2022 R14: Big Machine Music City Grand Prix of Crashville

[MonteCristo]

This weekend.

Simona De Silvestro is back at Paretta Autosport/Ed Carpenter Racing for the final time this year.

Also, track changes are plenty:

To reduce the likelihood of the traffic jams and multi-car crashes that caused mayhem during restarts at the inaugural event, restarts have been moved from the stretch between Turns 11 and 1 – in front of Nissan Stadium – to the long straight exiting the Korean Veterans Bridge that feeds into Turn 9 which served as the zone where the 2021 race was started.

Elsewhere on the track, the large bump that sent cars airborne in Turn 5 has been repaved. The exceptionally wide section entering Turn 9 has been narrowed to 50 feet in order to add more hospitality suites, and at the formerly narrow Turn 11, the corner has been widened by six feet at the apex.

Finally, significant effort has been made to soften the transitions on and off of the Korean Veterans Bridge to reduce the hard bottoming and sideways moments encountered by the IndyCar field.

https://racer.com/2022/08/02/changes-ma ... nashville/

Hopefully it all comes together, because it could otherwise be a fantastic track if they fix the A1GP/FE/Whacky Racers elements.

[Everso Biggyballies]

IndyCar announces Castroneves 6 place grid penalty

The Honda-powered #06 Meyer Shank Racing entry has been pinged for an early engine change, thus the sanction.

“IndyCar officials have announced a six-position starting grid penalty for the No. 06 Meyer Shank Racing entry for an unapproved engine change following Saturday’s race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course,” read IndyCar’s statement.

“The team was in violation of:

“Rule 16.2.3.2 A fifth (5th) Engine is eligible to earn Engine Manufacturer points if a Full Season Entrant has completed the Full Season Entrant Engine Mileage with its first four (4) Engines. Otherwise, a fifth (5th) or more Engine does not earn Engine Manufacturer points and will be considered an Unapproved Engine change-out.

“According to Rule 16.6.1.2, the penalty is a six-position starting grid penalty on road and street course events and nine positions at oval events and will be served at the series’ next event, which is the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Sunday, Aug. 7 on the streets of Nashville.”

[MonteCristo]

Practice 1 times:

Rank Car Driver Name C/E/T Time Speed Diff Gap Best Lap Total Laps
1 30 Lundgaard, Christian (R) D/H/F 01:15.9659 99.518 --.---- --.---- 25 29
2 7 Rosenqvist, Felix D/C/F 01:16.2050 99.206 0.2391 0.2391 15 22
3 18 Malukas, David (R) D/H/F 01:16.2366 99.165 0.2707 0.0316 22 25
4 3 McLaughlin, Scott D/C/F 01:16.5755 98.726 0.6096 0.3389 20 23
5 2 Newgarden, Josef D/C/F 01:16.6957 98.571 0.7298 0.1202 24 27
6 27 Rossi, Alexander D/H/F 01:16.7041 98.561 0.7382 0.0084 12 16
7 12 Power, Will D/C/F 01:16.8330 98.395 0.8671 0.1289 22 26
8 26 Herta, Colton D/H/F 01:16.8435 98.382 0.8776 0.0105 17 20
9 10 Palou, Alex D/H/F 01:16.8505 98.373 0.8846 0.0070 17 24
10 28 Grosjean, Romain D/H/F 01:16.9479 98.248 0.9820 0.0974 25 28
11 8 Ericsson, Marcus D/H/F 01:16.9763 98.212 1.0104 0.0284 20 25
12 60 Pagenaud, Simon D/H/F 01:17.0123 98.166 1.0464 0.0360 21 23
13 77 Ilott, Callum (R) D/C/F 01:17.1922 97.937 1.2263 0.1799 28 31
14 5 O'Ward, Pato D/C/F 01:17.3180 97.778 1.3521 0.1258 10 25
15 51 Sato, Takuma D/H/F 01:17.4097 97.662 1.4438 0.0917 23 26
16 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F 01:17.4430 97.620 1.4771 0.0333 12 21
17 14 Kirkwood, Kyle (R) D/C/F 01:17.5373 97.501 1.5714 0.0943 20 21
18 29 DeFrancesco, Devlin (R) D/H/F 01:17.5815 97.446 1.6156 0.0442 25 29
19 45 Harvey, Jack D/H/F 01:17.6736 97.330 1.7077 0.0921 20 23
20 15 Rahal, Graham D/H/F 01:17.7000 97.297 1.7341 0.0264 12 22
21 20 Daly, Conor D/C/F 01:17.7633 97.218 1.7974 0.0633 24 27
22 21 VeeKay, Rinus D/C/F 01:17.8434 97.118 1.8775 0.0801 22 28
23 06 Castroneves, Helio D/H/F 01:18.1575 96.728 2.1916 0.3141 19 21
24 48 Johnson, Jimmie D/H/F 01:18.7645 95.982 2.7986 0.6070 22 25
25 16 De Silvestro, Simona D/C/F 01:18.9245 95.788 2.9586 0.1600 24 28
26 4 Kellett, Dalton D/C/F 01:19.3271 95.302 3.3612 0.4026 22 24

Report: https://racer.com/2022/08/05/lundegaard ... nashville/

Nice by Malukas! And obviously by Lundgaard too.

