(Photo Credit: @CGRTeams)
In the closest finish in IndyCar Series history on a street course, Scott Dixon survives a final charge from Scott McLaughlin to pick up his 53rd win in series history and his second win this season at the Nashville Grand Prix.
Now one thing that we must talk about before we get to the biggest two stories coming out of this race was Colton Herta. Herta did make contact in turn seven on lap three forcing him to change his front wing and go a lap down. He made a very good rebound and finished inside the top five. Much like last week when Alexander Rossi's car was impounded after the Indy GP, Herta's car is undergoing the same fate as of writing. If any punishment comes down from IndyCar in the coming days, stay tuned to my Twitter account, @TheCollinBest for more information.
Our first of the two big stories from Nashville is the incident between Josef Newgarden and Romain Grosjean on lap 76. Going into turn eleven coming off a restart, Newgarden went to the inside of Grosjean to make a move inside the top five of the race. From the video evidence, it looked liked Newgarden ran wide and pushed Grosjean into the wall. Obviously Grosjean was visibly upset as he waited for Newgarden on the following caution laps and showed his displeasure. But when Newgarden was asked about it after the race, he blamed the product of street course racing and said what he did was fair.
As the season is rapidly winding down, our second biggest story coming out of the race is the championship battle that is nearing an exciting conclusion. Only 33 points separate five drivers as only have three races left in the 2022 season. For Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist, their results today have effectively eliminated from championship contention as it has become a mathematical impossibility to win the championship. For McLaughlin and Pato O'Ward, they do need a lot of help to get back into the hunt but it might come to a close following Gateway. For the top five, the next two races will have huge implications as it seems the title will come between Power and Dixon.
With three races left:
Will Power - 450
Scott Dixon: - 6
Marcus Ericsson: - 12
Josef Newgarden: - 22
Alex Palou: -33
For IndyCar, the series takes a week off as they prepare for the final oval race of the season at Gateway Motorsports Park on Saturday, August 20th. You can catch the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at 6:00 P.M. EST on the USA Network.
For more IndyCar news and opinion, you can listen to Early Apex tomorrow. I had a tech issue that prevented me from recording last week.