The NTT IndyCar Series was forced to postpone Sunday's Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway from Sunday to Monday due to inclement weather, meaning that the series will no longer benefit from the World Cup Final lead-in they had strategically planned on using to boost Fox's viewership numbers for this particular event.
It marks the first time since 2018 that IndyCar has postponed a race until Monday, and it's the first time that it's been done for an oval race since 2016.
While the chance of rain is far less on Monday than what it was throughout the afternoon and evening hours on Sunday, there is excessive heat predicted all afternoon in Lebanon, Tennessee on Monday, and the race is scheduled to go green shortly after 2:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. ET).
As a result, IndyCar has made the decision to shorten the race.
What was once scheduled to be a 300-lap race around the four-turn, 1.333-mile (2.145-kilometer) oval is now scheduled to be a 225-lap race, matching the race distance from a year ago.
Had the race run as planned, its 400-mile distance would have made it the longest non-Indy 500 race on the schedule since the 500-mile race at Pocono Raceway in 2018. The 2019 Pocono race was also scheduled to be a 500-mile race but was shortened to 320 miles due to rain.
Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood is set to start on pole, alongside reigning Nashville winner Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, after posting the top two-lap average speed in Saturday's qualifying session.
The race is still set to be shown live on Fox, so tune in at 3:00 p.m. ET and don't miss any of the action from the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway! Begin a free trial of FuboTV now if you have not already done so.
