Leading IndyCar drivers have shared a multitude of theories as to why Nashville produces such chaotic racing.
The streets of Music City have placed host to IndyCar twice now, with nine Cautions the first time around and eight in the most recent edition.
A year earlier, Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Marcus Ericsson picked up the win after making five stops, his first of which was for a new nosecone after shunting Sebastien Bourdais and getting airborne at a restart.
Nashville is a particularly tight circuit in places, and features fast runs off the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge but, according to Dixon, it has few, if any features, which are more problematic than at other tracks.
“I get the congestion once you get [through Turns] 4 up to 5 and 6 because the decel is kind of weird,” said the six-time IndyCar champion.
“If one car makes a mistake, then it’s a bit of a chain reaction.
“The other 90-degree corners are similar to a lot of places that we go, and we’re not sure why it happens.
“I think they did a very good job on opening the sight line in a lot of places, especially Turn 11 and even Turn 2 and Turn 3.
“I think some changes will come in the future for kind of that [Turns] 4 through 8 section once that construction is done, and they’re talking about even maybe we’ll go up another block and then take a left, which would be great for a passing zone as well.
“The adjustments that they did this year, especially the transitions on and off the bridge, were huge. It was much easier to get into Turn 4 this year. I think you saw a lot of overtaking going into there.
“It’s the second race here. I don’t know why there’s so many Cautions. It’s kind of weird.
“It is very slippery off the line, and I don’t know why that is, but kind of we see that sometimes at St Pete[rsburg], too.
“Especially late in the day, late in the race, restarting on older tyres can be very tricky because it’s very hard to keep the temperature on them.
“So, I don’t know. I guess it was one less [Caution], so we’re moving in the right direction.”
Team-mate Alex Palou finished third despite damaging his front wing when he nudged Will Power, who was struggling with gearbox damage due to the aforementioned concertina.
The Spaniard suggested the big braking zones, and narrowness of the track, were a factor in the multitude of incidents.
“I think just a bit wider corners so they are a little bit safer if you make a move,” said Palou about what improvements he would like to see.
“Also, that the speeds are higher so you don’t have that tendency to just dive in.
“Because, I think there are so many corners that it’s so easy to just dive in because they are so slow, the driver in front has to slow down the car so much, and you need to leave the gap on the inside.
“If there are some drivers that just go for it, you cannot do anything. You cannot steer at that point.
“Yeah, I just think we need a bit wider turns; that’s it.
“It’s a street course, so every time you go on a street course, you know it’s going to be a dramatic race.”
Colton Herta attributed it, in part, to the movement of the restart zone to the bridge, approaching Turn 9, although that would not explain what occurred 12 months earlier.
“I don’t know what they can do,” said the Andretti Autosport pilot.
“I don’t think that restarting on the bridge was a good thing.
“I thought the closing speeds were incredibly unsafe, and I’m sure that they’re going to probably change it to something else for next year because it was really dangerous.
“Especially going over a bridge like that, you don’t want to go over the back of somebody.
“Other than that, it’s not terrible to have a crazy race every now and again.”
The series now moves to Gateway on August 19-20 (local time).
Every IndyCar race is live and ad-free on Stan Sport.
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