The Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix was postponed from Sunday night to Monday afternoon, and the reason wasn’t complicated. Rain won.
The 12th race of the IndyCar season was already facing a significant delay before the rains came. Sunday’s green flag was tied to the finish of the FIFA World Cup Final, with Fox broadcasting both events and Spain and Argentina requiring 30 minutes extra time before Spain prevailed, 1-0. That plus the postgame ceremonies pushed the scheduled 5:35 p.m. ET start back past 6 p.m.
Then storms rolled through Nashville Superspeedway, crews fired up the track dryers, and for a stretch it looked like IndyCar might still salvage a night race under the lights. It didn’t last. A second, heavier system dropped in and soaked the 1.33-mile oval all over again.
“The dry track has been utterly sodden in a sudden and almighty deluge,” a Fox broadcaster said, as quoted by the News Tribune. Officials postponed the race rather than gamble on an oval known for offering drivers zero margin once the pavement turns slick.
Race Length and Forecast for Today’s Restart
Monday’s green flag is set for 3:05 p.m. ET, and the race itself looks different than the one originally on the schedule. IndyCar shortened the distance from 300 laps to 225, citing forecast record heat and a heat index expected to climb past 100 degrees. That trims the Grand Prix back to the same 225-lap, 299-mile distance the track ran during last year’s season finale.
The forecast itself calls for a high near 87 degrees with humidity thick enough to make it feel considerably hotter, and thunderstorms remain possible into the afternoon, according to AccuWeather’s local outlook. On an oval where cars run without grooved rain tires, that combination of heat and lingering storm risk is exactly why organizers chose to trim laps rather than risk a second washout.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood starts from the pole, hunting to shrink the 55-point championship gap separating him from four-time reigning series champion Alex Palou, according to Motorsport.com.
Josef Newgarden, the defending Nashville winner, lines up alongside him on the front row, with Scott McLaughlin third, Palou fourth and Scott Dixon fifth. David Malukas, who was taken to a hospital after a heavy practice crash Saturday morning, returned to the track later that day and topped the evening session before qualifying wrapped.
Palou, for one, found a silver lining in the delay. The Spaniard watched his home country capture the World Cup during the rain hold and called it simply incredible, according to Motorsport.com. Not every driver gets a bonus trophy presentation out of a rainout.
The Last Time IndyCar Postponed a Race
The last IndyCar race postponed by rain came in 2018 at Barber Motorsports Park, and this postponement marks the series’ first oval washout in roughly a decade, according to Beyond the Flag. IndyCar’s rulebook gives race officials broad discretion to delay or shorten events for safety, and on a high-speed oval, that discretion outweighs any broadcast window.
Whether the delay cost IndyCar meaningful eyeballs by not running directly behind the World Cup remains unclear. No viewership data has surfaced confirming a hit, and Fox is still carrying the rescheduled broadcast in full alongside INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM.
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