One day after his native Spain won the FIFA World Cup, Alex Palou’s path to another championship cup – the Astor Challenge Cup – became considerably shorter after his victory Monday in the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls, the latest round in the NTT IndyCar Series held at Nashville Superspeedway.
Reigning and four-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Palou took an 83-point lead – a gap of well more than a race’s worth of points – over David Malukas in the series standings with his fifth victory of the season and 24th career victory in this race that was delayed a day by rain. There are just six races remaining this season as Palou attempts to earn a record-tying fourth consecutive Astor Challenge Cup as season champion and fifth overall title.
Palou, who started fourth, led the last 95 laps of the 225-lap race to beat the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet of reigning Nashville winner and recent series oval master Josef Newgarden by .8731 of a second. Malukas drove from 25th on the starting grid to finish third in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.
Scott McLaughlin put three Team Penske drivers in the top four in the No. 2 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet, while 2026 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda.
Palou used a mix of speed and good fortune to climb to the lead shortly past the halfway point of the race. He wasn’t happy with the handling of his car during his first two fuel stints, but adjustments during his pit stops on Lap 123 and Lap 185 turned his yellow car into a rocket.
He also got some good fortune before the stop on Lap 123. Palou had just entered the pits three-tenths of a second before they closed when the second of three caution flags in the race unfurled for a collision between six-time series champion Scott Dixon in the No. 9 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and 2016 Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi in the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet.
Other members of the lead pack at the time, including Newgarden, McLaughlin, pole sitter Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda of Andretti Global and Rinus VeeKay in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, did not pit before the caution and were forced to wait until the pits opened.
Palou cycled to the lead on Lap 131 when those drivers made their stops and never trailed thereafter. But this was far from a stroll to the checkered flag in the remaining laps on the 1.33-mile concrete oval.
On their final stops ranging between 40 and 47 laps to go, Newgarden, Rosenqvist and Malukas each took the softer, grippier but less-durable Firestone Firehawk alternate tires for the dash to the checkered flag. Palou and strategist Barry Wanser bucked that trend and chose Firestone’s primary Firehawk tire.
That figured to play a role in the final restart on Lap 194 after rookie Dennis Hauger made contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 3 on Lap 181 to trigger the final caution. Palou appeared vulnerable on the harder primary tires compared to his pursuers on the grip-laden, softer alternate tires.
But Palou masterfully made minute adjustments to his racing line to keep Newgarden, Rosenqvist and Malukas at bay, maintaining a gap of two- to six-tenths of a second from Newgarden in the next 15 laps.
Then Palou’s more durable primary tires kept their speed as he navigated lapped traffic in the last five laps, and he eased away to the victory, the third of his career on an oval.
Malukas was one of the stars of the show in sunny, steamy conditions, with air temperatures reaching the low 90s and track temperatures approaching 140 degrees. He climbed from 25th to the lead by Lap 33, using an alternate pit strategy, and led McLaughlin by nearly two seconds when he was caught out by pitting just before the caution involving Dixon and Rossi.
That dropped Malukas – who spent time Saturday afternoon in an area hospital after a hard crash in practice – to 14th on the restart on Lap 139. But he threaded his way back into contention and was up to fourth by Lap 194.
The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland on Sunday, Aug. 9 at Portland International Raceway. It’s the first of six races on five consecutive weekends in a feverish sprint to finish the 2026 season and settle the title race.
Comments