Alex Palou catches lucky caution to win at Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. — Whatever crystal ball race strategist Barry Wanser possesses, he brought Alex Palou down pit lane at the right time.

By three-tenths of a second, the driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda entered pit lane just as teammate Scott Dixon rammed into the back of Alexander Rossi and brought out a caution on Lap 121. Palou avoided a penalty by three-tenths of a second. While everybody else pitted, he stayed out to take the race lead. Aside from a few green flag pit cycles, he didn’t surrender the lead again and drove onto victory in the day-late Music City Grand Prix.

“Incredible honestly,” Palou said. “Just, yeah, I’m so happy. I knew we had the great car. It’s one of those tracks that we’ve been struggling in the past. I know last year we were second, but we kind of got very lucky with a yellow there.

“Today it helped us. I’m not going to say that the yellow didn’t help us. We were already P3, P2. We were right there. The 10 car, I was struggling a little bit at the beginning, but at the end I was so comfortable, especially once we got into the lead.

“I was a bit nervous to get into traffic because I know that’s when Josef kind of shines. He’s been the best the last seasons. I was like, Please, Alex, you need to do it.

“I was committed. I wanted to try and give my best. Yeah, I’m just so happy that everything worked.”

It’s his 24th career win in 110 NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts, fifth of the 2026 season and first at Nashville Superspeedway. This also gave Ganassi its 150th win in the series.

Hometown star, Josef Newgarden, brought his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet home to a runner-up finish.

“Yeah, it was an all right day, OK day,” Newgarden said. “We had a good, fast car. Chevy did a great job. We’ll take second and move on.”

After a practice crash and missing qualifying, Saturday, David Malukas drove from the back of the field and led 59 laps, on his way to rounding out the podium.

“Yeah, that was, wow,” Malukas said. “Man, this whole week, what an incredible weekend. This is definitely not going to be one I’m going to forget for a very long time. Just super, super happy. Obviously exhausted. But just so happy.

“That was the best race that I think I’ve ever performed in. I was trying so hard with everything going on. Just kept asking for one more. My body kept giving it to me till the end.”

Scott McLaughlin and Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top-five.

Marcus Ericsson, Pato O’Ward, Mick Schumacher, Kyffin Simpson and Kyle Kirkwood round out the top-10.

Alex Palou catches lucky caution to win at Nashville

Race summary

The lap count started at 3:04 p.m. ET, but it started under caution after an aborted start. The race went green on Lap 2. By Lap 4, Newgarden pulled to the outside of Kirkwood and the two raced side-by-side for a lap and a half. Newgarden backed off momentarily, then pulled outside, again, for half a lap. By Lap 7, Kirkwood pulled away slightly. Caution flew on Lap 19, when Caio Collet got loose and pounded the wall in Turn 4. Louis Foster, along with Malukas and Christian Lundgaard, stayed out while everybody else pitted to take over the race lead. Dennis Hauger received a drive-through penalty for improper pit entry. He used the deceleration lane in Turn 3, instead of entering pit road directly off Turn 4.

Back to green on Lap 32, Malukas overtook Foster on the high side into Turn 1 for the lead on Lap 33. By Lap 49, Malukas pulled to a 3.7 second lead over Scott McLaughlin. After he caught the back end of the field and stuck behind Graham Rahal, however, the gap shrank to 1.2 seconds on Lap 59. By Lap 61, Malukas pitted from the lead, and McLaughlin cycled to the front of the field. Rinus VeeKay kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 79. McLaughlin pitted from the lead on Lap 82, and took another set of soft tires. Kirkwood pit from the lead on Lap 83. Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 85. Rosenqvist pitted from the lead on Lap 86. Will Power pitted from the lead on Lap 88 and Malukas cycled back to the front.

Malukas pitted from the lead on Lap 119. On Lap 121, Alexander Rossi slowed down to enter pit road in Turn 3. Scott Dixon plowed into the back of him. Which brought out a caution. Palou, who entered pit lane just as the caution flew, stayed out to take over the race lead.

Back to green on Lap 140, the field settled into a green flag run. VeeKay kicked off a cycle of green flag stops on Lap 177. Caution flew with 45 laps to go, when Hauger got loose and hit the wall in Turn 2, then spun on pit entry in Turn 3.

Back to green with 31 laps to go, Palou came under threat from Newgarden. The gap hovered between 0.3 and 0.4 seconds. With 12 to go, Newgarden closed into within 0.25 seconds. With seven to go, however, Palou pulled to a 0.75 second lead. With five to go, it reached 0.9 seconds. He caught Foster and the gap shrank to under half a second, with four to go. With three to go, however, Palou cleared Foster and drove away to victory.

Alex Palou catches lucky caution to win at Nashville

What else happened

On Lap 116, Christian Rasmussen got loose in Turn 1, drifted up the track and side-swiped the wall in Turn 2.