Music City GP Makes Strong Debut Despite Lackluster Race

NASHVILLE – From an event standpoint, the Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville was an incredible success.

With sellout crowds that included enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans, concerts that lasted well into the night featuring some big names in the music industry, and a party atmosphere that seemingly lasted 24 hours a day, it was a weekend filled with memories.
 
However, the NTT IndyCar Series race on Sunday evening is one that many in the series would like to forget.
 
With the exception of a delay in constructing one of the grandstands that was not completed until Sunday, and some of the concerts that fans thought were shorter than advertised, Nashville Mayor John Cooper and the event ownership group that includes Scott Borchetta and Justin Marks, have a lot to be proud of.
 
Unfortunately, much of the 81-lap IndyCar race was a bit of embarrassment. 
 
There were nine cautions for 33 laps and two red flags that stopped the race for a combined 30 minutes. The driver that caused one of the early cautions, Marcus Ericsson, somehow went on to win the race.
 
The driver with the fastest car in the field, pole winner Colton Herta, stuffed his Honda in the wall five laps from the finish as he was frantically trying to pass Ericsson for the victory.

IndyCar officials called for the red flag in order to clean up the track after Herta’s crash, fix the retaining barrier and ensure a two-lap dash to the checkered flag that featured Ericsson trying to save fuel and his Gannassi teammate Dixon giving chase on tires that had been on his car for more than 50 laps.
 
The first red flag came on lap 20 following a crash that looked like it was straight out of the 1979 motion picture The Blues Brothers. Instead of the Chicago Police and the Illinois State Police piling their cars into a toybox-like mess, this pile-up included some of the best drivers in IndyCar, including Team Penske teammates Will Power and Simon Pagenaud, both series champions and Indianapolis 500 winners.
 
With the track completely blocked, there was no choice but to stop the race and clean up the mess.
 
During the red flag, Jimmie Johnson’s team at Chip Ganassi Racing plugged in the air jacks to lift Johnson’s Honda off the ground to assess an electrical issue. It’s against IndyCar rules to work on a race car during a red flag and Johnson’s No. 48 was disqualified from the remainder of the race.
 
That’s certainly a rule that Johnson’s team should have known about.
 
If that wasn’t enough, there was an extended caution after Dalton Kellett and Scott McLaughlin were involved in a crash that was triggered when Power made contact with McLaughlin on Lap 41.
 
The reason the caution lasted until Lap 51?
 
A flood of water was pouring across the track, presumably from one of the many temporary suites and concession areas that surrounded the 11-turn, 2.17-mile street course that included the 1,660-foot Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge crossing over the Cumberland River.
 
With all the delays, crashes, yellow flags and unbelievable turn of events, the sun began to set, and the race course began to darken. Without lights, it was impressive the race even made it to the scheduled 80-lap distance.
 
The entire event was a success, but the race was far from a showcase for IndyCar’s talent.
 
But let’s take a few things into consideration.

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