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CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway tri-oval Lebanon, Tennessee Sunday Race ReportJuly 19, 2026 LEBANON, Tennessee (July 19) – A pair of ill-timed cautions in the middle of pit cycles ended victory chances for Team Chevy at the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix. Still, a trio of fast Team Penske drivers recovered to finish in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions.
Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet started and finished second, his third oval podium of the season, third straight podium at the Nashville Superspeedway, and 20th short-oval podium with Chevrolet power. 
After missing qualifying, David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet started shotgun on the field, driving forward and leading 59 laps on the way to a third-place finish, for a series-best oval finishing average of 3.8. Malukas recovered from a scary crash on Saturday morning and heads into the final stretch of the season in second place in the championship. 
Scott McLaughlin rounded out the great results for Team Penske and Team Chevy, leading 32 laps, finishing fourth and improving his season-long impressive run on ovals with four straight top-eight finishes. 
Pato O’Ward finished in seventh place, making up five positions, enough to hold onto fifth place in the championship.
Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix race resultsWhat They’re Saying – Race – Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix 
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet finished 2nd:“It was a good day. Just track position day. Good job by the Astemo crew, Team Chevy. It’s just what we had today, so we’ll finish second and go to the next one.”
David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 3rd:“Oh my goodness, that was a team effort. I’ve never driven so hard in my life. I feel like I needed to a proper recovery after that incident I made on myself. This team, Verizon, Team Chevy, anybody on board. Big thank you to John my physio guy. Any time I’m not in the car, he’s massaging me, making all my muscles start working after they cramped. Big thank you to John, to Sam, the local hospital here in Lebanon. Everybody worked so hard. The AMR Safety Team. It’s so cool to see when you have all these people work on a collective project, you could see it come to fruition and it’s going to happen. What a result, we needed that for the championship. We’re still there, it was a good recovery.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet finished 4th:“Overall, a pretty good day. We went for the race win there in the pit sequence and we went back to 12th. Managed to come back through. Chevy power was great. We managed to get back to 4th, but I ran out of tire by the time I got to the leaders. I thought we had the car to beat today. I thought we had the car to beat today. We didn’t win, but it’s coming.” 
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 7th:“That’s the first race on a Monday for me. Ended up in seventh, we’re lacking a lot of what we used to have here on these ovals. I don’t know what it is. Just gotta keep chipping away at it. I worked hard for the seventh today, really hard. It was a hot race, and I’m excited for these two weeks off that we have. It’s going to be a tough stretch of five weeks in a row, six races. On to Portland.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 11th:“Solid day for us in the 6 car. We ran up in the top 10 for the majority of the race and then just had a bit of a weak last restart there on the last sequence under yellow. We’re running where we deserve to be running in the top 10 with good cars. If we keep doing that every weekend, at some point it’s going to fall our way, and we’re going to have a really solid result. Nothing to complain about, nothing to brag about today. We’ll keep soldiering on.”
Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet finished 12th:“Another oval, I think another weekend with great potential. I think we were great there all weekend. We were fighting for Top 3, in podium position. At the end of the race we were there, fighting for position, we belonged out there this race, and unfortunately on the last yellow, right after we pitted the yellow came out. And we had to pit because of the tire looking very scary, so we had to be conservative there, and pit on the early side and unfortunately the time where we pit early is when the yellow comes out. We cycled back to 14th and finished 12th in the end so definitely did not finish where we deserved but I think that we showed our potential again today. We’ve got another oval with 2 races coming up in Milwaukee. We were very fast there during the test so excited for that, but before that a road course and 2 street courses so there will be a bit of a switch of focus. Really good job by the team all weekend. Pace has been great and we are showing podium pace every weekend for the last few, so looking forward to the next one and hopefully our luck will turn.” 
