The yearly visit to the streets of Nashville typically produce a crash-filled, chaotic race, but this time around tire strategy and raw pace were the main factors for a majority of the event.
A few late race crashes didn’t change very much at the head of the field, and Kyle Kirkwood was able to keep his advantage over Scott McLaughlin to earn the second victory of his young career. Alex Palou benefitted from the late caution to hold onto his podium position and pad his points lead.
The stack-up that caused the late red flag involved Ben Pedersen, Agustin Canapino, and Felix Rosenqvist, who found themselves stacked up against the wall and nearly blocking the track.
READ MORE: IndyCar Nashville Race Report
The strangest retirement of the day came early when David Malukas lost his rear wing at the end of the bridge section. He safely pulled off to the side of the track, but was at a loss to explain what failed on his car.
Drivers will only have a few days to recover, as they are back on track Friday for the second visit of the season to the Indianapolis road course.
| # | Driver | Time / Gap | Laps Led | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Kirkwood | 01:58:02.3028 | 34 | 80 |
| 2 | Scott McLaughlin | 0.7633 | 25 | 53 |
| 3 | Alex Palou | 1.7221 | 12 | 42 |
| 4 | Josef Newgarden | 3.1416 | – | 36 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | 4.1655 | – | 32 |
| 6 | Romain Grosjean | 5.9518 | 4 | 30 |
| 7 | Marcus Ericsson | 6.4148 | 4 | 29 |
| 8 | Pato O’Ward | 6.6966 | – | 27 |
| 9 | Christian Lundgaard | 8.0168 | – | 24 |
| 10 | Will Power | 9.0456 | 1 | 22 |
| 11 | Helio Castroneves | 9.8718 | – | 21 |
| 12 | Callum Ilott | 10.6859 | – | 19 |
| 13 | Marcus Armstrong | 11.4056 | – | 18 |
| 14 | Rinus VeeKay | 11.8172 | – | 17 |
| 15 | Graham Rahal | 14.2271 | – | 16 |
| 16 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 14.6874 | – | 15 |
| 17 | Sting Ray Robb | 15.1158 | – | 14 |
| 18 | Santino Ferrucci | 16.5253 | – | 13 |
| 19 | Alexander Rossi | -2 laps | – | 12 |
| 20 | Agustin Canapino | -3 laps | – | 11 |
| 21 | Colton Herta | -4 laps | – | 10 |
| 22 | Felix Rosenqvist | -7 laps | – | 9 |
| 23 | Benjamin Pedersen | -7 laps | – | 8 |
| 24 | Jack Harvey | -9 laps | – | 7 |
| 25 | Linus Lundqvist | -11 laps | – | 6 |
| 26 | Devlin DeFrancesco | -15 laps | – | 5 |
| 27 | David Malukas | -69 laps | – | 5 |
