Scott Borchetta had the look of a man whose body was confused. He was exhausted after half a year of sleepless nights spent trying to turn a forgotten piece of IndyCar’s history — the moribund Nashville Speedway — into a success as the season finale after his grand downtown Nashville street race was nixed. And he also had the adrenaline coursing through his veins after a great show was produced with a first-time oval winner in Colton Herta (pictured above, with Borchetta) and a new champion in Alex Palou was crowned.
Tired and wired, event promoter Borchetta took a moment to digest all that had taken place in the hour or so since the checkered flag waved over the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, and the finish line had been crossed on a crazy journey to give the IndyCar Series and its fans the farewell to 2024 they deserved. Sitting in a small room within the speedway’s media center, Borchetta looked down at his phone to see the flurry of congratulatory texts coming in, then spoke to the success produced by the event, which sold north of 20,000 tickets for IndyCar’s first appearance at the 1.33-mile oval since 2008.
“A lot of great positives,” Borchetta told RACER. “I was just standing out in the fan zone, talking to fans as they were leaving, and to a person they said, ‘We had the best time.’ Or, ‘I’ve never been to a race like this before with all the music and entertainment,’ so the feedback so far has been tremendous.
I was walking out last nig.