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet finished 13th“Honestly the guys did a great job; the Homes For Our Troops Chevy was good, especially early. I think late with the heat and the rubber down, I think we started to pick up a little entrance instability to a little push exit but nothing we really couldn’t cope with. We just got really unfortunate with a badly-timed yellow Again. I don’t know what it’s going to take for us to turn this luck around. It’s a damn shame missing out on another top-five this year due to something that’s not our fault.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet finished 15th:“Decent day. I think that the car this weekend was definitely in the window, it’s just that the field is so tight, so moving forward in the pack is tough. Really good call on strategy, the team did a good job on the pit stand. We just didn’t have it on the last restart, think we missed the front wing, and that was enough to make it too much understeer on the reds for us. Really stinks that we weren’t able to maximize the day, but think that we had a top 10 run and just couldn’t finish the day where we wanted to. Learnt a lot this weekend though, I think the Milwaukee test did a lot for us, so I’m excited to go back there and have a double header there. I think it will be a good strong race for the two cars that we have and then finish out the year strong.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 16th:
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet finished 22nd: 

Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 23rd:“I was just coming in and I guess he (Dixon) misjudged it or didn’t know I was pitting. Blindsided me in the attenuator and that was it.”
Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet finished 25th:“I’m all good. Big thanks once again for INDYCAR medical for their attention and everything. Since the beginning I was a little bit loose and was a stupid mistake on my side. I should have just waited until the first round of stops to make an adjustment. I tried to correct what I had in the car. I should have been more patient and waited for the first round of stops. It’s a really long race and I just threw mine away.”Up-next
The longest break of the summer for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES comes to an end when the Team Chevy drivers and teams go west to Portland, Oregon and the OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland on August 9, 2026. The race on the 1.964-mile, 12-Turn Portland International Raceway road course airs at 4pm (ET) on FOX and begins a stretch of six races in five weekends to close out the 2026 season. 
Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet) finished 2nd at the 2026 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix after starting 2nd. 
NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceMonday, July 20, 2026Josef NewgardenPress Conference
THE MODERATOR: Josef Newgarden, best finish since the win at St. Louis. Third podium of the season, third podium at Nashville Superspeedway.
Josef, a long weekend. Your thoughts on your day today.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was an all right day, okay day. We had a good, fast car. Chevy did a great job. We’ll take second and move on.
THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for Josef.
Q.  Could you talk through the decision to go onto the reds for the last stint. Was that the one shot you had at Palou? Was the car better on the reds?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was what it was. It was a track position race with 30 laps. I don’t think it really mattered.
Q.  Why was it such a track position race today? The fact that the downforce had been cut?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Separator was past 40. We didn’t get many stints past 40. That’s why it was what it was. Once you’re settled in, a shootout was going to be what it was lineup-wise.
Q.  How difficult is it to chase Palou under those conditions in the final 10, 15 laps?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s not tough. The nature of this race. You’re in front, you’re in front. Till you go the distance on a stint… Unfortunately we just didn’t have a stint there at the end.
Q.  I know you live in this area. Used to the weather. What was it like today in the car? You and Malukas looked pretty hot. Palou looked like he hadn’t even run a race.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: He’s Spanish (smiling). Probably doesn’t sweat as much. Not so much how you look, but genetically he doesn’t sweat as much is my guess.
Q.  On the restart did you feel like he was going to have to make a mistake over the last 30 laps?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I mean, the restart was what it was. Unless you have a full stint, there’s your stack right there. It is what it is.
Q.  Are you surprised that’s the way this race came down to?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn’t think it was going to fully be that way if we could have gotten more full stints. Before the last yellow, I was coming, I was ready. The track was still open. Just didn’t get enough of it.
Q.  Source of frustration is you weren’t able to do anything more than finishing second?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it is what it is. I got blocked a couple times. We lost track position a couple times. It’s racing. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.
Q.  Do you feel like if this race was 300 laps it would end up differently?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Today that would have been great because we would have had more full stints, hopefully. Unless there were more yellows. I don’t mind the yellows. You can’t give up the track position under the yellows. If we just had less yellows, that would have been ideal.
