Time To Celebrate Champ, Top Rookie, Breakout Stars at Nashville

NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing will receive the Astor Challenge Cup following Sunday’s Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot at Nashville Superspeedway, one of many honors forthcoming at the season’s final event.

Either Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster or PREMA Racing’s Robert Shwartzman will be honored as the series’ Rookie of the Year as one of the tightest battles in series history is settled.

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Also, Andretti Global’s Dennis Hauger will be formally crowned as the INDY NXT by Firestone champion.

This weekend’s on-track activity begins with a full day of Saturday action. The first practice is at 10:30 a.m. ET on FS1 followed by qualifying for the NTT P1 Award at 2 p.m. and the final practice on FS2.

Sunday, the final race of the INDY NXT by Firestone season, the 65-lap Music City Grand Prix, will roll off at 11:30 a.m. ET on FS1. Later, on FOX, the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix will be presented at 2 p.m., with FOX One, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network also providing coverage.

A look at additional items of note as the season comes to a close:

The Tight Rookie of the Year Battle

This rookie battle is certainly one to watch, and it could finish as the closest margin since 2019 when Felix Rosenqvist edged Colton Herta by five points.

Foster (No. 45 Desnuda Tequila Honda) enters the final race eight points ahead of Shwartzman (No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet). In this scoring system, that’s not much.

Both rookies have won a pole this season. Shwartzman was the surprising NTT P1 Award winner for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, and he could become the first “500” Rookie of the Year since Teo Fabi in 1983 to also win the series’ Rookie of the Year Award. Foster was the top qualifier at Road America.

Shwartzman’s best finish of the season is ninth in Race 2 at Iowa Speedway; Foster (photo, above) twice earned his best race result – 11th – on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and at Road America.

Foster has finished ahead of Shwartzman in nine of the 16 races, and last weekend’s race at the Milwaukee Mile was the second time they have finished next to each other. Foster was 17th, Shwartzman 18th.

Rasmussen Strong on Ovals

Yes, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen (photo, above) won last weekend’s Milwaukee race thanks to a late-race opportunity to pit for new tires, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise he capitalized on them. The driver of the No. 21 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet has excelled on oval tracks throughout his first full season in the series.

In the five oval races, Rasmussen has an average finish of 4.8, and the 168 points he has earned in those races ranks him third behind Palou (211) and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (198). Those two drivers will finish the season 1-2 in the standings.

Rasmussen has 34 more oval points than six-time series champion Scott Dixon, the Chip Ganassi Racing driver who is third in the overall standings, and more than 100 points than three former “500” winners: ECR teammate Alexander Rossi (76 points), Team Penske’s Will Power (67) and Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson (61). Rasmussen has 63 more oval points than two-time Indy winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske.

Coincidentally, it was last year in Milwaukee that ECR owner/driver Ed Carpenter decided to step out of the No. 20 car in favor of Rasmussen, who up until then had only driven the entry on road courses and street circuits (he drove the team’s third car at Indy). Rasmussen delivered finishes of 11th and 16th in the Milwaukee doubleheader and hasn’t looked back.

One more Rasmussen nugget: He is the third former INDY NXT by Firestone season champion since 2018 to have won an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race. The others are O’Ward (nine wins) and Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood (five).

Several Drivers Eye First Series Win

Rasmussen became the series’ first new winner since Christian Lundgaard triumphed in 2023 in Toronto. Earlier that season in Long Beach, Kirkwood scored his first series win.

Rasmussen’s Milwaukee victory means that there are 15 drivers in this 27-car field who have won series races. Among the 12 who have not are Marcus Armstrong of Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian, who is tied for sixth place in the standings.

Other non-winners with a strong chance to break through this weekend in Nashville are AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas (No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet) and Santino Ferrucci (No. 14 Phoenix Investors Chevrolet), and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly (No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet). Malukas is a two-time race runner-up, including this year’s “500.” Ferrucci (photo, above, front) finished second in this year’s street race in Detroit while Daly finished third in Race 1 last year in Milwaukee. At Nashville last year, Ferrucci was the highest-finishing of the non-winners in sixth place.

Rasmussen became the 299th driver in history to win a series race. Who will become No. 300?

Competitive Balance Again on Display

Rasmussen’s victory in Milwaukee illustrated the competitive balance of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, which should again be on display in Nashville.

Ed Carpenter Racing became the sixth team in the past two-plus seasons to win a race. The other teams to have reached victory lane in that period are Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske, Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Three other teams have second-place finishes this season. AJ Racing has two (Malukas at Indy, Ferrucci in Detroit). Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian finished second at Road America with Rosenqvist while Dale Coyne Racing finished second in Toronto with Rinus VeeKay.

Last year at Nashville, drivers finishing on the podium represented three different teams, and there were six teams with drivers finishing in the top 10.

Newgarden Looks To Extend Streak

Newgarden (photo, above) earned his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory in 2015 at Barber Motorsports Park, and he has been winning races almost ever since.

The driver of the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet stands third among active drivers with 31 career races wins, which has him tied with Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves for 10th place on the sport’s all-time list. But Newgarden does not have a win this season, which is noteworthy.

Newgarden has won at least one race in 10 consecutive seasons, and in nine of those years he has won multiple races. In 2022, he won five. On four occasions, he won four. He has averaged 3.1 race victories per season.

Newgarden’s 2025 drought is part of Team Penske’s difficult season. The team’s only race win this year came two races ago when Power won at Portland International Raceway. In the 25 seasons since the team’s winless 1999 campaign, Roger Penske’s group has won 145 races, an average of 5.8 per season. The only year when only one Team Penske driver won a race was 2011, when Power won six.

“Presented by Tennessee Sounds Perfect”