LEBANON, Tenn. — The battle for the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series Champion was pretty much over before it began.
Team Penske’s Will Power had his lap belts disconnected after 12 laps, and he had to pit on lap 13 to get the belts resecured. Power’s No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet for Team Penske went five laps down and that ended his battle for a third NTT IndyCar Series Championship.
Power entered the race 33 points behind Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, but after falling five laps down, there was no way he was going to overcome Palou’s advantage.
Colton Herta of Andretti Global went on to win the race, Palou finished 11th and won his third IndyCar Series title. He also became the first driver to win back-to-back IndyCar Series Championships since Dario Franchitti won three straight from 2009-2011.
“We just had to keep on going,” Palou said of his focus after he learned of Power’s troubles. “I have to thank everyone working on the 10 car. Super proud. It’s been an amazing year, and I’m happy we got the championship back home.”
By winning the race, Herta moved into second in the final standings, 31 behind Palou. McLaughlin was third, 39 points behind the champion and Power finished 24th, fourth in the championship 46 behind.
“I’m so happy,” Herta said. “We knew we were going to have a hot rod in the race. It’s been an amazing year. I just saw I finished second in the championship, which is awesome. Hoping to do a little bit better next year.”
At the drop of the green flag, it was side-by-side racing throughout the field as Newgarden pulled alongside polesitter Kyle Kirkwood in the opening laps.
On lap 10, Rinus VeeKay went three-wide with Marcus Armstrong and Linus Lundqvist as drivers were able to use multiple lines. But Power had dropped from fourth to eighth before he dove down pit road on lap 13 with lap belt failure, putting Power multiple laps down and pretty much eliminating him from serious championship contention.
Power dropped five laps down to those cars on the lead lap.
“On the lap belt, I’m like ‘man, that was weird.’ It felt kind of loose in the car,” Power recalled. “I came out of turn two and I’m feeling around, and I felt the end of the belt as it goes in.
“I thought ‘Man, my belt just fell off, we’re going to have to pit.’ It took five laps to… It could’ve happened a second time at the race. We learned how to do it quickly. If we’d known that … That’s a very abnormal thing.
“I just don’t know what went wrong. We’ll have to send it back to the manufacturer. Very strange failure. I do wonder if I hit the wall and if it did break, if I was going to have a real bad situation, but never had that before.
“Disappointing, but big congrats to Alex (Palou). Tough guy to beat. Ganassi did a great job this year. Been fun racing those guys this year. We dropped back to fourth (in the championship) because of this day, but man, if you don’t win it doesn’t matter. But happy with the season. The whole team won about half of the races. We did well. I want to win that championship, so I’ll come back fighting next year.”
“We did a great job (all season), winning the Indy 500, winning the most races of any team. Obviously, stoked to win three races this year. It’s a tough series. Very difficult to win. Have to thank Verizon and Chevy. Those guys have been fantastic. I only used four engines this year, so the reliability was great. We’ll come back fighting next year.”
Palou, who started 24th, was up to 12th on lap 30.
Palou pitted on lap 48 to get off the Firestone Red alternate tires and put on a set of Firestone Blacks.
Kirkwood, the leader, pitted on lap 54 and that put Newgarden into the lead.
Felix Rosenqvist crashed in Turn Two on lap 57 for the first caution of the race. Rosenqvist right front tire failed.
“The tire, it felt fine and all of a sudden, it felt weird, and I was just a passenger,” Rosenqvist said. “It was a super good race up to that.”
Pit lane opened on lap 60 with Newgarden, Herta and second-place driver David Malukas all pitting. Newgarden won the race off pit lane.
Palou was up to his qualifying position – 15th – as the field lined up for a restart on lap 68. He started 24th because of a nine-grid spot penalty from an unapproved engine change.
Newgarden led the field to the green flag as Herta went side-by-side with Malukas in a battle for second place.
Herta won the battle and charged after Newgarden for the lead.
Katherine Legge hit the Turn Four wall while running three laps down to the field. After hitting the wall, the No. 51 car slid into the grass for the second caution of the race.
The contenders pitted and Malukas was first off pit road this time.
Alexander Rossi was the leader when the green flag waved on lap 99.
Rossi was still the leader on lap 120 after the race was official. Newgarden was second followed by Herta, Malukas and Scott McLaughlin.
Rossi pitted on lap 126 and Newgarden was back in the lead with Herta second.
Marcus Ericsson crashed in the Turn Four wall on lap 136 after he went high into the turn on his Firestone Red tires. That was the third caution of the race.
Pit lane opened on lap 140 and Newgarden led the contenders into the pits.
Newgarden was first off pit lane, Malukas was second and Herta third.
Palou pitted on lap 144. He was 11th.
Pato O’Ward, racing on a different pit stop strategy, was the leader when the green flag waved on lap 147. Malukas was second, Herta third and Newgarden fourth.
Herta dove low under Malukas to take away second place on lap 152.
O’Ward pitted on lap 162 and could go the distance without another pit stop.
After Kirkwood took the lead, Team Penske’s McLaughlin and Newgarden were side-by-side, leaning on each other going into Turn Three and the two drivers nearly brushed up the track. McLaughlin and Newgarden were fighting for 10th and 11th.
With 17 laps to go, it was Kirkwood, Malukas, Palou and O’Ward. Palou had stayed four laps longer than the other drivers that pitted, but would still have to pit for fuel.
Kirkwood, the leader, pitted with 13 laps to go. It was a splash and go for fuel without changing fuel. That put Malukas in front followed by Palou.
By the time it all sorted out, Herta took the lead with four laps to go and went on to defeat O’Ward by 1.8106 seconds. Nashville’s Josef Newgarden was third followed by pole-sitter Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global.
Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was fifth followed by A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci.
Afterward, McLaughlin marched down to Ferrucci’s pit box to voice his displeasure over forcing McLaughlin onto the apron on the final lap. They were able to avert a crash, but McLaughlin was very demonstrative.
Despite the incident, McLaughlin was able to put a positive spin on the end of his season.
“I’m really happy,” McLaughlin said. “Team Chevy got us the goods all season. It was a pretty fun race to finish it off.
“We got the Biggest Mover Award so that’s always a good thing, but we had a heck of a race there. Finished third in the championship, so that’s a great thing two years in a row.”