IndyCar Makes Surprise Change To Nashville Finale, Moving It From Street Circuit To Oval And Fans Are Pumped

The NTT IndyCar Series has announced that they're calling an audible for the final race of the 2024 season.

While the finale will still take place in Nashville on September 15 as previously planned, it will not be held on a street circuit. Instead, the race that could potentially decide the outcome of the season will take place on an oval.

The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix was set to take place on a new circuit layout that used parts of Downtown Nashville including Broadway and the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge.

This layout was going to be different from the one previously used since the race's inception in 2021, which was centered around Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans.

Speaking of which, it was the construction of a new stadium for the Titans that was one of the big reasons a street circuit was scrapped for this season.

"With construction set to begin for the new Titans Stadium, the Grand Prix operations team knew they’d be faced with new challenges, knowing that the course used for the first three years would have to change dramatically for 2024’s race," Big Machine Label Group Chairman and Founder Scott Borchetta said in a statement.

That big change is IndyCar heading back to the Nashville Superspeedway.

Nashville Superspeedway currently hosts a NASCAR Cup Series race but will add an IndyCar race to its calendar in September.  (Photo by Jason Smith/Getty Images for NASCAR)

IndyCar Will Add Another This Season To The Delight Of Fans

IndyCar raced at the track from 2001 to 2008, and oddly enough, the last person to win a race there was Scott Dixon who is still part of the grid in 2024.

While the new street circuit was going to be interesting, a common complaint among Indy fans in recent years has been the decrease in the number of ovals on the schedule. 

So the addition of an old favorite in place of another road or street circuit had fans buzzing.

This could be a big change if the championship isn't worked out before the finale. Some of the series' oval aces — guys like Joseph Newgarden — will be particularly pleased about this news.

Good on IndyCar for recognizing the issues with the original plan and adapting instead of trying to force things. There were already a lot of critics of the former Music City Grand Prix circuit layout, so trying to make the new layout happen with the myriad of potential issues, could have been a bad look.

It's no problem now, I suppose.

The IndyCar season gets underway next month with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 10.