Sebastien Bourdais will be one of 27 IndyCar drivers that will be looking to stay out of trouble while navigating the brand new course around downtown Nashville.
The course features a long trip over the Cumberland River, which ends in tricky braking zones and a narrowing corners at either end.
Those corners, which are turns five and nine of the 2.17-mile course, will be the focal points for the veteran heading into Sunday’s race.
Turn nine, in particular, is going to be tough as it is the first corner that the field sees after taking the green flag. Much like Mid-Ohio, the starting line is separate from the finish line in order to give the field a better chance at navigating the opening corners while bunched together.
“Turn nine is a lot easier than five,” said Bourdais, talking with Motorsport Week on Friday. “Because five is narrow and you can make a lunge there for sure.
“I think that one will be a little tricky. And if you ever get side by side through there, it might be one of those cases where one makes it and one doesn’t.
“Turn nine could be chaos out there. It’s so wide, and makes a radius that’s very deceiving to the eye. You can probably fit half the grid side by side going in there.
“It might be a bit too exciting. At some point the voice of reason has to take over and make the smart decision.”
Other than those couple heavy braking zones, much of the track resembles other street courses with right-angle turns and bumpy surfaces.
But there are plenty of unique aspects to the track that drivers will have to account for if they want to keep their cars out of the barriers.
Bourdais is not bothered by the prospect of potential chaos on the opening laps, and is excited to tackle the new challenge.
“I’m really excited,” continued Bourdais. “It’s one of those places where we tend to put on really interesting shows.
“It’s a very dynamic race, and a lot of things can happen. It’s quite a unique setup, and it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. The first one’s always wild.”
