Source: James Black/Penske Entertainment / other
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Over the last two seasons the season finale for the NTT IndyCar Series has been at Laguna Seca, but the series is looking for more of a mainstay when it comes to its season finale and they may have found it on the streets of Nashville.
On Thursday the series announced that the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will serve as the final race on the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series calendar.
“The fact that INDYCAR has chosen Nashville and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix as the crowning event is a testament to our fans, partners, stakeholders, and truly the Nashville hospitality industry as a whole,” said Matt Crews, CEO, Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. “The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix continues to grow to levels that I never dreamed could have been possible.”
The Music City Grand Prix is still only a couple of years old. It was first run back in 2021 on a unique street course that features the first time ever a bridge has been used in a competitive street race in the world. The race course incorporated parts of the parking lot around Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans, as well as a small portion of downtown Nashville.
As part of the plan to make the race the finale, the series is also changing up what the race course will look like. The circuit appears to be a little simpler and easier for drivers to navigate, by this reporter’s eye, compared to the previous layout.
It still features the Korean Veterans Blvd bridge but will see five corners in downtown Nashville including a portion on historic Broadway Ave. It also features a unique pit lane stationed at the end of a hairpin in the Nissan Stadium parking lot.
Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles said he was hounded by race organizers to make the race the finale from the very beginning.
“The leadership of the ownership group was bugging me that the race should be the finale,” he said. “I kind of dismissed them at first, but they came up with a plan that just blew us away. It’s a plan that will take IndyCar to a whole nother level.”
The series is in Nashville this weekend for this season’s iteration of the Music City Grand Prix.