LEBANON, Tenn. — Much like he did after winning the Indianapolis 500, Josef Newgarden hopped out of his car and celebrated with the race fans at his home track. After a nightmare season, he erased the goose egg on the 2025 season.
The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet took the lead, thanks to misfortune for his teammate, Scott McLaughlin, with just over 20 laps to go and held off series champion Alex Palou in the closing laps to win the Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
“Very special,” Newgarden said. “Never a bad time to show up and have a good day. I think the team really performed like you expect from Team Penske. I think we’ve had the same core that Team Penske’s always had throughout this whole year in a lot of ways. You saw it again today, just the men and women across the board.
“Really didn’t matter which car. There was a point midway through the race, I came on the radio, Look at Will, looked amazing, incredible. He could have won the race today. I think Scott could have won the race.
“That’s the cool thing about Team Penske. You walk into that building, it really doesn’t matter which car you’re looking at, I would be privileged to step in any one of them. I think they give you a shot to win the race.
“It’s cool to be part of this team. We’ve got great leadership and depth across the board. I think that’s what carried us through this weekend to bring in this result.”
It’s his 32nd career victory in 215 NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts and first of the 2025 season.
After cutting a tire early in the race and making an unscheduled stop, Palou rallied back to finish runner-up. McLaughlin hit the wall while leading with 22 laps to go, but out-dueled Kyffin Simpson in the final 11 laps to round out the podium.
“Amazing. Amazing season,” Palou said. “Amazing five seasons with the team. This season has been truly, truly special. Just felt like since day one the amazing work that everybody at CGR and Honda had done over the off-season was incredible, like starting the season winning in St. Pete, then Thermal, then I cannot remember. I remember it was a really good start. Then getting the Indy 500. Eight wins, then the championship.
“It’s been incredible. It’s been super, super fun. Yeah, I’m just lucky enough to drive that No. 10 car.”
“I had an absolute blast, man,” McLaughlin said. “That was so much fun. Restarts were intense. Yeah, it did string out a little bit, as it always does, mid to late stint. I think the exchanges and the restarts were phenomenal.
“Yeah, obviously bittersweet for me. Third is great. I’m glad I sort of held on to that at the end. I felt like I could have held off Josef there. He was controlling his lane. I just turned a little late, got caught. Nearly saved it. Once you’re sort of out there, it’s hard to get it back.
“Thankful I was able to straighten the wheel just before I hit the fence. The car was straight. I was able to push on, yeah.
“Very good end to our season. Great team win. But I’m pissed off at myself.”
Simpson and Conor Daly rounded out the top-five.
Kyle Kirkwood, Felix Rosenqvist, Santino Ferrucci, Callum Ilott and Alexander Rossi rounded out the top-10.
Josef Newgarden erases season goose egg at Nashville
Race summary
Pato O’Ward led the field to green at 2:44 p.m. ET. Caution flew on the first lap when Christian Rasmussen broke loose in Turn 2 and rear-ended the outside wall.
Back to green on Lap 9, Palou pulled to the outside of O’Ward. For the next six laps, they ran side-by-side for the entire length of the track. By Lap 17, Palou backed off for a lap, then pulled back alongside the following lap. Afterwards, he backed off to roughly three-tenths of a second behind O’Ward. Eventually, the field settled into a green flag rhythm. Palou made an unscheduled stop on Lap 52 for a flat tire. As luck would have it, it fell at the start of a cycle of green flag stops. O’Ward pitted from the lead on Lap 57. Scott Dixon pit from the lead on Lap 59. Will Power pit from the lead on Lap 60. Marcus Armstrong pit from the lead on Lap 61. Rinus VeeKay pit from the lead on Lap 63 and O’Ward cycled back to the lead.
Caution flew on Lap 83 when Louis Foster, running a lap down, turned second-place David Malukas in Turn 1 and put him in the outside wall. He was awake and alert, but taken by helicopter to a nearby trauma center for further testing. Foster was handed a drive-through penalty for blocking.
Back to green on Lap 101, caution flew on Lap 127 when race leader O’Ward suffered a right-front tire failure and slammed the wall in Turn 2. While race leader Power (who overshot his pit box) and the rest of the field pitted under the caution, Rossi stayed out to take the race lead.
Back to green on Lap 141, Newgarden went low into Turn 3 to take the lead from Rossi on Lap 147. Palou kicked off the final cycle of green flag stops with 44 laps to go. Newgarden pit from the lead with 41 laps to go. McLaughlin pit from the lead with 38 to go. Daly pit from the lead with 35 to go. Colton Herta pit from the lead with 34 to go and Palou cycled to the lead with 33 to go.
He didn’t hold the lead for long, however, as McLaughlin powered by him on the outside in Turn 2 to retake the lead with 26 to go. Newgarden took second from Palou with 25 to go. With 22 to go, McLaughlin veered up the track, got loose and hit the wall in Turn 2. Newgarden overtook him for the lead before caution flew.
Back to green with 11 to go, Newgarden held off Palou in the closing laps to win the race.
Josef Newgarden erases season goose egg at Nashville
What else happened
Conor Daly made a power move on the outside line on Lap 142 to take fifth from Palou.
Josef Newgarden erases season goose egg at Nashville
Nuts and bolts
The race lasted one hour, 54 minutes and 50 seconds, at an average speed of 156.342 mph. There were 20 lead changes among 12 different drivers and four cautions for 46 laps.
That concludes the 2025 NTT INDYCAR Series season. It returns to action on March 1, 2026, on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
