Round 11: Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, August 06--08, Nashville, Tennessee.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Dixie at the end on reds finally beat Herta's primary tire time.

A best lap time of 1:14.6673

[bjohnsonsmith]

Newgarden in the top six but will make it through to the Fast Six session, that car is a bit of a mess?

[broadrun96]

They have to review that this long? He left parts on the track with cars still behind him, that's the rule

And they upheld their rules, Grosjean gets his P6 back. Newgarden got too much though by back to P12 I think

Oops, guess his second best lap was that far back so P12 correct. And have to respect his agreement that you can't wreck and not get penalized under the rules

[broadrun96]

Fast 6 with Herta starting on stickers. Everyone else supposed to have only scuffs.

And reports of sprinkles around the track but sounds like not enough to impact things

[bjohnsonsmith]

Only one Chevy.

[broadrun96]

Herta is crushing this weekend, chance for a 1:13 lap

HOLY CRAP 1.2 ahead of P2, only car in the 13s.

Dixie got to .6 behind at 14.2.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Herta on Pole, 1:13.6835, with Dixie joining him on the front row.

[Purist]

And I know what the IndyCar T&S says, but the formula in their spreadsheet only has the track being 2.100 miles. So even with the bumps, concrete, and whatever else, Herta's Pole average speed, for a 1:13.683 on a 2.170-mile lap, is 106.022 mph.

That's movin' right along.

I'd like to see telemetry, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's pushing 185 mph on the longest stretch; he was almost doing 180 mph there in Practice 1 already.

[broadrun96]

Last lap of his I saw was 186 peak coming down the bridge, he was moving.

They have a full weekend at the track. Think I've counted SRO (GT3/2/4), Trans Am, Stadium SuperTrucks and Indy. Not a bad weekend program, they just have to keep it going for next year.

[Purist]

Yeah, they certainly seem to be putting in the work to try to give it the best shot possible of lasting, not only with the racing, but concerts around the area for the weekend.

Okay, 186 is getting the job done, and I'd imagine it's 170 or a bit more going the other way on the bridge. And you don't really think about it, but it's still 140+ mph on that shorter run past the hotels.

I think I'm going to check out GT America Race 1 here in a bit and see how they go.

[joeb]

I'm really excited for this race tomorrow, and in tangentially related news, the trans am race is actually on TV tonight, in a slight delay. But this has to be the quickest turnaround for a trans am race to be on tv in a long time!

Spoiler alert the production quality is absolutely horrid it is so pixelated that I can't actually read the scroll on the bottom without squinting.

[broadrun96]

The commercial load makes NBC seem like a non-profit organization too.

Hey Justin Marks, that guy you drove in to the wall OWNS the series

Commentary sucks. BEST racers in the world? I'll give them the TA2 cars are a great race usually but aren't so advanced. But they are TANKS, see the Mustang that was shredded but drove in the pits.

Worth a watch for car to car action to anticipate tomorrow, interesting take on corners for some and looks like Indy guys could have fun in multiple corners with the bumps

[Yannick]

Still not sure what to think of this track. But the race has got a lot of local support which is good. They are really making it an event.

[Mogster]

Originally Posted by Yannick

Still not sure what to think of this track. But the race has got a lot of local support which is good. They are really making it an event.

It reminds me of a FE track. Some parts are wider than I expected which is good but the bridge straight is quite narrow and the turn beyond it are so tight. 27 cars around here seems a lot, I’m struggling to imagine anything but multiple red flags.

The event seems well supported by the community which is great to see. I wish we could do this sort of thing in the UK.

[fieldodreams79]

Watched most of quali yesterday. The track is bonkers and I like it. For street circuit fans like me, it's a good one, IMO. Let's see how it races.

And I know it's annoying, but at least Newgarden went off where JJ did...

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

530 Sunday start is a bit curious....good for me, but a bit strange.

And I heard yesterday that they're starting it right after NASCAR at The Glen. Hope there's not 50 overtimes in NY...

[broadrun96]

Yeah, hoping for no rain in upstate NY this afternoon.

The track is fairly wide on the bridge, TA2s and Indy practice had guys passing on the bridge, especially coming back under the hard braking.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying result

Only three Chevy powered cars in the first ten places.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by mstets

T. Bell just mentioned that the crowd on race day may be the biggest for a sporting event in TN history.

Larger than Bristol? Mmm...

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by mstets

I don't understand why the NBCSN feed is not available on Peacock.

NBCSN content is supposedly available on the NBC Sports app and website with cable/satellite/VMVPD authentication.

[Purist]

So, here are a few articles about the track.

One from shortly after the announcement:
https://us.motorsport.com/indycar/ne...876376/?nrt=86

And a recent piece on the Series' site:
https://www.indycar.com/news/2021/07...le-circuittour

So the bridge "straights" are 40 ft wide, which is actually pretty typical for a permanent road course, and that 3-lane width is right in line with a number of other street circuits we've seen CART/IndyCar run on over the years.

The braking zone at the end of the longest stretch is 80 ft wide, and the braking zone on the opposite stretch should be 50-55 ft wide.

Minimum track width is 37 ft. It's a bit deceptive on the far side of the river there, because it's an esse-bend, which makes it seem narrower. The Pit/Finish straight is also slightly on the narrow side, but on the bright side, it's only the 4th-longest stretch on the track.

The chicane is stated to be there to more or less equalize speeds between cars on the racing line and those exiting the pits, but in practical terms, there's also the issue of there being no run-off room to the return run across the bridee. And again, the chicane isn't on one of the really long "straights".

The next stretch after the longest flat-out run is deceptively long/quick as well, with Herta doing 140 mph there already in Practice 1. So the turn at the end of that might be a surprise overtaking zone to some extent.

And even I was a bit surprised to see the figure that that longer run over the bridge is 3,578 ft in total; so the shorter run should still be something like 2,750 ft.

It seems like they've been able to improve those bridge transitions at least some, so as long as they can keep the cars reasonably stuck down in those sweeps, the overtaking potential at the end of those 2 main stretches is definitely there.

And again, like I noted in an earlier comment, the IndyCar T&S appears to have the wrong lap length entered in their spreadsheet, so an actual average Pole speed of 106 mph isn't bad at all for a street circuit.

All-in-all, I think it looks promising, and makes good use of what's available in the area. It doesn't hurt that they have all those signature photo ops with the bridge, either.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Yeah, hoping for no rain in upstate NY this afternoon.

They got wipers and rain tires right? Oh wait. They still call FCYs and wait again. They can't drive in the wet....

[broadrun96]

And Cup running well to schedule this evening without rain looking imminent so maybe TV for Indy on time

[broadrun96]

90 with high sun and 50% humidity, gonna be a hot hot Indy car race this evening

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

90 with high sun and 50% humidity, gonna be a hot hot Indy car race this evening

I bet it's nasty. Still not sure why they chose August.

[TWRv12]

Is there a likelihood of the track getting blocked in the narrow parts?