IndyCar Nashville start times: A few new course wrinkles will await a new points leader as the NTT IndyCar Series arrives for the second annual Music City Grand Prix.

After a highly successful but caution-plagued inaugural event, IndyCar officials and race organizers have made some layout tweaks to avoid some of last year’s traffic jams and bottlenecks on the 11-turn, 2.1-mile street course.

The restart zone has been moved from the finish line in front of Nissan Stadium to the exit of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge heading into Turn 9, which is the best corner for passing on the circuit.

RACE DAY UPDATE: Start of race delayed by lightning

Turn 9 also has been narrowed by 25 feet for one of several new suites that have been added on a street circuit expected to draw more than 100,000 fans to downtown Nashville this weekend.

Marcus Ericsson went airborne on Lap 5 en route to winning in Nashville last year after pole-sitter Colton Herta got off sequence with the dominant car and crashed while in pursuit.

Ericsson could use another momentum boost with four races remaining in the 2022 season, having fallen nine points behind Will Power (whose third at the Indianpaolis Motor Speedway road course marked his fourth podium in five races).

Nashville native Josef Newgarden also is firmly in the title hunt entering his home track after rebounding for fifth at Indy from his stunning crash at Iowa Speedway (and subsequent hospitalization for a postrace fall).

Here are the details and IndyCar start times for the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee (all times are ET):

TV: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET on NBC and streaming on Peacock, the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com. Leigh Diffey is the announcer with analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. Kevin Lee, Dillon Welch and Dave Burns are the pit reporters. Click here for the full NBC Sports schedule for IndyCar in 2022.

Peacock also will be the streaming broadcast for both practices and qualifying. (Click here for information on how to sign up for Peacock.)

TV UPDATE: Because of a weather delay, the conclusion of the race after 6 p.m. ET will be shown on CNBC and Peacock.

COMMAND TO START ENGINES: 3:23 p.m. ET

GREEN FLAG: 3:30 p.m. ET

POSTRACE SHOW ON PEACOCK: After the race’s conclusion, an exclusive postrace show will air on Peacock with driver interviews, postrace analysis and the podium presentation. To watch the extended postrace show, click over to the special stream on Peacock after Sunday’s race ends.

Peacock also will be the streaming broadcast for practices and qualifying. The race also will be streamed on Peacock (in addition to the NBC Sports App/NBCSports.com streams and the NBC broadcast).

INDYCAR RADIO NETWORK: The Music City Grand Prix IndyCar and Indy Lights races and all practices and qualifying sessions will air live on network affiliates, SiriusXM 160, racecontrol.indycar.com and the IndyCar app.

PRACTICE: Friday, 4:15 p.m. (Peacock Premium); Saturday, 12:15 p.m. (Peacock Premium); Sunday, 10:15 a.m. (Peacock Premium)

PRACTICE RESULTS: Session Il Session II l Warmup l Combined

QUALIFYING: Saturday, 4:30 p.m. (Peacock Premium)

STARTING LINEUP: Where everyone will be starting Sunday at Nashville

RACE DISTANCE: The race is 80 laps (168 miles) on an 11-turn, 2.1-mile street course in Nashville.

TIRE ALLOTMENT: Six sets primary, four sets alternate, one additional set available for rookies to use in first practice. Teams must use one new set of primary and alternate tires in the race. Teams must use one new set of primary and alternate tires for at least two laps in the race.

NEW ALTERNATE TIRE: Firestone will introduce a new and eco-friendly natural rubber guayule race tire for the first time in a race. The compound will be used as the alternate race tire (formerly known as the “red” tire) this weekend.

PUSH TO PASS: 200 seconds of total time with a maximum time of 20 seconds per activation. The push-to-pass will be available at the finish line after the initial start or restarts (which will take place coming off the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge entering Turn 9). The feature increases the power of the engine by approximately 60 horsepower.

FORECAST: According to Wunderground.com, it’s expected to be 90 degrees with a 37% chance of rain at the green flag.

ENTRY LIST: Click here to view the 26 drivers racing Sunday at Nashville.

