Scott McLaughlin has finished as the lead Kiwi in Nashville, after a rain delay postponed the race from Monday NZST to Tuesday NZST. It was a trickier race for Armstrong and Dixon, both encountering issues that sent them out of contention after a very solid qualifying.
Off the start, McLaughlin sat in fourth, while Armstrong sat in sixth, with Dixon falling back to tenth. Newgarden and Kirkwood started to trade the lead, with Palou quietly lurking behind the leaders.
Kirkwood started to pull away out front, leading by almost a second by lap nineteen. This lead was soon cut as Caio Collett found the wall, leading to the first full course caution of the race.
Many of the drivers chose to head into the lane during the yellow, including the Kiwis. On the restart, McLaughlin maintained third, while Armstrong and Dixon sat in tenth and twelfth. Dixon soon started to fall back, and sat in fifteenth soon after the green flag came out on lap thirty-four. Armstrong was also able to move past Alexander Rossi to take eighth.
Out front, McLaughlin was able to get past Louis Foster, who did not pit for tyres. This left him in second, behind teammate David Malukas, who also remained on older tyres.
By lap fourty-five, McLaughlin remained in second place, trailing Malukas by two and a half seconds. Armstrong had also fallen back to twelfth and now sat behind rookie Mick Schumacher. The tricky initial restart got worse for Dixon as he moved down to seventeenth, behind INDY500 winner Felix Rosenqvist.
Malukas eventually came into the lane on lap sixty-two, releasing McLaughlin into the lead. The Kiwi sat almost eight-tenths ahead of Kirkwood, while Palou sat in third. McLaughlin was the only Kiwi in the top ten, as Armstrong remained three seconds behind Rossi in eleventh, while Dixon sat in a close fifteenth.
McLaughlin hit the lane for another set of soft tyres on lap eighty-three. It became clear it would be a race between Malukas and McLaughlin to see who would be in front when the Kiwi cycled out of the lane, and Malukas came out ahead. As other drivers headed into the lane, Malukas started to lead over the #3 of McLaughlin.
The race ran through a significant green period, with Malukas still leading over McLaughlin by lap 102. Armstrong and Dixon both remained outside the top 10, with Dixon reporting dissatisfaction with the car’s balance.
Once Malukas came into the lane, McLaughlin once again inherited the lead. He held a comfortable three-second lead over Kirkwood, but that was soon cut short as Rossi found the wall after a collision with Dixon. This forced the Kiwi into the lane to change his front wing, adding another element to an already tough race for him.
Rossi’s collision brought out another full-course caution, with the race resuming on lap 147. Palou was able to take the lead off the restart, moving McLaughlin down to second. During this period, Armstrong also retired from the race, with no word from the commentary about what may have happened.
After Dixon’s incident with Rossi, this left the Kiwi seven laps down on the field – however, he was still circulating.
Out front, Palou kept a comfortable lead over McLaughlin, now the last Kiwi in contention. Kirkwood sat almost eight-tenths behind McLaughlin, with Newgarden in a comfortable fourth.
The race ran green until lap 180, when a full-course caution came out just after McLaughlin came in for a pit stop, disrupting his strategy and sending him down the order and leaving him a lap down.
Dennis Hauger brought out the caution after finding himself facing the wrong way on the infield. This also left Kirkwood out of order, leaving both McLaughlin and Kirkwood with a battle with thirty to go.
A great restart from McLaughlin left him immediately up five spots, and now left him in seventh. The Kiwi was able to start chipping his way through the order, moving up to fifth with twenty to go.
Palou still led by mere tenths over Newgarden, with Malukas sitting in third after starting twenty-fifth due to not participating in qualifying because of his crash.
McLaughlin soon moved past Rosenqvist to take fourth, making it a Team Penske 2-3-4.
However, Palou proved too fast out front as he took his fifth win of the season – ahead of Newgarden, Malukas, and McLaughlin.
Dixon was classified in eighteenth place, with Armstrong further down in twenty-fourth place.
INDYCAR action will return on August 9th, with the Grand Prix of Portland.