[John]

Is the expected rain for Sunday gone? I sure hope so.

Lundgaard is easily the ROTY this year, he's outperformed them all and by a handsome margin. I hope he sticks around for another year (or more) and his Alpine connections doesn't bring him back to Europe.

[Everso Biggyballies]

I see they are running the new all singing all dancing sustainable rubber this weekend as the option tyre....

The Firestone Firehawk guayule race tire will make its on-track debut this weekend at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville, another milestone in the efforts of Firestone and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to promote sustainability......

What is guayule you might ask....
Guayule is a drought-resistant, heat-tolerant woody desert shrub native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Natural rubber can be extracted from the branches, bark and roots of the shrub.
Now you know.

It allegedly maintains the same quality and performance as the existing race tyre. I guess we will find out over the weekend.

More here....:
All NTT INDYCAR SERIES teams will use the guayule (WHY-U-LEE) tire as the alternate tire this weekend at Nashville.

[Cheeveer]

It is raining and the track is wet.

*might* just wet dry out until Indycar qualifying

[John]

Since P2 times haven't been posted yet.

[MonteCristo]

Top six qualifying:

Scotty Mac, Grosjean, Lundgaard, O'Ward, Newgarden

[Everso Biggyballies]

Top six qualifying:

Scotty Mac, Grosjean, Lundgaard, O'Ward, Newgarden

And again, with six names.

Scotty Mac, Grosjean, Lundgaard, Palou, O'Ward, Newgarden


An 90 minute delay for rain started it off.
It seems Power looked to be through in sixth but was stripped of his fastest lap for running long at T4 causing a local yellow which affected another driver.

O’Ward, who was in the following car, inherited the final spot in the Fast Six while Powerdropped to eighth, behind Malukas


Edit.
Full Results: Qualifying

Pos Num Driver C/E/T Qual time Session
1 3 Scott McLaughlin D/C/F 1:14.5555 Round 3 / Fast Six
2 28 Romain Grosjean D/H/F 1:14.6975 Round 3 / Fast Six
3 30 Christian Lundgaard D/H/F 1:14.7149 Round 3 / Fast Six
4 10 Alex Palou D/H/F 1:14.9087 Round 3 / Fast Six
5 5 Pato O’Ward D/C/F 1:14.9261 Round 3 / Fast Six
6 2 Josef Newgarden D/C/F 1:15.1461 Round 3 / Fast Six
7 18 David Malukas D/H/F 1:14.9616 Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
8 12 Will Power D/C/F 1:14.9818 Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
9 15 Graham Rahal D/H/F 1:15.3112 Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
10 21 Rinus VeeKay D/C/F 1:15.3897 Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
11 45 Jack Harvey D/H/F 1:15.9758 Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
12 4 Dalton Kellett D/C/F 1:16.5600 Elimination Round 2 / Top 12
13 60 Simon Pagenaud D/H/F 1:19.4039 Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
14 9 Scott Dixon D/H/F 1:15.3179 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
15 7 Felix Rosenqvist D/C/F 1:21.1784 Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
16 14 Kyle Kirkwood D/C/F 1:15.4382 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
17 27 Alexander Rossi D/H/F 1:21.4579 Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
18 8 Marcus Ericsson D/H/F 1:15.4501 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
19 77 Callum Ilott D/C/F 1:57.6982 Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
20 51 Takuma Sato D/H/F 1:15.5935 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
21 16 Simona De Silvestro D/C/F No Time Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
22 20 Conor Daly D/C/F 1:16.3955 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
23 26 Colton Herta D/H/F No Time Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
24 06 Helio Castroneves D/H/F 1:16.5898 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2
25 29 Devlin DeFrancesco D/H/F No Time Elimination Round 1 / Group 1
26 48 Jimmie Johnson D/H/F 1:17.5888 Elimination Round 1 / Group 2

[MonteCristo]

Malukas has been quietly impressing for a few races now. Really wasn't expecting anything from him, and while he's not a world-beater he's solidly fitting in.

My man Kirkwood has been pretty trash to be honest. But it's incredibly hard to disentangle his results from that Foyt ride.

[John]

Indycar needs to switch over to three groups for next year. This is just chaos.

[John]

Race postponed. Thunderstorms. Ugh.

[DoubleFart]

Why? Is it a helicopter thing?

[Vassago]

No, it's the federal weather law they passed in 2021. It's basically to protect the crowds from lightning strikes but all sporting activity is halted during it anyway.

[John]

Well this sucks ass