By Luis Torres, Staff Writer
The NTT IndyCar Series heads back to the vibrant streets of Nashville for the second annual Big Machine Music City Grand Prix.
Entering this weekend, weather is a huge concern with threatening skies all weekend. Already, the tension is there at a circuit that’ll be different from last year.
Among those changes being the restart zone not being a start/finish, but driving on the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge. The same spot where the green flag waved for the start of the 80-lap contest.
The circuit will also see a wider Turn 11 to allow for a better sight from the drivers. Due to having additional suites in Turn 9, the width was reduced to 50 feet.
Finally, the bumps in Turn 5 will no longer be an issue as the area was resurfaced along with the transition areas to and from the bridge. All done in anticipation that the racing product improves following a rough go last year where a series of crashes overshadowed the grand prix.
Nashville will also be the site of the first INDYCAR race that Firestone will have a new alternate tire during a race weekend. Sustainability is the word as Firestone’s tire is plant-based guayule.
An experiment Felix Rosenqvist is keen about, especially after competitors used this tire during the Pit Stop Competition during this year’s Carb Day at Indianapolis.
“I think it’s important for INDYCAR, for us drivers and teams and Firestone to show that we do our part in being sustainable. Obviously we’ll try this tire in Nashville,” said Rosenqvist. “It’s a little bit of an experiment, obviously. I’m pretty confident that Firestone has put something together.
“We actually tried them in the pit stop competition during the Indy 500. We only went like 100 feet in a straight line, but they seemed pretty grippy. They seemed very sticky when you touched them.
“Hopefully it’s going to be like a one-lap qualifying thing where you just go out of the pits slow and then hammer down one lap and then come into the pit. I think that’s pretty cool when you have that kind of qualifying. We’ll see how it goes.”
Outside of the race weekend, there were two major news coming out of INDYCAR.
First, Rinus VeeKay and Ed Carpenter Racing have come into terms of signing an extension deal. Thus, one notable driver is off the free agent market as VeeKay is looking forward of continuing to grow as a driver and provide more successful runs in the No. 21…
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