Alex Palou has spent 2026 making the rest of IndyCar look ordinary, and Nashville was no different. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver won Monday's rain-delayed Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, stretching his championship lead to 63 points and moving to within touching distance of a fourth consecutive title.
It was Palou's fifth win of the season and the 24th of his career, delivered on a track that had never been kind to him. The race was pushed to Monday by rain, then cut from 300 laps to 225 as officials tried to spare drivers and tyres in 90-degree heat on the 1.33-mile oval. Palou, who qualified fourth, came through for his third career oval victory — and, he pointed out, his first ever win on a Monday.
"Saturday I was not that comfortable with the car," Palou said. "But Julian and everybody on the 10 car prepared a really good car today."
The win came the hard way. Josef Newgarden, still racing with a fractured foot, hounded Palou for the entire final stint, and the Spaniard admitted he never felt safe.
"Was a close battle there with Newgarden. Just seemed like [he] had so much speed, man," Palou said. "I was flat-out for the last 30-35 laps. He was right there, man. I really couldn't do anything."
Newgarden, who finished second a year after beating Palou to win the same race, was in no mood to dwell on it. "We just needed more laps," he said, before shrugging off the defeat with a curt "It is what it is."
The drive of the day arguably belonged to David Malukas. The Team Penske driver started dead last after a nine-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change, and had spent Saturday in a local hospital after a heavy practice crash that knocked the steering wheel clean off his car. He recovered to lead 59 laps and finish third.
"That was the hardest race of my life. Tried hard. [It was] so hot," Malukas said. "That's going to be one to remember."
His podium lifted him to second in the standings, past the fading pack behind Palou. But the champion's cushion is now 63 points with the summer stretch looming. The victory was also Chip Ganassi Racing's 150th in IndyCar, a milestone the team met with a mix of relief and dark humour.
"I want to thank the race car today for not crashing, because Alex tried to crash the car," team manager Barry Wanser joked. "Fortunately, the car didn't want to crash today. As always, superior drive. We got lucky on the yellow."
The timing gave the weekend an extra layer for Palou, whose win landed a day after Spain won the FIFA World Cup. "That's a pretty cool weekend for Spain," he said. "Incredible to get the win."
A fifth title in six seasons — and a fourth in a row — now looks closer to a formality than a question. The only real intrigue left, as Autosport put it, is whether anybody on the grid can mount a late challenge before the champagne is back on ice. On current form, that seems unlikely.
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