The Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway faces an unusual variable this Sunday as its start time remains tethered to the outcome of the FIFA World Cup Final on FOX.
The soccer final is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET, with the IndyCar broadcast tentatively slated to follow immediately at 5:35 p.m. ET. However, in the event of extra time or a penalty shootout, the race's green flag could be delayed by 40 to 60 minutes.
For the drivers, this ‘floating’ start window raises critical questions regarding shifting track conditions, especially with humid conditions and ambient temperatures expected to hit the mid-90s.
During an IndyCar media call on Tuesday, Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong shared how significant the track conditions would change depending on the race start. Additionally, despite being a New Zealander, he’s rooting for England - who play defending World Cup champions Argentina in today’s semi-final - to win it all.
“It makes a big difference,” Armstrong said. “We were talking about that about one hour ago because I hope it doesn't go to overtime. I hope England wins and we can all have a beer and chill.
“At Gateway it was hot, obviously, in FP1, quali [qualifying] and the high-line session, and then the sun went down about a quarter of the way into free practice 2. I think it negatively impacted our car. But it changed the standings quite a lot with that just difference in ambient and track temperature. I mean, it's so generic, but you'd be amazed by how much these cars change with a spot of different ambient temps.
“We'll see what we find. I don't know what time the sun goes down there, but I think it's going to be very hot. So hopefully it's just stable and doesn't have too much of an impact.”
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Sunset in the Nashville area won’t occur until roughly around 8:00 p.m. local time, which could play a role in terms of finishing under the lights or not. Regardless, though, the 25-year-old Armstrong shared the plan is to avoid over-complicating their approach in the final minutes leading up to the green flag.
“I don't think we're going to be changing things really late in the day,” Armstrong said. “We're going to hopefully have a strong car throughout -- well, actually, we have warmup that is quite late. We have free practice 2 very late. So we will have a good idea what the ambient temps are going to do, but we're just going to make our best call. We're not going to try and be too tricky with it because that's when things start to go wrong.
“We'll just nail the basics and do those right.”
