Round 12 of the 2026 IndyCar season has been completed at the Nashville Superspeedway, view the full race report here.
Championship contender Kyle Kirkwood started on pole position, with Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin, points leader Alex Palou and Scott Dixon completing a quality top 5 on the grid.
Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas would be at the back of the grid. Both took nine-place grid drops because of engine changes that were beyond their 2026 allocations. The #12 also had a massive shunt in Practice 1. He went to hospital but was cleared and returned to the track after missing qualifying.
Finally, following a lengthy weather delay, the 12th race of the IndyCar season at the Nashville Superspeedway goes green.
After a near 24-hour delay because of rain and lightning on Sunday, the race got going at 15:05 ET on Monday afternoon. The distance was reduced from 300 laps to 225 because of the heat.
Green flag for the IndyCar Nashville race
Kirkwood held the lead off the line, while Palou jumped McLaughlin for 3rd. Scott Dixon had a terrible first few laps, falling to 10th. Louis Foster was the biggest mover early doors as he moved up from P19 to P14, including passing teammate O’Ward. Malukas cleared Lundgaard and Rahal to be P23.
Running in 6th, Marcus Armstrong started to struggle and was passed by Rasmussen, Ferrucci and VeeKay in short order.
At the end of the 15th tour, Kirkwood led Newgarden after they had gone side-by-side for multiple laps at the start. Palou, McLaughlin, Rossi, Rasmussen, Ferrucci, VeeKay, Armstrong and Dixon rounded out the rest of the top 10.
First caution of the day
Running in P17, Caio Collet lost the car in turn 4 and found the wall. The rear let go and hit the barrier at a nasty angle.
At the end of lap 23, almost everyone came in to pit. Scott McLaughlin had a mega stop, jumping from a net 4th to 1st. Kirkwood, Palou, Newgarden, Rossi, Dixon and Rasmussen followed. Foster, Malukas and Lundgaard opted not to pit, leaving them out front.
The race resumes
The green flag fell on lap 32. Foster and Lundgaard fell off a cliff, dropping quickly outside the top 10. However, David Malukas got to the front and held it on used tyres. McLaughlin, Kirkwood, Palou and Newgarden followed.
On the move was Rinus VeeKay. From P15 on the restart, the Dutch driver went on an overtaking show to fly up to 7th. Scott Dixon went the other way, dropping down to P17.
Once more, Armstrong started to struggle on tyres as VeeKay, Ferrucci, Ericsson and Rossi dropped him outside the top 10 by lap 47.
Mick Schumacher passed the Kiwi then for 11th, before moving inside the top 10 by overtaking Rossi.
At the end of lap 61, David Malukas boxed from the lead after getting stuck behind Graham Rahal, losing multiple seconds.
On lap 67, Josef Newgarden swept around the outside of Alex Palou to take 3rd spot. Just behind them, Christian Rasmussen had a big slide in turn 4 and lost a spot to VeeKay.
Getting a bit high out of turn 2, Newgarden had to lift as the tyre marbles almost sent him into the hedge. The #10 got through.
Once more, the #21 had a massive moment, this time in turn 3 and pushed his luck even further. He lost spots to Ferrucci and Ericsson.
Pit stop time
At the end of lap 79, Rinus VeeKay boxed and went back to blacks. Almost all the other main contenders at this stage followed. Malukas, McLaughlin, Kirkwood, VeeKay, Palou, Newgarden, Ferrucci, Ericsson, Rossi and Rasmussen was the top 10 after the second round of stops for everyone bar the #12.
Unfortunately for Marcus Armstrong, he was forced to pit thanks to engine issues once again.
Rasmussen and Rossi hit the wall
In turn 2, Christian Rasmussen finally ran out of look as he got in the marbles and found the wall. He limped back with a broken toe link.
A second caution appears
However, it got even worse for ECR. The caution appeared on lap 123 as Alex Rossi was in the wall. Scott Dixon limped back to the pits with a broken front wing and a broken right front suspension. A replay showed that the #20 slowed suddenly and the #9 had nowhere to go to avoid him.
Championship leader Alex Palou, who had dropped to 8th just before the caution as the top guys were battling through piles of traffic, got in before the pit road was closed.
That meant he assumed the lead once the other main contenders pitted. McLaughlin, Kirkwood, VeeKay, Ferrucci, Newgarden, Ericsson, Siegel, Schumacher and Rosenqvist was the top 10 following that pit cycle. David Malukas was down in P13 as he was a lap down before the yellows came.
Green again on lap 140
Josef Newgarden was hungry on the restart and shot past Ferrucci and VeeKay to take 4th. Out of turn 2 at the same time, Will Power found the wall as he got high.
Meanwhile, Malukas was quickly on the move as he got into P10 on lap 146, passing Mick Schumacher.
Rosenqvist also made progress as he overtook the German, Ericsson and Siegel to move up to 7th.
The #12 continued his charge, overtaking Siegel and Ericsson to climb to 8th. Meanwhile, his teammate Josef Newgarden cleared Kyle Kirkwood for P3 as the Andretti man started to drop away a bit on his softs.
Final round of stops begin
Rinus VeeKay started the sequence as he came in first. Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Kirkwood and Santino Ferrucci. However, it backfired for all of them as Dennis Hauger crashed out on lap 179.
Palou, Newgarden, Rosenqvist, Malukas, Ericsson, Schumacher, Simpson, O’Ward, Siegel and Robb got a free stop under yellows and was the top 10. Kirkwood (P11), McLaughlin (P12), VeeKay (P13) and Ferrucci (P14) found themselves well down.
Green flag
The race got going with 31 laps to go. Ericsson went for it immediately, passing Rosenqvist and Malukas. McLaughlin passed Kirkwood, Robb, Siegel, Simpson, Schumacher very quickly to move into 7th.
Malukas bravely got around the outside of the #28 at turn 2 to then take 3rd after passing Rosenqvist before that.
After dropping behind Schumacher with a moment at turn 4, the #3 got him again and then passed O’Ward for 6th. The Kiwi then got even braver and overtook Ericsson on the low line into turn 1, before passing Rosenqvist for P4 with 16 laps left.
Palou holds off the Penskes
Using the hard tyres, Alex Palou held off Josef Newgarden initially and then gently eased way by the end, winning by almost 0.9s. From last, David Malukas finished a superb 3rd.
McLaughlin, Rosenqvist, Ericsson, O’Ward, Schumacher, Simpson and Kirkwood completed the top 10 in an entertaining race.
