The final race of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season is this Sunday (Aug. 31) with the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
Only one thing is on the line as the 27-car field hits the concrete surface and that’s the victory, as Alex Palou has the championship in the bag. The four-time champion is already taking photos in Nashville with the Astor Trophy and the Borg-Warner in the lead up to the event, so the Spaniard is on cruise control heading into the last race.
With an extension to 225 laps, teams will take on the rough and bumpy Nashville surface after putting on a good show last year, after a long hiatus away from the track.
Last Year
Pato O’Ward was a couple of laps short of victory during the final sprint, but was hunted down by Colton Herta. The ensuing pass for the lead around a slower Sting Ray Robb was one of the better moves for a win since Indianapolis earlier in the year. With the massive points day, Herta climbed to second in points after his first oval win.
How a season can be so different in a year’s time. O’Ward locked second in points at Milwaukee a week ago and is fighting for his third win of the year. Herta, on the other hand, is winless, looking at a sixth or worse placing in the championship, depending on how the weekend goes.
One More Shot
Josef Newgarden led 54 laps last year en route to a third-place finish, his sixth podium in the season, locking up eighth in the championship. His 2025 has been much worse, though, and like Herta, he is winless on the year. That doesn’t happen much for the two-time champion, as he has visited victory lane every season since his maiden triumph at Barber Motorsports Park in 2015.
A win can force all the negative energy and clouds that have hovered over the Team Penske No. 2 car all year, but it has to happen now. While he is still the IndyCar oval master, his crown has faded and dulled in 2025. A second at Iowa Race 1 is his best result all year, and he left Milwaukee with a seventh that could have been a win if he had taken tires on the last stop.
Either bad calls or luck have ruined his oval races. However, this is Nashville, his hometown track, and a win there won’t just keep his streak alive; it will build positive vibes with a fanbase struggling with how to perceive his personality over the last season.
A lot is riding on him Sunday.
All American Results
Conor Daly’s first season with Juncos Hollinger Racing has fared better than one might expect. While he isn’t where he wants to be on road and street circuits, the team’s oval package has been competitive. His three top 10s are the most he’s earned since 2020 when he split the season between Carlin and Ed Carpenter Racing, finishing in the top 10 four of the five ovals.
He led Indianapolis and had a hot rod at Worldwide Technology Raceway. A top 10 was within reach at Milwaukee, but he faded at the end. In 2024 at Nashville, he added a 10th to a third from Milwaukee Race 1, a run that helped earn the ride full-time this season. If he secures another top 10, it will be the second-best season for one of JHR’s cars since they returned to full-time racing in 2022. Hopefully, that momentum carries on to another year in the program for 2026.
Danish Oval Prince
On Frontstretch’s “The Pit Straight” this week, Wyatt Watson labeled guest Christian Rasmussen the ‘oval prince’ of IndyCar. While superfluous for sure, while there are many other drivers running better and upfront more than the Dane, his acumen on ovals is impressive.
He’s led three times on them, and has a worse finish of eighth, with two podiums, a third at WWTR and his win last Sunday (Aug. 24). It’s not like he is rolling off the trailer as fast as he wants – he even said as much on the podcast, as the team struggled with speed after the first practice at Milwaukee. But they’ve worked the car to his liking by the end of the weekend, and he’s getting results.
Ed Carpenter made a savvy move last year when he stepped out of his car for the last three oval races, putting Rasmussen in to get experience. The payoff was a lot of knowledge learned and a win last weekend. If the high line comes in well during the race, expect Rasmussen to put it to good use and get another top 10.
A good result can catapult the team into the top 10 in points, a place they haven’t finished since Newgarden’s last year with them in 2016.
What Else?
Palou has proven he is an oval star now. He dominated the Milwaukee race and had the only car capable of passing over long runs. In Nashville last year, he took it easy to ensure his title. No need to take it easy on Sunday.
Scott Dixon kept his 21-season win streak alive with the triumph at Mid-Ohio, but he can get one more. Three of his 59 career wins are at Nashville, and while his 17th last year wasn’t great, he can still win at the concrete-paved country music coliseum.
Can Christian Lundgaard get his best oval result on Sunday? He’s finished sixth twice this year, anything higher is a career best, and will help him try to overtake Dixon in points to make it an Arrow McLaren 2-3 in the standings.
No one knows what Will Power’s future is, but it’s possible the news comes at Nashville. If this is his last run with the team, not only will a win be a great walk-off home run, but it will avenge the seatbelt fiasco that lost them the title in 2024.
Frontstretch Predictions
The season finale means one more shot at trying to screw up these predictions. Nashville seems to be a great place for guys who did well last year to repeat, but that didn’t necessarily prove true at Milwaukee.
Anyway, let’s go with Palou winning, taking number nine on the year, O’Ward second, and Rasmussen backing his inaugural win with his third podium of the year.
- Palau
- O’Ward
- Rasmussen
Coverage for the season finale, 225-lap Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway starts at 2 p.m. ET, Sunday (Aug. 31), on FOX.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.