IndyCar drivers mixed on season-finale switch from sleepy Laguna Seca to energetic Nashville
When Alex Palou learned of IndyCar’s potential shakeup of its season-finale for 2024 – the now impending switch from the sponsor executive paradise of Laguna Seca to the loud, energetic city streets of Nashville – the championship leader frowned. His brow furled, and his nose scrunched up.
“Ehhhh,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver winced.
By no means was Palou’s trepidation about the change − which IndyStar first reported last week − a consistent reaction throughout the paddock. But Palou gave some significant thought before responding.
“As of now, I would have to say I don’t like it,” said the driver who leads Josef Newgarden by 80 points with five races remaining in the 2023 title race. “I just think it’s tough to put a season-finale that’s normally the biggest race outside the Indianapolis 500 at a place where the race can go so many different ways. I wouldn’t like that.
“I understand you want atmosphere, and it’s true, it’s not like you go (to Laguna Seca) and feel, ‘Oh my gosh, look at what’s going on here!’ But I’d prefer a quiet season-finale to a boom! I want a place you can win by 30 seconds and go home.”
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Vastly different IndyCar venues
The two events – Laguna Seca’s three races since its long-awaited return in 2019, and Nashville’s two since its 2021 debut – couldn’t be more different. With the exception of Palou last year (who started 11th), Colton Herta has won the other recent Laguna Seca races from pole. The eventual winners of those three races have led more than 86% of their 280 laps, and they’ve combined for just eight total caution laps with one incident per race.
(Yes, the past offseason’s repave could change those metrics for next month’s visit, but the swap was made before series officials could see how it might race.)
Nashville, on the other hand? Its winners have started 18th (Marcus Ericsson in 2021) and 14th (Scott Dixon in 2022) – both after weathering penalties for taking emergency services in a closed pit, forcing them to the back of the field for a restart. For good measure, Ericsson briefly went airborne during his eventful victory two years ago.
The two races combined for 17 caution periods, with more than 43% of those races running under caution conditions. In 2021, four of the top-6 finishers started outside the top-12, and three of the top-5 a year ago started 14th or worse.
Notably, next year’s course will look significantly different, though the high-speed back-and-forth over the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge is expected to remain, with similarly tight, slow-speed sections on either side. And for that reason, it’ll undoubtedly be tough for some drivers, fans and paddock members to shake the race weekend’s rather unflattering moniker: Crash-ville.
“To have a championship on that track could be really good – or really bad,” Ericsson told IndyStar at Iowa. “Last year, I was leading the championship (note: Ericsson was actually trailing by 9 points) and trying to look after my car in the mayhem, and I was running in the top-5 with 10 laps to go, and someone hit me from behind on a restart.
“My gear-selector broke, and I lost (potentially) 25 points, and that’s suddenly a big swing in my championship. But I do like the idea of having a race like Nashville as the finale. The whole atmosphere around it is great. Laguna is a beautiful track, but you always feel coming to Laguna for the finale that it’s not the energy you want.”
Leaving 'sleepy' Laguna Seca for a younger crowd
Compared to thousands of fans who make their way out to the fog-filled expanses of Laguna Seca to see drivers tear through its famous Corkscrew, Nashville’s street party for its future IndyCar finales very well might have revelers standing inside and on top of honky tonks, drink in hand as the speakers blast and the cars roar by. Not to mention the concert lineup the latter has had in its infancy (including Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Flo Rida and Gavin DeGraw).
Standout, memorable, engaging off-track fan entertainment has never been part of the core of the Laguna Seca experience. To drivers and fans, it’s the track peppered with everyone’s largest mobile hospitality units that house teams’ high-rollers and largest backers by day before they’re wined and dined at night.
“You’ve got to finish the championship at a place that has energy, and right now, we’ve not been doing that,” said six-time champion Scott Dixon. “(Laguna Seca) is very sleepy. Nashville’s a lot of fun and has a lot of energy − both on TV and in person.
“I think (Long Beach) was one of the best season-finales we’ve had in some time. At street courses, there’s so many unknowns about how it could play out. You’ve got shifting strategies, kinda like a big superspeedway or how Texas might finish. Right now, we’re just missing that.”
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Graham Rahal agreed.
“I haven’t seen the proposed new layout of Nashville, but I’ve heard its awesome, and I think that’s just what this event has been missing: a really good layout,” Rahal said. “Frankly, for us to finish in the Midwest, that’s probably where we should be. That’s where the core of IndyCar racing is. And to have a great party with all our sponsors there within the big scene of Nashville, that’s such a great spot.”
Perhaps the driver most excited among the more than half-dozen IndyStar spoke to at Iowa? The man whose recent title hopes were notably smashed just one lap into the 2021 finale at Long Beach by the type of aggressive, nose-to-tail contact you might expect out of a street circuit.
Even more, Pato O’Ward, IndyCar’s self-made marketing savant, loves the idea of Nashville for the promise it could offer down the road.
“Can you imagine a night race there?! Man, I would be game for that. That would be sick,” O’Ward said. “It’s such a wonderful crowd there. Laguna is much more the ‘rich man’s paradise.’ In Nashville, you’ve got a much younger crowd. It’s definitely different atmospheres. Both are amazing, but if that’s going to be the season-finale? That’s cool with me.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Drivers mixed about season-finale switch to Nashville