Q.  I don’t know if last night you had this conversation with your crew, but did you think the call to make it 225 was right or 300 would have been safe for everybody?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t think it matters. I think 300 would have been fine. We could have done 500 today. I wasn’t worried about it.
Q.  Josef, was there frustration with the Louis Foster situation at the end, the timing, not getting a chance to close on Palou?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, I didn’t have an issue with that. Like I said, we just needed more laps.
THE MODERATOR: Josef, thank you for all you’ve done this weekend for Nashville Superspeedway and the Grand Prix.
David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) went from 25th to 3rd at the 2026 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix
NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceMonday, July 20, 2026David MalukasPress Conference
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by David Malukas, from last to third today. Led 59 laps. Best finish here at Nashville. First podium of 2026.
Great finish. Your thoughts on the afternoon.
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, that was, wow. Man, this whole week, what an incredible weekend. This is definitely not going to be one I’m going to forget for a very long time. Just super, super happy. Obviously exhausted. But just so happy.
That was the best race that I think I’ve ever performed in. I was trying so hard with everything going on. Just kept asking for one more. My body kept giving it to me till the end.
THE MODERATOR: Crazy how the yellows came out. Didn’t help you at all. How disappointing from that aspect?
DAVID MALUKAS: We had to go through the field twice. Thankfully the team gave me an incredible car, so we were passing in a track that’s very tough to pass. It was a good one for us.
THE MODERATOR: Just a couple questions.
Q.  The very first caution was a very key moment for you to get your hat in the ring. Take me through how that changed everything.
DAVID MALUKAS: We just wanted to go on a different strategy to the rest of the field since we were all the way in the back. Big kudos to Travis Law. Absolute genius, madman. Always seems like he knows what’s going to happen. Put us in the right call.Honestly, the one concern was are these tires going to hold. Thankfully we went through the different pit cycles, Power was behind. They said they’re on a different strategy. If you lose position, you lose position. We ended up maintaining and going forward.Incredible car, good strategy. Yeah, we went forward.
Q.  You’ve had emotional close calls before. How much positivity are you taking out of that race?DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, it was massive. This race, like I said, I’m not going to forget this race from everybody involved. It’s cool to see when you have so many people all on a collective opportunity. Like, I would not be in this car, I would not be racing without all the support and people that were behind me, from the team, to the medical team, the local hospital here. Everybody just worked so hard, managed to get me back into an operating form, getting the car into an operating form. Here we are. Last to third. It was an incredible thing. Incredible story just to think about when humans come together what we can accomplish.
Super happy. So much to remember. A lot of good memories.
Q.  Did you have to go to the care center for fluids or for your knee?DAVID MALUKAS: For fluids. Almost no time the past few days to get fluids. We weren’t even getting fluids yesterday.
After that race we knew it was probably going to be a thing. Felt really good. The adrenaline started to wear off, things started to get a little spinny there. Got fluids, picked me up on a little bit of sugar. I’m good now.
Q.  You’re now second in the points, 83 behind Alex. Can you catch him?DAVID MALUKAS: Well, I don’t know. That was the one thing at the end of the race I’m saying this is such a good race, but I see he was in front.
Look, he’s at the peak right now. He’s doing so good year by year. Again, people thought he was going to run away earlier on in the season. Had a few unlucky ones. See how it plays out. You never know how things are going to happen. Thankfully I was able to recover a mistake from this one, all the support I had.
We have to keep trying, keep pushing hard. Maybe it will come down to the end. If not, I’m so happy with this race, this season. Life is good.
Q.  With the nature of the injury, do you feel like it was worse for you to race or was it better by the fact we raced a day later?DAVID MALUKAS: Oh, it was better we raced a day later. Look, going from yesterday, my quote was: If we race yesterday, it was survival, today was game on. That was the situation I was in.
