Josef Newgarden’s hometown motorsports playground is another name for Nashville Superspeedway.

Newgarden (photo, top) heads to this weekend’s Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls as the defending event champion and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ latest overall oval master. The native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, has won 19 of the past 48 oval races, winning at a staggering rate of 38 percent on such tracks during his nine-plus seasons with Team Penske.

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No other driver in this 25-car field has those type of numbers, although Scott Dixon was once the king of this 1.33-mile oval, winning races in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Newgarden and Dixon lead the group of drivers to watch this weekend. Newgarden’s last 11 series victories have come on ovals (his last non-oval win came four years ago at Road America). Dixon is in a three-year oval drought, but 25 of his 59 career victories have come on tracks like this. That’s an average of one oval win per season – for 25 years!

Coincidentally, Newgarden and Dixon are the only current drivers to have won series races at Nashville Superspeedway. Colton Herta won in the series’ return in 2024. Marcus Ericsson and Kyle Kirkwood won Nashville street races in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Dixon won the downtown event in 2022.

There are a few new variables to this event, most significantly a 25 percent increase in race distance. Last year, drivers went 225 laps. Sunday, they’re scheduled to go 300 laps, which will require a strategy rethink given there will be at least one additional pit stop. The 400-mile event will be the series’ second-longest race of the season behind the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward has led nearly 32 percent of Nashville’s laps the past two years – 137 of 431 -- but he hasn’t been to Victory Lane. However, he finished second in 2024 and led 116 laps last year before a cut right front tire ended his race. He also is the series’ most recent race winner, capturing The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2027 Civic CR-V Hybrid on July 5, and he trails only Palou in points scored since Indy.

Sunday’s green flag is estimated at 5:30 p.m. ET, but that’s fluid pending the length of the FIFA World Cup final that precedes the race on FOX. A pre-race show will air live on FS1 at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Palou Still in Strong Position Atop Standings

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou enters the weekend with a 56-point lead over Andretti Global’s Kirkwood. Palou’s advantage over Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard is 65 points, and his margin over Team Penske’s David Malukas is 66 points. The only other driver within 100 points of the four-time series champion is O’Ward, who is 94 points in arrears.

Assuming all drivers compete in the event, the most one driver can gain on another in a single race is 49 points, so Palou is guaranteed to have the lead heading to the BITNILE.com Grand Prix of Portland presented by AskROI on Aug. 9. That will be the first of six races to decide the Astor Challenge Cup.

Nashville Superspeedway is one of the few tracks where Palou has raced but has not won. Last year he finished second to Newgarden.

Dennis Hauger

Hauger Pacing Competitive Rookie Field; Collet Closing

The other point totals centers on the Rookie of the Year Award. Dale Coyne Racing’s Dennis Hauger holds a 16-point lead on AJ Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet, and the competition between the top two drivers from last year’s INDY NXT by Firestone season has been worth the watch.

Hauger (photo, above) had the stronger first half of the season, qualifying third and finishing 10th in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and scoring a season-best eighth-place finish in the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. But Collet has had better results lately, including an 11th-place finish at Mid-Ohio.

Interestingly, the other rookie in this field has fared the best on the three oval tracks this season. Mick Schumacher has an average finish of 17.3 while qualifying fourth for the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway. However, this will be the first oval track where he has not tested.

Malukas Strong in Oval Qualifying, Seeks First Win

It stands to reason that Malukas is due to win an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race.

Remember, Malukas won seven of the 20 races in INDY NXT by Firestone in 2021. Kirkwood won 10. Malukas drives for Team Penske in the INDYCAR SERIES, which has won a record 248 of these circle-track races.

Malukas has been at his best on oval tracks over the past calendar year, starting on the front row for all three races this season and the past two races of 2025. He just hasn’t won yet – average finish of 9.2 with a runner-up finish in this year’s “500.”

Malukas won his only INDYCAR SERIES pole this year at Phoenix, finishing third. He started third at Indy and second at World Wide Technology Raceway. He started second in last year’s final two oval races (at the Milwaukee Mile and Nashville Superspeedway).

Scott Dixon

Dixon Aims To End Difficult Five-Race Stretch

Dixon could use a pick-me-up, and this track comes at a perfect time for it.

The six-time series champion with three Nashville oval victories is riding one of the lowest stretches of his career, with five consecutive races without a top-10 finish. The only other time he had such a drought was in 2005 while driving with Toyota power. Coincidentally, Dixon ended that stretch with a sixth-place finish at Nashville.

Dixon earned the second of his three Nashville oval victories from the pole, in 2007 (photo, above).

Dixon’s most recent top-10 finish was in the Sonsio Grand Prix at IMS. He finished sixth.

Compact Weekend Schedule

This will be one of the few two-day events of the season, with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT by Firestone fitting a whole lot of track time into the Saturday-Sunday lineup.

Saturday is a particularly busy day (all times Eastern):

10 a.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice, FS1

11:30 a.m.: INDY NXT by Firestone practice, FS1

3 p.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying, FOX

4:30 p.m.: INDY NXT by Firestone qualifying, FS2

6 p.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice, FS2

Both series will stage races Sunday:

1 p.m.: INDY NXT by Firestone’s Music City Grand Prix, FS1

5:30 p.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls, FOX

All of the action will air live on INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls and FOX One.