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LEBANON — Josef Newgarden and 24 other gentlemen, at long last, finally started their engines at 2:01 p.m. CT on July 20 to officially begin the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
An IndyCar race start that was delayed 21½ hours thanks to thunderstorms that swallowed the area the night before ended 1 hour, 56 minutes later with points leader Alex Palou crossing the finish line first, a sneeze ahead of defending race champion Newgarden.
The Hendersonville native's teammate, David Malukas, was third.
"It's racing," a visibly frustrated Newgarden said. "Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn't. " . . . So we'll take second and move on to the next one."
Weather or not, Newgarden and his fellow drivers were happy to have some sunshine in lieu of a sky full of angry clouds.
But it didn't take long for some of the field to feel the agony of the heat.
"It's insanely hot out here," Newgarden told his No. 2 crew 20-some laps into a race that originally was supposed to be 300 laps, but was shortened to 225 because of the heat.
INDYCAR RACE RESULTS: Who won IndyCar Nashville race? Winner is Alex Palou, plus full results
The temperature on the track at the start of the race was 118 degrees.
None of that did any good for Newgarden, who still is wearing a walking boot and getting around on crutches after suffering a left foot injury during a wreck at the Indy 500 on May 24.
"David is driving injured, and Josef as well," Palou said. "So that doesn't help . . . I cannot imagine driving injured like they did."
But it didn't seem to affect Palou. Or Newgarden's sense of humor.
"He's Spanish," Newgarden said. "He probably doesn't sweat as much."
"I'm tired," Palou said. "I can feel the heat."
Newgarden remained mum about his injured foot. He also kept most of his answers to postrace questions brief.
At least three times he uttered variations of "It is what it is" in his response.
One of those was directed at his inability to catch Palou after the final caution flag.
"It is what it is," he said. "I got blocked a couple times. We lost track position a couple times."
Another was aimed at the decision to shave 75 laps off the race.
"I don't think it matters," he said. "I think 300 would have been fine. We could have done 500 today. I wasn't really worried about it."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Runner-up Josef Newgarden set to 'move on' after Nashville IndyCar race
Continue reading...
An IndyCar race start that was delayed 21½ hours thanks to thunderstorms that swallowed the area the night before ended 1 hour, 56 minutes later with points leader Alex Palou crossing the finish line first, a sneeze ahead of defending race champion Newgarden.
The Hendersonville native's teammate, David Malukas, was third.
"It's racing," a visibly frustrated Newgarden said. "Sometimes it goes your way, and sometimes it doesn't. " . . . So we'll take second and move on to the next one."
Weather or not, Newgarden and his fellow drivers were happy to have some sunshine in lieu of a sky full of angry clouds.
But it didn't take long for some of the field to feel the agony of the heat.
"It's insanely hot out here," Newgarden told his No. 2 crew 20-some laps into a race that originally was supposed to be 300 laps, but was shortened to 225 because of the heat.
INDYCAR RACE RESULTS: Who won IndyCar Nashville race? Winner is Alex Palou, plus full results
Newgarden keeping his foot on the gas
The temperature on the track at the start of the race was 118 degrees.
None of that did any good for Newgarden, who still is wearing a walking boot and getting around on crutches after suffering a left foot injury during a wreck at the Indy 500 on May 24.
"David is driving injured, and Josef as well," Palou said. "So that doesn't help . . . I cannot imagine driving injured like they did."
But it didn't seem to affect Palou. Or Newgarden's sense of humor.
"He's Spanish," Newgarden said. "He probably doesn't sweat as much."
"I'm tired," Palou said. "I can feel the heat."
'It is what it is'
Newgarden remained mum about his injured foot. He also kept most of his answers to postrace questions brief.
At least three times he uttered variations of "It is what it is" in his response.
One of those was directed at his inability to catch Palou after the final caution flag.
"It is what it is," he said. "I got blocked a couple times. We lost track position a couple times."
Another was aimed at the decision to shave 75 laps off the race.
"I don't think it matters," he said. "I think 300 would have been fine. We could have done 500 today. I wasn't really worried about it."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Runner-up Josef Newgarden set to 'move on' after Nashville IndyCar race
Continue reading...