Getting the extra nature of sleep. I am not going to lie, I heard the rain on my bus. I thought that’s really nice. I was already lights out at 8 p.m. I just thought if I go to bed, we’re not going to race today. It is going to be committed. I woke back up a couple minutes later, they told me that they canceled it. I said, I knew it. This is good.It was awesome, really good.
Q.  You said you kept telling yourself one more. Do you think you could have gotten through 300 laps today or yesterday?DAVID MALUKAS: Well, I think with the power of adrenaline, I think we maybe could have gotten there. To be honest, on track, I mean, my face was covered in salt, salt crystals, snot coming out of my nose. I didn’t feel any of that till the end, or any yellow flag to be honest. I was just running on pure adrenaline, focused on what’s in front. I just kept asking give me one more, give me one more.
I’m not going to lie, halfway through that race I thought I’m done. We kept going, kept going. The body kept pushing. Adrenaline is a beautiful drug.
Q.  There’s so much history in Team Penske. Has anyone mentioned to you the story of Rick Mears in 1991 crashing, going to the hospital, then going fastest?DAVID MALUKAS: Yes, I did get that mentioned, which somebody was trying to make that comparison. I’m not going to lie, I think Rick Mears has that one by far from a cool standpoint.
It’s cool I get to be related to that in any way. I definitely took it like it’s kind of cool, but not that cool.
Q.  A question by my mom. She was watching the broadcast. She wanted to know what was in your pocket, something in your pocket.DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I met a U.S. Marine a long time ago. He gave me a U.S. Marine coin. On top of it, I have a baby Jesus. You never know (smiling). Look, I didn’t have any of that when the crash happened. I said, We need everything with me today.
It was a fantastic race. I had baby Jesus, I had a U.S. Marine coin and a little pink ducky that a fan gave me. I had the Trifecta, P3.
Q.  Where did Jesus come from?DAVID MALUKAS: Baby Jesus came from a fan. They said they got this blessed and I needed it. I said, Okay, here we go. Yeah, I got baby Jesus. It’s funny, but at the same time we have baby Jesus in the pocket.
THE MODERATOR: Technically came from Mary.
DAVID MALUKAS: The baby Jesus from Talladega Nights. I think it’s a new tradition. I have the big three in my pocket. We’re cooking up with the big three.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.DAVID MALUKAS: Thank you, everybody.
Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden (right) and Scott McLaughlin (left) celebrate a win and third place finish in the 2025 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix 
CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESBorchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway tri-ovalLebanon, TennesseeSunday Race ReportJuly 19, 2026 LEBANON, Tennessee (July 19) – A pair of ill-timed cautions in the middle of pit cycles ended victory chances for Team Chevy at the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix. Still, a trio of fast Team Penske drivers recovered to finish in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th positions.
Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet started and finished second, his third oval podium of the season, third straight podium at the Nashville Superspeedway, and 20th short-oval podium with Chevrolet power. 
After missing qualifying, David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet started shotgun on the field, driving forward and leading 59 laps on the way to a third-place finish, for a series-best oval finishing average of 3.8. Malukas recovered from a scary crash on Saturday morning and heads into the final stretch of the season in second place in the championship. 
Scott McLaughlin rounded out the great results for Team Penske and Team Chevy, leading 32 laps, finishing fourth and improving his season-long impressive run on ovals with four straight top-eight finishes. 
Pato O’Ward finished in seventh place, making up five positions, enough to hold onto fifth place in the championship.
Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix race resultsWhat They’re Saying – Race – Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix 
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet finished 2nd:“It was a good day. Just track position day. Good job by the Astemo crew, Team Chevy. It’s just what we had today, so we’ll finish second and go to the next one.”
