Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Preview: What Is IndyCar?

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IndyCar drivers and teams are on break for the next four weeks leading up to the Aug. 8 inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in the heart of Downtown Nashville. Fans will experience something Nashville has never seen before with a street-course running through downtown, over the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge, and around Nissan Stadium.

For those not familiar with IndyCar, they may not know what to expect from this Grand Prix. The Indy 500 is one of the most popular sporting events in the world, going so far as to be labeled “the greatest spectacular in racing.” Still, IndyCar can be overseen and many times gets confused with Formula 1, which is the most popular motorsports in the world. Unlike NASCAR which is the most popular motorsport in America and has some of the most passionate fans in all of sports, IndyCar has seen a decline in the past years due to internal disputes and an eventual split before returning to the NTT IndyCar Series that we know now.

The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will be very different than most dirt track and NASCAR fans will expect. With that in mind, let’s refresh our memories of what IndyCar is and how it’s different than Formula 1 and other motorsports.

IndyCar has one of the longest and richest histories of any motorsport or professional sport in America. Some of the greatest drivers in history have come to America to race in IndyCar and the Indy 500. Originally raced in 1911, the Indy 500 has continued to be one of the biggest sporting events in the world featuring drivers like Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, A.J. Foyt, and Helio Castroneves. The Indy 500 race a 500 mile, 200 lap race on an oval track similar to the tracks mostly raced on in NASCAR. However, IndyCar races on a multitude of different tracks, including ovals, road courses, and street courses like the 2.17 mile one set for Nashville.

This type of racing will be nothing new to the average IndyCar fan, but it will be a magnificent sight for those NASCAR fans and others. IndyCars are some of the fastest racing cars in the world and being able to watch them race past Nissan Stadium will be an unreal experience for fans all around. The Grand Prix will be the first of the final six races of the season. IndyCar runs 16-17 races per year as opposed to NASCAR’s 30 plus races. IndyCar features 33 drivers and 13 teams, some of whom race solely in road courses and others solely ovals.

IndyCars are open-wheel, singled-seat, open cockpit race cars that feature a 2.2-liter, twin turbocharged, direct-injected V-6 engine optimized to run at 12,000 RPM with an estimated 500-700 horsepower depending on the turbocharger boost setting. The consumer-relevant engines, which are supplied by Chevrolet and Honda, utilize Speedway E85R fuel. At super speedways like Indianapolis, these IndyCars can reach 240 mph and tend to adopt more down stop, meaning that they are faster around corners compared to other race cars. Additionally, IndyCars are one of the most environmentally friendly cars and were the first motorsport to embrace ethanol, which burns cleaner and results in less pollution released into the environment.

The Big Machine Music City Grand Prix will feature some of the biggest names in IndyCar like Castroneves who recently won his fourth Indy 500 this season; six-time IndyCar Champion Scott Dixon; four-time Indy 500 winner, Nashville local, and two-time IndyCar Champion Josef Newgarden; and French driver Romain Grosjean who came from Formula 1 and was featured in the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

For fans interested in what an IndyCar street course looks like, they can check out some of the highlights below from this season’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg which is held in the business district of downtown St. Petersburg.

Steven Boero
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