IndyCar Nashville race adds Justin Timberlake as an owner

Pop superstar Justin Timberlake has been added to the previously announced ownership group for the Music City Grand Prix as the downtown streets of Nashville, Tennessee, will play host to the inaugural NTT IndyCar Series race on Aug. 8.

Justin Marks, who recently announced co-ownership of his new Trackhouse team in the NASCAR Cup Series with musical artist Pitbull, also was announced as part of the Music City Grand Prix, along with former Delta Airlines COO Gil West.

This will be at least the second foray into auto racing for Timberlake, who was part of the late Dan Wheldon’s 2011 Indianapolis 500 victory through a sponsorship with the William Rast clothing company. Timberlake is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, who has been a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and also became an investor last year in an effort to bring a Major League Baseball team to Nashville.

“I am incredibly proud of the ownership group we have assembled,” Music City Grand Prix CEO Matt Crews said in a release. “Our group combines game-changers in the world of business, music and motorsports. Each brings something unique to the table that will be invaluable as we merge motorsports, music and food into a one-of-a-kind event. This event will be one to remember and one to be celebrated year after year in the heart of Music City. We look forward to the team’s unique perspectives and the magic that soon will become the inaugural Music City Grand Prix.”

Exciting news from Music City this morning 🎶🏁

Welcome the newest members of our ownership group @jtimberlake @JustinMarksDG and Gil West
• • •#musiccitygp #indycar #nashville #visitmusiccity #musiccity #⁣justintimberlake #justinmarks pic.twitter.com/dYCZlmh0fO

— Music City Grand Prix (@MusicCityGP) February 4, 2021

Other owners in the group: Teddy Phillips, CEO of Phillips and Jordan, Inc.; Kevin Clayton, president and CEO of Clayton Homes; Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of the Big Machine Label Group (which also has sponsored NASCAR races, teams and tracks); Brad Lager, chairman & CEO of Herzog Contracting Corporation; JR Hand, president/CEO of Hand Family Companies; Darby Campbell, owner and president of Safe Harbor Development; Stanton Barrett, movie director, stunt coordinator, NASCAR veteran; Drew Kitchen, attorney for Maynard Cooper; Andy Moats, EVP/Music Sports & Entertainment at Pinnacle Financial Partners; Amish Purohit of Alpha Development; John Thompson, CEO of MTA Distributors; Ace Harrington, COO of MTA Distributors.

The inaugural Music City Grand Prix was announced last September and will feature an 11-turn, 2.17-mile circuit that will cross the Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge twice over the Cumberland River (click here for the track map) and employ parking lots adjacent to Nissan Stadium as its paddock.

The Nashville event will be shown on NBCSN.

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

IndyCar in sync with Nashville as Justin Timberlake joins Music City Grand Prix

Hunter Lawrence defends Haiden Deegan after controversial block pass at Detroit

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