David Malukas, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 3rd:“Oh my goodness, that was a team effort. I’ve never driven so hard in my life. I feel like I needed to a proper recovery after that incident I made on myself. This team, Verizon, Team Chevy, anybody on board. Big thank you to John my physio guy. Any time I’m not in the car, he’s massaging me, making all my muscles start working after they cramped. Big thank you to John, to Sam, the local hospital here in Lebanon. Everybody worked so hard. The AMR Safety Team. It’s so cool to see when you have all these people work on a collective project, you could see it come to fruition and it’s going to happen. What a result, we needed that for the championship. We’re still there, it was a good recovery.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet finished 4th:“Overall, a pretty good day. We went for the race win there in the pit sequence and we went back to 12th. Managed to come back through. Chevy power was great. We managed to get back to 4th, but I ran out of tire by the time I got to the leaders. I thought we had the car to beat today. I thought we had the car to beat today. We didn’t win, but it’s coming.” 
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 7th:“That’s the first race on a Monday for me. Ended up in seventh, we’re lacking a lot of what we used to have here on these ovals. I don’t know what it is. Just gotta keep chipping away at it. I worked hard for the seventh today, really hard. It was a hot race, and I’m excited for these two weeks off that we have. It’s going to be a tough stretch of five weeks in a row, six races. On to Portland.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 11th:“Solid day for us in the 6 car. We ran up in the top 10 for the majority of the race and then just had a bit of a weak last restart there on the last sequence under yellow. We’re running where we deserve to be running in the top 10 with good cars. If we keep doing that every weekend, at some point it’s going to fall our way, and we’re going to have a really solid result. Nothing to complain about, nothing to brag about today. We’ll keep soldiering on.”
Rinus VeeKay, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet finished 12th:“Another oval, I think another weekend with great potential. I think we were great there all weekend. We were fighting for Top 3, in podium position. At the end of the race we were there, fighting for position, we belonged out there this race, and unfortunately on the last yellow, right after we pitted the yellow came out. And we had to pit because of the tire looking very scary, so we had to be conservative there, and pit on the early side and unfortunately the time where we pit early is when the yellow comes out. We cycled back to 14th and finished 12th in the end so definitely did not finish where we deserved but I think that we showed our potential again today. We’ve got another oval with 2 races coming up in Milwaukee. We were very fast there during the test so excited for that, but before that a road course and 2 street courses so there will be a bit of a switch of focus. Really good job by the team all weekend. Pace has been great and we are showing podium pace every weekend for the last few, so looking forward to the next one and hopefully our luck will turn.” 
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet finished 13th“Honestly the guys did a great job; the Homes For Our Troops Chevy was good, especially early. I think late with the heat and the rubber down, I think we started to pick up a little entrance instability to a little push exit but nothing we really couldn’t cope with. We just got really unfortunate with a badly-timed yellow Again. I don’t know what it’s going to take for us to turn this luck around. It’s a damn shame missing out on another top-five this year due to something that’s not our fault.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger – Goodheart Chevrolet finished 15th:“Decent day. I think that the car this weekend was definitely in the window, it’s just that the field is so tight, so moving forward in the pack is tough. Really good call on strategy, the team did a good job on the pit stand. We just didn’t have it on the last restart, think we missed the front wing, and that was enough to make it too much understeer on the reds for us. Really stinks that we weren’t able to maximize the day, but think that we had a top 10 run and just couldn’t finish the day where we wanted to. Learnt a lot this weekend though, I think the Milwaukee test did a lot for us, so I’m excited to go back there and have a double header there. I think it will be a good strong race for the two cars that we have and then finish out the year strong.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 16th:
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet finished 22nd: 

Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 23rd:“I was just coming in and I guess he (Dixon) misjudged it or didn’t know I was pitting. Blindsided me in the attenuator and that was it.”
Caio Collet, No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia Chevrolet finished 25th:“I’m all good. Big thanks once again for INDYCAR medical for their attention and everything. Since the beginning I was a little bit loose and was a stupid mistake on my side. I should have just waited until the first round of stops to make an adjustment. I tried to correct what I had in the car. I should have been more patient and waited for the first round of stops. It’s a really long race and I just threw mine away.”Up-next
The longest break of the summer for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES comes to an end when the Team Chevy drivers and teams go west to Portland, Oregon and the OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland on August 9, 2026. The race on the 1.964-mile, 12-Turn Portland International Raceway road course airs at 4pm (ET) on FOX and begins a stretch of six races in five weekends to close out the 2026 season. 
