The Music City Grand Prix will be run later in the year for the 2024 IndyCar season, with the tilt around the streets of Nashville becoming the season finale.
The race will also feature a new track layout, which was needed due to the nearby football stadium being rebuilt in the parking lot that the series used as its paddock area.
The current 2.1-mile layout debuted in 2021, and quickly earned a reputation as one of the more chaotic events on the schedule.
A combination of long straights followed by narrow turns has resulted in many cautions and a red flag during both previous races held in the Music City.
The new layout will overlap some portions of the current location, and will feature sections of Broadway Street near the Country Music Hall of Fame.
The iconic bridge section will remain, and a bulk of the course will be on the west side of the river instead of the other way around.
A unique pit lane, which exits onto the track at nearly the same point that drivers pull off into the service area, will also feature on the new layout.
The event has also traditionally been run in August in the height of summer heat and humidity, meaning the mid-September date will likely bring some relief to the competitors as well.
Street courses are notoriously unpredictable due to the frequency at which drivers are knocked completely out of the race due to a single mistake, or even due to their competitor’s driving standards.
Having one as the season finale could lead to unexpected results in any potential championship battles that may still be ongoing at that time.
There have been a few instances of unpredictable street courses serving as the season finale in recent years (namely in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 2003, 2020 and 2021), but those have very often been on well-known circuits.
It has been since the mid 1980’s, however, since IndyCar has run a street course finale on a layout that is new to the series.
Next year’s running of the Music City Grand Prix is scheduled to take place on the weekend of September 13-15, and is one of only a few events with a confirmed date for the 2024 season.
Discussion about this post