The 2025 IndyCar season came to a close Sunday afternoon when drivers completed the 17th race of the season on the high banks of Nashville Superspeedway.
The race had many exciting moments, with side by side racing difficult but possible for much of the 225-lap event.
A late caution shook up the order a bit, and allowed Josef Newgarden to take over the top spot with just a few laps remaining.
READ MORE: IndyCar Nashville – Full Race Results
Newgarden held off his team-mate and crossed the line in first position, earning Team Penske’s second win of the 2025 season.
The entire team has been on the back foot all year, and it took until the very final round in order for the historic team to put a second driver on the top step on the podium.
Finishing in second place was Alex Palou, who had been near the front of the pack all afternoon.
Palou was embroiled in a few side by side battles for the lead, including a marathon 10-lap scrap with Pato O’Ward early in the event. He finishes the season with 13 podiums across 17 races, a truly incredible achievement.
Team Penske had a second representative on the podium in the form of Scott McLaughlin in third.
McLaughlin was on his way to earning a victory of his own with just 20 laps remaining, but he drifted high on the track and bounced off the outside wall.
He expertly saved the crash and continued on with no damage, battling all the way to the finish to earn a podium.
Kyffin Simpson was fourth, completing multiple bouts of close racing of his own to earn the second best result of his career and earning praises from his competitors along the way.
Rounding out the top five was Conor Daly, who placed the Juncos Hollinger Racing #76 high up the order.
Tire issues abound
Firestone brought two compounds of tire to Nashville for the second consecutive year, with drivers having to run both types similar to the rules at a road course event.
Unfortunately, the tires had integrity problems throughout the event and a couple tire failures dramatically changed the outcome of the race.
The most impactful was on lap 126 when Pato O’Ward suffered a right front failure while driving through Turn 2.
His #5 Chevy slid into the wall and the damage done to his car was too much to even drive back to the pits.
Up to that point, O’Ward had been the quickest driver on track and had led 116 laps. He was physically unhurt, but his emotions were pretty low as he conducted TV interviews afterwards.
The 2025 champion Alex Palou also suffered a tire failure on track, but amazingly was able to bring his car to the pits without even spinning out.
Palou barely even lost any ground because he was due for a pit stop anyway, only dropping one position after the cycle had completed.
Firestone confirmed that the issue was from a cut rather than excessive wear, but it was another incident that forced the rest of the field to employ a bit more caution.
Finale to forget
A few other drivers suffered through a poor season finale, including David Malukas.
The young driver was attempting to lap rookie Louis Foster when the two touched and Malukas was sent spinning hard into the wall.
He had been at the front of the field and was running second at the time of the incident, and he was more than a little upset on the radio after he came to rest.
Malukas climbed from his #4 AJ Foyt Chevy gingerly and was airlifted to a local hospital out of an abundance of caution.
“David is doing well,” confirmed Dr. Julia Vaizer. “He’s awake, he’s alert. He is in really good spirits. We’re just sending him down to our trauma center for some precautionary evaluation and advanced imaging.”
Christian Rasmussen also impacted the wall hard, although he was uninjured in his Turn 2 crash.
After starting down in 25th, last week’s winner did not even make one complete lap before his day was done in Nashville.
The other Danish driver Christian Lundgaard also retired with mechanical issues just 100 laps into the event.
Will Power, who still does not have his contract confirmed for next season, unfortunately slid long in his pit box and forced his crew to scramble in order to complete service.
The veteran ended the day down in 21st, with plenty to discuss in the coming months.
After a busy and eventful season, drivers and teams now head back to the shop to begin preparations for the 2026 season nearly six months from now.
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