Indycar took a gamble, Did It pay off?

Short answer: No

Indycar in Nashville changed many things this weekend multiple times for each, culminating in a final result that was only mild compared to last spectacles at the Nashville super speedway.

For starters, and the biggest one at that, was the choice to slot the race right after the World Cup final in order to bring more eyes than ever to the sport at one of their best racing venues. It did not work out in their favor as after the World cup wrapped up, Tv coverage in Nashville brought us to a rain delay, that looked like it would soon pass. It did not pass, and after 3 hours of waiting, Indycar decided to postpone the race to Monday.

Their second gamble, once monday came, was to shorten the race after they originally lengthened it for the intended Sunday running. This was because Monday recorded high levels of heat and UV index, leading to a safety risk if the race run the longer length.

This proved to be misfortunate for Indycar, as the longer intended running would have thrown a real spanner into the race, where all the top 4-5 were bumper to bumper throughout the final stint, and they could have brought that even further and potentially a different winner than we had.

The tyres were also gambled on this weekend with mandates for drivers to use alternates alongside the primaries during the race, which led to overtaking issues.

In the final stint, there were issues with overtaking, which is why Palou was able to keep his lead when the three Penskes were on his tail and clearly had better pace.

Image credits: Motorsport.com

On the theme of gambling, Penske gambled on Malukas after a strange crash in Saturday practice that almost led to Conor Daly qualifying and racing the car. After Malukas was cleared to race, he showed he had the best pace of every car out there and it would've been interesting to see what would have happened if he didn't crash, I, personally, think he would've won very comfortably but that's just an If because he did crash and he didn't win, but it seems every race that he is getting closer and closer to that first win.

We were robbed of a thrilling race that could've been great if everything possible didn't go wrong. In an era where higher ups are pushing for Nashville to go bacl to downtown, this race needs everything to go right to prove that it deserves its spot on the calendar. Indycar gambled, and it didn't pay off, and could be the detriment to this track and its tenure in Indycar.