Scott Dixon Tops Final Practice in Nashville as High Line Becomes Treacherous

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

LEBANON, Tenn. – A long day in Middle Tennessee is complete, with Scott Dixon wrapping up the preliminaries for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway by leading the way in final practice.

The six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion posted the best speed of the session at 198.759 mph ahead of local hero Josef Newgarden, Marcus Armstrong, David Malukas, and Kyle Kirkwood.

Santino Ferrucci would clock in sixth fastest, followed by Scott McLaughlin, 2025 series champion Alex Palou, Kyffin Simpson, and polesitter Pato O’Ward.

O’Ward’s stellar day nearly ended in disaster in the second half of the session when he found himself in no man’s land in the marbles of the upper groove on the concrete surface, sending him seemingly heading for an impact with the SAFER barrier in Turn 2.

However, a superb piece of driving from O’Ward allowed him to save his car and he narrowly avoided contact with the wall, quickly bringing the machine down pit road to the attention of his crew after the wake-up call.

PATO O'WARD AVOIDS THE WALL 🤯👏 pic.twitter.com/RwJy8aleqr

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 30, 2025

“Holy s***!” O’Ward exclaimed over the radio following the close encounter with the wall.

Aside from O’Ward’s near miss, the session went largely incident free until the final 20 minutes, when the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Nolan Siegel wound up in the wall in Turn 2 where O’Ward avoided disaster.

Siegel was in the process of trying to pass Rinus VeeKay’s Honda in Turn 1 and much like O’Ward, just got too high in the marbles and into the wall. Though he was able to limp his car back to pit road, the damage will make for a long night of repairs for the No. 6 team before Sunday’s race.

https://twitter.com/IndyCar/status/1961917556249219191

“I guess I learned the lesson for everyone,” Siegel said. “I had a good run on Rinus and I was like, we’ve been running the high-line practice, we were pretty comfortable up there. I figured this was the time to try it, rather than the race tomorrow. It’s just super marbled-up up there.

“I was out of it for a while before the wall came up, there’s just no grip out there. Learned a lesson. Bummed that I’ve given these guys more work. The car is not bad, so we’ll be back strong. We were quick.

“There’s no high line. Unfortunate. I don’t think that’s a good sign for tomorrow. I hope that more people run it. Maybe it will clean up. We’ll see. Disappointed that we couldn’t run up there, but again, I guess I learned the lesson the hard way. Glad I tried it now and not tomorrow.”

Shortly thereafter, Callum Ilott was another driver that became a victim of the high line as he was attempting to pass Louis Foster in Turn 1, only to follow an eerily similar path as Siegel and ended up in the Turn 2 wall, eventually spinning down to the infield grass.

Turns 1 and 2 are treacherous during Final Practice 🫣 pic.twitter.com/XGFLwnRchn

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 30, 2025

Others that either ran into trouble in the closing minutes of the session or narrowly avoided trouble included Santino Ferrucci, who was passing Sting Ray Robb in Turn 3 when his A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet took off toward the wall, but he was able to steer it away in time.

Will Power also had a little flirtation with the wall off Turn 4, not once, but twice, kissing the outside SAFER barrier after drifting high, but escaped without any noticeable damage to his Team Penske Chevrolet.

Next up will be the 225-lap season finale on the Nashville oval at 2:00 pm ET on FOX, bringing the 2025 season to its conclusion.