Today’s schedule All times Eastern

All sessions on Peacock

11:45 – 12:45 Practice 2

2:45 – 4:15 Qualifying

6:25 – 6:55 Final Practice

The final practice is the ususal race day warmup. Because of the early start time for the race, this practice period was moved to Saturday evening.I’m not sure how much information teams get for the race at this time of day. Qualifying has not been a reliable indicator of success in the race.

The winners of the first two races at Nashville have started 14th and 10th, which speaks to the chaotic nature of the races in the Music City. Pole winner Scott McLaughlin finished second last year. In 2021, Colton Herta won the pole but crashed near the end of the race.

Romain Grosjean started second in 2022, but finished 16th after wall contact on lap 74. In 2021 Scott dixon started second and finished second..

Schedule Hints

The IMSA Weather tech Championship released their 2024 schedule yesterday. It is a good schedule to look for because it gives some hints at dates for Indycar.

We knew that St. Pete was set for March 10. Long Beach is on the IMSA calendar for April 19-20. IMSA usually runs with Indycar at long Beach. Detroit was a given for Indycar on June 1.

The biggest surprise to me was the IMSA race at Indianapolis motor Speedway. I had heard it would become an endurance race, but I thought it would be at the expense of one of the traditional rnfurance events. Instead, the series added IMS to its Endurance Cup schedule.

With five possible schedule openings between St. Pete and Long Beach, Indycar has room for Texas and possibly the new date for Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca.