The Nashville street race is being tipped to host IndyCar’s season finale next year.
The Nashville event has fallen in early-August in each of its first two runnings and that remains the case when the third instalment unfolds next weekend.
However, if the pattern continues, it would fall in the middle of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, an unpalatable scenario for NBC, which broadcasts both.
Multiple North American outlets, including IndyStar, are now reporting that Nashville’s shift will see it become the curtain-closer for the 2024 IndyCar season.
Furthermore, event organisers have now issued a media call for a “Special NTT IndyCar Series announcement regarding the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix” on Thursday, before track activity begins on the following day.
At present, Laguna Seca is the venue of the season finale, but changing to Nashville would give the series a marquee event to crown a champion.
That would also tick a box for Bridgestone Americas, which supplies IndyCar’s Firestone tyres and has head office located in the Tennessee city.
A date will not be the only significant new element of the Music City Grand Prix, either.
The circuit layout will have to change due to construction of a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans NFL team on the site which is currently used as the IndyCar paddock.
Practice for the 2023 race starts next Friday, August 4 (local time).