INDY LIGHTS RACE: Sunday, 1:10 p.m., 35 laps/73.5 miles/55 minutes (Peacock Premium)

INDY LIGHTS ENTRY LIST: Click here for the 12 drivers entered

11:15 a.m.: Trans Am practice

12:55 p.m.: GT America practice

2:15 p.m.: Trans Am practice

3 p.m.: Indy Lights practice

4:15 p.m.: IndyCar practice, Peacock Premium

5:45 p.m.: Stadium Super Trucks qualifying

7:15 p.m.: GT America practice

10:30 a.m.: Trans Am qualifying

11:15 a.m.: Indy Lights practice

12:15 p.m.: IndyCar practice, Peacock Premium

1:30 p.m.: Trans Am race

2:55 p.m.: GT America qualifying

3:40 p.m.: Indy Lights qualifying

4:30 p.m.:  IndyCar qualifying, Peacock Premium

7:15 p.m.: Stadium Super Trucks, Race 1

8:25 p.m.: GT America, Race 1

10:15 a.m.: IndyCar practice warmup, Peacock Premium

11:55 a.m.: GT America, Race 2

1:10 p.m.: Indy Lights Music City Grand Prix (35 laps/73.5 miles/55 minutes), Peacock Premium

3:23 p.m.: Command to start engines in the IndyCar Big Machine Music City Grand Prix “Drivers, start your engines”

3:30 p.m.: Green flag for the IndyCar Big Machine Music City Grand Prix (80 laps/160.8 miles), NBC

6:05 p.m.: Stadium Super Trucks, Race 2

ROUND 1: Scott McLaughlin opens season with breakthrough victory at St. Petersburg

ROUND 2: Josef Newgarden nips McLaughlin in last corner for 1-2 Penske finish at Texas

ROUND 3: Josef Newgarden keeps Penske unbeaten in 2022 with first Long Beach win

ROUND 4: Pato O’Ward’s nifty pass seals victory at Barber

ROUND 5: Colton Herta tames the rain in GMR Grand Prix

ROUND 6: Marcus Ericsson wins Indy 500 in two-lap shootout

ROUND 7: Redemption in Detroit for Will Power in Belle Isle farewell

ROUND 8: Josef Newgarden earns $1 million bonus with Road America victory

ROUND 9: Scott McLaughlin takes Mid-Ohio as Andretti teammates feud

ROUND 10: Scott Dixon ties Mario Andretti on all-time list with Toronto win

ROUND 11: Josef Newgarden continues Iowa Speedway dominance

ROUND 12: Pato O’Ward wins as Newgarden crashes, faints at Iowa

ROUND 13: Alexander Rossi ends 49-race winless streak on IMS road course

Viewer’s guide to the 2022 season

HOW TO WATCH INDYCAR IN 2022: Full NBC Sports schedule

RacerXOnline.com is reporting that after more than half a decade with Honda HRC, Ken Roczen is a free agent heading into 2023. The announcement was first made by Roczen on James Stewart’s “Bubba’s World” podcast Thursday. Roczen has been riding for Honda in supercross and motocross since 2017 with seven top-five points’ results, including a runner-up in the 2019 Lucas Oil Motocross championship and the 2021 Monster Energy Supercross Series.

According to a statement from Honda, an offer made to Roczen that included a stipulation he would not “compete in a series that has positioned itself as a direct competitor to our supercross and motocross racing partners” was declined by the rider and his team. In July, Roczen announced he would compete in the three-race pilot season of the World Supercross (WSX) championship.

“It’s a funky feeling, but basically I am a free agent at this point which is kind of crazy,” Roczen said on the podcast. “I’ve never been in that position. But it was ultimately these races that I committed to, these overseas races, and it’s not three anymore, it’s two. I haven’t raced over in Europe in a long time, I’ve never been to Australia. For me, the decision to race those races was fairly easy. Especially this late in my career, it was the right time.

“It’s just been way too long and since this isn’t a full series yet, I had the opportunity to make that deal. Which was a shocker to me, Honda decided to pull the offer that they gave me a week or a couple of weeks ago, which by the way, was a great offer. I mean, if I wanted to go after the money, then that would have been the smart thing to do. But I have committed to these races, and I just didn’t feel comfortable at all to leave fans hanging.”

Honda responded by saying that the offer was not pulled by them.

“In light of recent comments, we felt the need to clarify a couple of points,” Brandon Wilson, American Honda Manager of Sports & Experiential, said. “We were looking forward to continuing with Ken in 2023, and we recently made him an offer of a contract extension. That offer has never been rescinded, but it was declined by Ken and his team.”

Honda HRC is not one of 10 race teams chartered in the WSX.

And it has not yet been announced for which team Roczen will compete in the inaugural WSX race in Cardiff, Wales that is scheduled in three weeks on October 8, 2022.

“The offer that I got was basically for supercross 2023 and supercross only,” Roczen went on to say. “It was for great money. Everything made sense, and I was very appreciative that that happened. Unfortunately, I made this deal that I had with World Supercross months and months ago. … I was in contract yes with Honda, but we had a mutual agreement that hey, we’re not a big fan of this but for this year, it’s a startup and things like that, that they were going to be okay with it. So, we didn’t worry about anything. And at that point, when we made this deal, I didn’t even have an offer yet or anything for the next year.”

The winner of the last two motocross titles and the 2022 250 East supercross championship, Jett Lawrence is scheduled to graduate into the 450 class with Honda for the 2023 motocross season.