NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY QUALIFYING NOTE
QUALIFYING POSITIONS
16th: CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet 20th: ALEXANDER ROSSI No. 20 Java House Chevrolet
RACE: Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix
TRACK: Nashville Superspeedway
LOCATION: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA
TRACK LAYOUT: 1.33-mile D-shaped concrete oval
RACE LENGTH: 225 Laps
BROADCAST: Sunday – 1 p.m. CT (FOX)
ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 20 JAVA HOUSE CHEVROLET
ALEXANDER ROSSI, No. 20 Java House Chevrolet, Qualified 20th: “The track was not super predictable but we had the balance of the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet right. It was a pretty easy run, I just made a bit of a mess with the hybrid strategy. The gap to the front of the field is a little confusing because everything was right. We’ll work to understand it. Ultimately, the car’s been great, through practicing and qualifying. I don’t see why that’ll change going into tomorrow!”
BIRTHDAY: September 25, 1991
HOMETOWN: Nevada City, CA
RESIDENCE: Indianapolis, IN
NASHVILLE STATS
NUMBER OF STARTS: 1
2024 START: 26th
2024 FINISH: 15th
CAREER STATS
SEASON: 10th
STARTS: 163
WINS: 8
POLES: 7
TOP 5 FINISHES: 52
TOP 10 FINISHES: 96
OF NOTE:
- The Music City Grand Prix will mark the conclusion of Alexander Rossi’s 10th NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. In this morning’s opening practice session at Nashville Superspeedway, he set the 10th-fastest lap. While Rossi qualified 20th for tomorrow’s season finale, he will move up the order once grid penalties are applied.
- Rossi is riding a wave of momentum into the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES finale after earning his best results of the season in the two most recent races. Three weeks ago at Portland International Raceway, Rossi earned his first Top 5 with ECR, finishing 5th. Last Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, he followed up with a 4th place result. It marked the 96th time in his career he has finished inside the Top 10. With Rossi finishing 4th at Milwaukee and teammate Christian Rasmussen in 1st, ECR successfully placed two cars in the Top 5 for the first time since finishing 1-2 at Toronto in 2015.
- Rossi made his 150th career start earlier this year in Long Beach and led the 1,000th lap of his career in this year’s Indianapolis 500. Rossi, 33, has 30 career podium finishes, including eight victories, most notably the 2016 Indianapolis 500. The Nevada City, California, native was the first American rookie to win since 1928. Rossi’s talent has taken him worldwide, with wins in F2, World Series by Renault, and the 24 Hours of Daytona, along with starts in Formula 1, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Baja 1000, and the Bathurst 1000.
- Java House joined ECR in September 2024 and has been featured on Rossi’s No. 20 Chevrolet since his first test with the team the following month. In addition to brick-and-mortar cafés in the Indianapolis and Lafayette, IN markets, Java House is known for its versatile Peel ’n Pour™ single-serve beverages, which fans have sampled at each race across the country this season. Samples of Java House’s full line of beverages will be available at Nashville Superspeedway, including their Amazingly Smooth cold brew coffees, lattes, teas, hydration drinks and more.
CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, NO. 21 SPLENDA STEVIA CHEVROLET
CHRISTIAN RASMUSSEN, No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet, Qualified 16th: “We had a great weekend last weekend, getting our first win and we are very happy with that! I have felt the love from everyone, but today it’s back to business! We are fully focused on finishing off the season strong. We are still in the running to reach the Top 10 in the championship, so that’s what we are looking to do. The No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet can get me there! We missed it a little bit in qualifying, I went out and stayed flat easily. Any time it feels easy you may have been little too conservative! We also have the grid penalty so we’ll move back a little bit, but we are not strangers to racing forward when it comes to ovals!”
BIRTHDAY: June 29, 2000
HOMETOWN:
Copenhagen, Denmark
RESIDENCE: Indianapolis, IN
NASHVILLE STATS
NUMBER OF STARTS: 1
2024 START: 25th
2024 FINISH: 14th
CAREER STATS
SEASON: 2nd
STARTS: 30
WINS: 1
TOP 5 FINISHES: 2
TOP 10 FINISHES: 6
OF NOTE:
- The season finale will take place at the 1.33-mile oval of Nashville Superspeedway, where Christian Rasmussen’s 2024 result helped ECR secure a Leader’s Circle position for the No. 20 Chevrolet. For the final race of his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES season and first full-time in the No. 21, Rasmussen qualified in the 16th position. However, when the starting lineup is finalized, Rasmussen will slide back nine positions on the grid after a scheduled engine change.
- Rasmussen enters the final race weekend of the 2025 season as an NTT INDYCAR SERIES race winner. Last Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile, Rasmussen raced his way to the front of the field in spectacular fashion, taking the lead with 16 laps to go and never looking back. He started a season-best 9th and ran comfortably inside the Top 10 for the first 100 laps of the race. A pit-lane speed violation near the midway point dropped him to the back of the field, placing 24 competitors in front of him. It took less than 40 laps for him to race his way back into the Top 10. A late-race caution provided Rasmussen with an opportunity to pit for fresh tires. Within eight laps of the restart, he had gained five positions and chased down race leader and 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou. On Lap 235, Rasmussen passed Palou for the lead of the Snap-On Milwaukee Mile 250 and drove the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet to victory. His victory was ECR’s first since May 2021 on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
- In 2025, Rasmussen has finished no worse than 8th in any of the five oval races, including a 3rd-place finish after starting 25th at WWT Raceway. His first career podium came on the heels of a standout Indianapolis 500, where he led the first laps of his career and finished 6th. One week after the “500,” Rasmussen made his first Fast 12 qualifying appearance of the year in Detroit and led for 21 laps.
- Rasmussen will continue to compete in his race-winning paint scheme, the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Chevrolet, tomorrow in Nashville. Splenda®, the most recognizable low-calorie sweetener brand in the world, owns and operates the first-ever fully integrated stevia farm in the United States. Splenda® Stevia is grown in Florida, where the stevia plants are sweetened by sunshine and fresh air. Buzzing bees lend a helping hand in pollinating, while Splenda’s dedicated team selects the best stevia plants for a great tasting zero calorie sweetener. Coincidentally, Splenda’s packaging facility and ECR’s race shop are both on Georgetown Road in Indianapolis with locations less than one mile apart.