could be a lot worse than just losing a championship.

My question is…did it really malfunction or was he covering for himself or a crewmember for omitting to take care of something so seemingly simple, but also so critical? We will probably never know and it really doesn’t matter. Power had an uphill struggle to win the championship. It’s just a shame that the drama was over after twelve laps. But congratulations to Alex Palou for winning his third NTT IndyCar Series championship in four years. I have an idea that seatbelt or not, he would have won the championship anyway. (Photo: George Phillips)

This is the third time I have been in attendance to cover an IndyCar season-finale; Fontana in 2013, Sonoma in 2018 and today at Nashville. Not one of those times did the driver that won the championship, win the season finale. I’ve always felt sorry for the race winner of the season finale, because the race winner is always overshadowed by the championship winner. Colton Herta won today’s race in exciting fashion. He passed Pato O’ ward for the lead with four laps to go, using Sting Ray Robb as a pick in traffic.

It was an exciting move in what was something of an odd race. We didn’t see the passing that we saw at Gateway and Milwaukee, but there was still a lot more action than we saw in two races at Iowa. But I’ve been to every IndyCar race held at this track, and this may have been the best. It certainly offered the most action at the end of the race. With fifteen laps to go, the lead changed four times. Kyle Kirkwood and David Malukas both led, but had to pit for a splash of fuel, then it looked like Pato O’Ward would win, but then here came Herta.

It was a spectacular drive on Herta’s part and he deserved the win. It’s a shame more people paid more attention to Palolu’s third championship than they did Herta’s first oval win.

That’s going to do it for me here this weekend. I have to say that Nashville Superspeedway went out of their way to make everyone on the grounds feel welcome. I will be back here tomorrow with my usual Monday morning Random Thoughts. Thanks to those who followed me through the shortened two-day weekend. With hospital visits on each end of both days, I feel like I kind of shortchanged everyone, but Mrs. Oilpressure does take priority. Please check back tomorrow.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on September 15, 2024 at 6:00 pm 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.