Josef Newgarden (No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet) finished 2nd at the 2026 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix after starting 2nd. 
NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceMonday, July 20, 2026Josef NewgardenPress Conference
THE MODERATOR: Josef Newgarden, best finish since the win at St. Louis. Third podium of the season, third podium at Nashville Superspeedway.
Josef, a long weekend. Your thoughts on your day today.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was an all right day, okay day. We had a good, fast car. Chevy did a great job. We’ll take second and move on.
THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for Josef.
Q.  Could you talk through the decision to go onto the reds for the last stint. Was that the one shot you had at Palou? Was the car better on the reds?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was what it was. It was a track position race with 30 laps. I don’t think it really mattered.
Q.  Why was it such a track position race today? The fact that the downforce had been cut?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Separator was past 40. We didn’t get many stints past 40. That’s why it was what it was. Once you’re settled in, a shootout was going to be what it was lineup-wise.
Q.  How difficult is it to chase Palou under those conditions in the final 10, 15 laps?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s not tough. The nature of this race. You’re in front, you’re in front. Till you go the distance on a stint… Unfortunately we just didn’t have a stint there at the end.
Q.  I know you live in this area. Used to the weather. What was it like today in the car? You and Malukas looked pretty hot. Palou looked like he hadn’t even run a race.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: He’s Spanish (smiling). Probably doesn’t sweat as much. Not so much how you look, but genetically he doesn’t sweat as much is my guess.
Q.  On the restart did you feel like he was going to have to make a mistake over the last 30 laps?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I mean, the restart was what it was. Unless you have a full stint, there’s your stack right there. It is what it is.
Q.  Are you surprised that’s the way this race came down to?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn’t think it was going to fully be that way if we could have gotten more full stints. Before the last yellow, I was coming, I was ready. The track was still open. Just didn’t get enough of it.
Q.  Source of frustration is you weren’t able to do anything more than finishing second?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it is what it is. I got blocked a couple times. We lost track position a couple times. It’s racing. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.
Q.  Do you feel like if this race was 300 laps it would end up differently?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Today that would have been great because we would have had more full stints, hopefully. Unless there were more yellows. I don’t mind the yellows. You can’t give up the track position under the yellows. If we just had less yellows, that would have been ideal.
Q.  I don’t know if last night you had this conversation with your crew, but did you think the call to make it 225 was right or 300 would have been safe for everybody?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t think it matters. I think 300 would have been fine. We could have done 500 today. I wasn’t worried about it.
Q.  Josef, was there frustration with the Louis Foster situation at the end, the timing, not getting a chance to close on Palou?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, I didn’t have an issue with that. Like I said, we just needed more laps.
THE MODERATOR: Josef, thank you for all you’ve done this weekend for Nashville Superspeedway and the Grand Prix.
David Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet) went from 25th to 3rd at the 2026 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix
NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceMonday, July 20, 2026David MalukasPress Conference
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by David Malukas, from last to third today. Led 59 laps. Best finish here at Nashville. First podium of 2026.
Great finish. Your thoughts on the afternoon.
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, that was, wow. Man, this whole week, what an incredible weekend. This is definitely not going to be one I’m going to forget for a very long time. Just super, super happy. Obviously exhausted. But just so happy.
That was the best race that I think I’ve ever performed in. I was trying so hard with everything going on. Just kept asking for one more. My body kept giving it to me till the end.
THE MODERATOR: Crazy how the yellows came out. Didn’t help you at all. How disappointing from that aspect?
DAVID MALUKAS: We had to go through the field twice. Thankfully the team gave me an incredible car, so we were passing in a track that’s very tough to pass. It was a good one for us.
