NASHVILLE COULD DEFINE TIGHTEST INDYCAR SEASON IN HISTORY
By Timothy Neal
Date posted: August 5, 2022
Nashville’s Big Machine Music IndyCar event shapes as a potentially defining round, as team Penske’s Aussie Indy-star, Will Power, clings to the top with four round’s to come.
In one of the tightest championship seasons in IndyCar history, the slightly re-shaped Nashville street circuit is sure to offer up more passing opportunities with some of the faster corners being slowed down with some narrower modifications.
Will Power’s third place podium finish last weekend was enough to put him above Swedish racer Marcus Ericsson.
Ericsson has been atop the standings for six of this year’s 13 rounds, but fell into second following Power’s podium and a P11 finish for his #8 Chip Ganassi racer.
“I mean, it’s impossible to predict the outcome, it’s still pretty close right now. It feels like the battle is always going to go down to the last race; I expect to be having a fight at Laguna,” said Power.
“we’ll see how it plays out, it’s impossible to predict in this series,”
The top five drivers are separated by just 46 points heading into Nashville, with Ericsson only 9 points off Power, and multi-time series champions Josef Newgarden and Kiwi Scott Dixon lurking 32 and 38 points behind, respectively.
In a season that has seen a raft of individual pole getters and only two drivers with multiple victories, the ex kiwi Supercars star Scott McLaughlin is the only driver to achieve a victory from pole this year, and along with Newgarden is the only multiple winner.
In last week’s Indianapolis race, victor Alexander Rossi became the seventh driver to win from P2 on the starting grid, making pole position in this madhouse season somewhat of a curse.
The race will be broadcast on Stan Sport with the start time scheduled for 5:15am on the Monday for Australian viewers.
