Hometown Hero Newgarden Wins IndyCar Nashville Finale After O’Ward Wrecks
Josef Newgarden left it late to find a silver lining to his disappointing 2025 season.
The Team Penske driver entered the finale at Nashville facing his first winless season in a decade, but survived a race that wasn’t kind to the leaders to win his hometown event for the first time.
Previously crowned 2025 IndyCar Champion Alex Palou fell back in the pack early when a cut right front tire forced him to pit early, but he managed to stay on the lead lap as pole-sitter Pato O’Ward looked like he was cruising to an easy win.
That was until lap 127 of the 225-lap race, when O’Ward lost the same tire, but ended up in the wall and out of the race.
Will Power, who’s future at Team Penske and IndyCar is unknown, soon took over and looked like he was heading to a storybook finish to the season, and possibly his career, when he slid through his pit stop and ended up with a long stop and a lap down.
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Newgarden soon took control of the race and made his final stop on lap, but came out to find Alex Palou and his Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin in front of him.
McLaughlin made an amazing move into the marbles on the outside of Palou to claim the lead on lap 199 and Newgarden followed him into second. McLaughlin then nearly lost it by himself on lap 204 and kept the car from crashing, but lost the lead to Newgarden as the yellow flag came out.
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Newgarden took the green flag with 15 laps to go and Palou behind him, but was able to hold on for the win as McLaughlin came home in third. Newgarden climbed through the catch fence to celebrate with his fans in the stands after the race.
“I’m just glad we got one without anything going wrong,” Newgarden said during his post-race interview on Fox. He’d seen several races get away from him this year with one issue or another, including the Indy 500 when a fuel pressure issue ended what looked like it was turning into a run for a third consecutive win.
“It’s rewarding, it’s rewarding for our team. They’ve done a great job. Obviously Will [Power] won in Portla, which was a great lift for everybody and he really deserved it, and I think he could’ve won this race today, it was a shame to see what happened to him.”