THE MODERATOR: Just a couple questions.
Q.  The very first caution was a very key moment for you to get your hat in the ring. Take me through how that changed everything.
DAVID MALUKAS: We just wanted to go on a different strategy to the rest of the field since we were all the way in the back. Big kudos to Travis Law. Absolute genius, madman. Always seems like he knows what’s going to happen. Put us in the right call.Honestly, the one concern was are these tires going to hold. Thankfully we went through the different pit cycles, Power was behind. They said they’re on a different strategy. If you lose position, you lose position. We ended up maintaining and going forward.Incredible car, good strategy. Yeah, we went forward.
Q.  You’ve had emotional close calls before. How much positivity are you taking out of that race?DAVID MALUKAS: I mean, it was massive. This race, like I said, I’m not going to forget this race from everybody involved. It’s cool to see when you have so many people all on a collective opportunity. Like, I would not be in this car, I would not be racing without all the support and people that were behind me, from the team, to the medical team, the local hospital here. Everybody just worked so hard, managed to get me back into an operating form, getting the car into an operating form. Here we are. Last to third. It was an incredible thing. Incredible story just to think about when humans come together what we can accomplish.
Super happy. So much to remember. A lot of good memories.
Q.  Did you have to go to the care center for fluids or for your knee?DAVID MALUKAS: For fluids. Almost no time the past few days to get fluids. We weren’t even getting fluids yesterday.
After that race we knew it was probably going to be a thing. Felt really good. The adrenaline started to wear off, things started to get a little spinny there. Got fluids, picked me up on a little bit of sugar. I’m good now.
Q.  You’re now second in the points, 83 behind Alex. Can you catch him?DAVID MALUKAS: Well, I don’t know. That was the one thing at the end of the race I’m saying this is such a good race, but I see he was in front.
Look, he’s at the peak right now. He’s doing so good year by year. Again, people thought he was going to run away earlier on in the season. Had a few unlucky ones. See how it plays out. You never know how things are going to happen. Thankfully I was able to recover a mistake from this one, all the support I had.
We have to keep trying, keep pushing hard. Maybe it will come down to the end. If not, I’m so happy with this race, this season. Life is good.
Q.  With the nature of the injury, do you feel like it was worse for you to race or was it better by the fact we raced a day later?DAVID MALUKAS: Oh, it was better we raced a day later. Look, going from yesterday, my quote was: If we race yesterday, it was survival, today was game on. That was the situation I was in.
Getting the extra nature of sleep. I am not going to lie, I heard the rain on my bus. I thought that’s really nice. I was already lights out at 8 p.m. I just thought if I go to bed, we’re not going to race today. It is going to be committed. I woke back up a couple minutes later, they told me that they canceled it. I said, I knew it. This is good.It was awesome, really good.
Q.  You said you kept telling yourself one more. Do you think you could have gotten through 300 laps today or yesterday?DAVID MALUKAS: Well, I think with the power of adrenaline, I think we maybe could have gotten there. To be honest, on track, I mean, my face was covered in salt, salt crystals, snot coming out of my nose. I didn’t feel any of that till the end, or any yellow flag to be honest. I was just running on pure adrenaline, focused on what’s in front. I just kept asking give me one more, give me one more.
I’m not going to lie, halfway through that race I thought I’m done. We kept going, kept going. The body kept pushing. Adrenaline is a beautiful drug.
Q.  There’s so much history in Team Penske. Has anyone mentioned to you the story of Rick Mears in 1991 crashing, going to the hospital, then going fastest?DAVID MALUKAS: Yes, I did get that mentioned, which somebody was trying to make that comparison. I’m not going to lie, I think Rick Mears has that one by far from a cool standpoint.
It’s cool I get to be related to that in any way. I definitely took it like it’s kind of cool, but not that cool.
