NASHVILLE, Tenn. — It doesn’t matter to Team Penske driver Will Power that Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will be the last on this quirky street course before it moves to Broadway Avenue and downtown Nashville in 2024.
Power, the defending NTT IndyCar Series champion, simply wants to win a race.
“Just to win a race in this series is just a big deal,” Power said Friday after he was the fastest driver in the 75-minute practice session. “Winning a race would be amazing … Yeah, I was blown away at the announcement yesterday. I actually didn’t know that, that we’d be going down what’s the name of the street — Broadway — yeah, that’s pretty special, pretty cool.
“It will be a big finale. A lot of celebration afterwards with all those bars around.”
Power was referring to Thursday night’s major announcement that the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will move to Sept. 13-15, 2024, and become the championship finale for the NTT IndyCar Series.
Sunday’s race will be the final on the 11-turn, 2.1-mile layout that utilizes Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
The new seven-turn layout will keep the famed Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge, but the rest of the course will move across the Cumberland River going down the famed Broadway Avenue, the entertainment district of Music City and downtown Nashville.
Power was the fastest in Friday’s practice session with a time of 1:16.4042 (98.947 mph) in the No. 12 Verizon Honda for Team Penske.
“Yeah, good start,” Power said. “Certainly, had good cars here last year. Just the race is a very different story to being quick in practice and qualifying … Long weekend. But very determined to start at the front. That’s been the issue. Starting at the front in Iowa is okay, but it’s very easy to pass there.
“If I wasn’t the first across the line in Toronto, would have been starting certainly better than sixth, maybe first. Then you have a legitimate shot at the win, otherwise you don’t.”
Power is trying to extend a streak of winning at least one IndyCar Series race every season since 2007.
“The car is really good,” Power said. “I think we’re in a good window. All the cars are pretty similar. It will be all about putting it together when it counts.”
While Power was quickest, the bumpy, tricky nature of the track snagged him late in the session, when he clipped the wall in a chicane with the right front of his Team Penske machine.
“It’s physical,” Power said. “Man, it’s physical. I just locked a little bit on the way in, thought I was going to make it, just didn’t really. It didn’t knock the suspension off, but it was enough to … yeah, it’s not ideal.”
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing takes an 80-point lead into the weekend. Palou qualified second in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda at 1:16.6494 (98.631 mph) in the No. 10 American Legion Honda.
Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi was third at 1:16.7192 (98.541 mph) with teammate Pato O’Ward fourth at 1:16.778 (98.466 mph), both in Chevrolets.
“It was a very good start to the weekend,” Rossi said. “We’re in the window. We know where the time to be found is, and we’ll just work on a couple things overnight and hopefully stay on top of the conditions as they change tomorrow.”
Toronto race winner Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top five at 1:16.9262 in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
“Being one of the first cars out on track, we obviously expected the track to be slippery,” Lundgaard said. “But at the end we were still competitive, but we should’ve been more competitive. We didn’t really get our lap on the (alternate) greens when we should have.
“The lap before, I think, was four-tenths up on the lap I ended up doing but I had (Scott) McLaughlin sideways down in Turn 4 so it wasn’t going to be that lap (that was his fastest). But I do think we’re competitive and we carried over from last year. It’s looking good for the Hy-Vee team.”
Linus Lundqvist, making his NTT IndyCar Series debut with Meyer Shank Racing, impressed by ending up 11th and the quickest rookie in the field at 1:17.3524 in the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda. He is substituting for Simon Pagenaud, still recovering from a violent flip July 1 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Up next is another practice at 11:40 a.m. (ET) Saturday, followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2:45 p.m. (ET) and final practice at 6:25 p.m. (ET). Live coverage of the 80-lap race starts at noon Sunday on NBC.