Seatbelt drama undoes Will Power's Indycar title bid

Alex Palou has cruised to his third IndyCar championship in four years after Australian challenger Will Power's seatbelt came loose minutes into the season-deciding finale at Nashville Superspeedway.

"When I saw (Power) going to pit lane, at first I was like, 'Oh, what strategy are they going to do?'" Palou said.

"Unfortunately, that's not the way. Obviously, you don't want your biggest competitor to go down that way in the season finale. It was very dangerous what happened to him."

Colton Herta won the Music City Grand Prix for his first career victory on an oval and second win of the season for Andretti Global, edging Pato O'Ward in a wheel-to-wheel battle in the closing laps.

But all attention was on the championship race as Palou, a Spaniard who won his first title in 2021 in his first season driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, won back-to-back IndyCar titles.

The competition for the crown was only between Palou and Power, the two-time champion who won his last title in 2022 sandwiched between Palou's run.

Power had two chances in the last two races to reclaim the crown but failed to capitalise both times. Palou had an engine issue two weeks ago at the Milwaukee Mile and Power was briefly in position to win the race until the Australian spun on his own and finished 10th.

That allowed Palou to take a 33-point lead into Nashville, where the downtown street race had been shifted 35 miles away to the existing concrete oval because of construction on the Tennessee Titans' new stadium.

Palou had never before raced on a concrete oval, while Power finished 11th in his only career race at the superspeedway, IndyCar's final visit in 2008.

But things began looking up for Power when Palou had a disastrous qualifying effort at 15th, and also had a nine-place penalty on the starting grid for an unapproved engine change.

That dropped Palou to 24th for the start and Power, who qualified fourth, had erased Palou's lead to a meager seven points when the race began based on their current running positions.

It was still going to take a lot of work for Power to give Team Penske the title as Palou only needed to rally to a ninth-place finish to win the title no matter where Power finished. He wound up 11th in the race.

It had long been a moot point because on the 14th lap, Power's lap belt came undone.

"My belt, my belt has come off!" he shouted on his radio.

Power had to pit under green so his crew could get him safely buckled back correctly, and Power had dropped five laps off the pace by the time he got back on track.

By then, Palou's lead was back up to 46 points as he sliced his way through the field. He drove from 24th to 12th in about 30 laps, while Power had plummeted to last.

Power ultimately finished 24th in the 27 car field and dropped to fourth in the final standings.

Power said after the race the belt came loose a second time in the closing laps.

"I've never had that before," Power said. "I want to give a big congrats to Alex, a tough guy to beat ever since he joined Ganassi. Happy with the season, we did well, but we want to win that championship and we'll come back next year."

Herta jumped up to second and was followed by former Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin of New Zealand, who finished third in the standings and ended the season as the highest-ranked Team Penske driver for the second consecutive year.