Q.  A question by my mom. She was watching the broadcast. She wanted to know what was in your pocket, something in your pocket.DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I met a U.S. Marine a long time ago. He gave me a U.S. Marine coin. On top of it, I have a baby Jesus. You never know (smiling). Look, I didn’t have any of that when the crash happened. I said, We need everything with me today.
It was a fantastic race. I had baby Jesus, I had a U.S. Marine coin and a little pink ducky that a fan gave me. I had the Trifecta, P3.
Q.  Where did Jesus come from?DAVID MALUKAS: Baby Jesus came from a fan. They said they got this blessed and I needed it. I said, Okay, here we go. Yeah, I got baby Jesus. It’s funny, but at the same time we have baby Jesus in the pocket.
THE MODERATOR: Technically came from Mary.
DAVID MALUKAS: The baby Jesus from Talladega Nights. I think it’s a new tradition. I have the big three in my pocket. We’re cooking up with the big three.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.DAVID MALUKAS: Thank you, everybody.
Team Penske teammates Josef Newgarden (right) and Scott McLaughlin (left) celebrate a win and third place finish in the 2025 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix 
Chevrolet and General Motors history at Nashville Superspeedway Chevrolet wins at Nashville Superspeedway: 2
2025 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2002 – Alex Baron – Blair Racing
Oldsmobile wins at Nashville Superspeedway: 1
2001 – Buddy Lazier – Hemelgarn Racing
Chevrolet poles at Nashville Superspeedway: 2
2025 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2005 – Tomas Scheckter – Panther Racing
Oldsmobile poles at Nashville Superspeedway: 1
2001 – Greg Ray – Team Menard
Chevrolet podiums at Nashville Superspeedway: 9
Chevrolet podiums at Nashville Superspeedway by driver:  Josef Newgarden (3), Alex Barron (1), Gil de Ferran (1), Sam Hornish (1), David Malukas (1) Scott McLaughlin (1), Pato O’Ward (1)
Chevrolet podiums at the Nashville Superspeedway by team: Team Penske (6), Arrow McLaren (1), Blair Racing (1), Panther Racing (1)
Oldsmobile podiums at Nashville Superspeedway: 3
Oldsmobile podiums at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Billy Boat (1), Buddy Lazier (1), Jaques Lazier (1)
Oldsmobile podiums at Nashville Superspeedway by team: Curb-Agajanian-Beck Motorsports, Hemelgarn Racing (1), Sam Schmidt Motorsports (1)
Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway: 572
Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Pato O’Ward (137), Josef Newgarden (114), Sam Hornish (99), David Malukas (59), Alexander Rossi (48), Scott McLaughlin (39), Tony Renna (35), Scott Sharp (16), Alex Barron (11),, Will Power (7), Conor Daly (2), David Malukas (1)    
Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by team: Team Penske (145), Panther Racing (103), Arrow McLaren (53), Kelley Racing (51), Blair Racing (11)
Oldsmobile laps led at Nashville Superspeedway: 200
Oldsmobile laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Sam Hornish, Jr. (86), Buddy Lazier (71), Billy Boat (26), Eliseo Salazar (8), Greg Ray (6), Robbie McGehee (2), Jaques Lazier (1)
Oldsmobile laps led Nashville Superspeedway by team: Panther Racing (86), Hemelgarn Racing (71), Curb-Agajanian-Beck Mortorsports (26), A.J. Foyt Racing (8), Team Menard (6) Cahill Racing (2), Sam Schmidt Motorsports (1)

Manufacturer History at Nashville Superspeedway Wins (with competition):
4 – Honda (2026, 2024, 2005, 2004)3 – General Motors (Chevrolet/Oldsmobile)2 – Chevrolet (2025, 2002)1 – Oldsmobile (2001)1 – Toyota (2003)
Poles (with competition):
3 – General Motors (Chevrolet/Oldsmobile)2 – Honda (2024, 2004)2 – Chevrolet (2025, 2005)1 – Infiniti (2002)1 – Oldsmobile (1)1 – Toyota (2003)

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