IndyCar: Kirkwood takes Pole at Nashville Superspeedway

Kyle Kirkwood easily took his first pole of the season for tomorrow’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix presented by Gainbridge. His 2-lap average was 201.520 mph.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden took the second spot with a lap average of 201.352 mph.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist was third fastest with a lap average of 200.676 mph.

Will Power will start fourth tomorrow after his lap average of 200.628 mph.

“This is as good as I could do right there,” Power said. “You can never ask for more than that. Would have been nice to get a pole, but that’s life.

“We’ll do what we can in the race tomorrow. You know how these things roll. If it’s our day, it will be our day. If not, we’ll try again next year.”

Santino Ferrucci continued his breakthrough season for AJ Foyt Racing by qualifying fifth at 200.497 in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet. David Malukas put two Meyer Shank Racing cars in the top six with his qualifying run of 200.479 mph in the No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf Honda. Ferrucci and Malukas will be teammates in 2025 for Foyt’s team.

But an equal headline during the qualifying session on the 1.33-mile concrete oval was the performance of championship leader Alex Palou, who qualified 15th in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and will start 24th in the 27-car field due to a nine-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change after the NTT INDYCAR SERIES’ last race, Sept. 1 at the Milwaukee Mile.

Alex Palou

AutoRacing1 spoke with Alex Palou after his qualifying attempt. He qualified 15th but will start 24th after his grid penalty tomorrow, and second-place Will Power will start fourth.

“I don’t think I can take a conservative approach starting from 24th.  We need to move forward quickly.   It is different when you are eighth or ninth; maybe you can take it east.  From 24th, I need to start moving up pretty fast.”

We asked the points leader what happened from morning practice, where he and his teammate Scott Dixon were first and second.

“We honestly lost the balance of the car. The balance was really good this morning, and we were able to be flat out and just be where we wanted to be. ”

“We couldn’t do the same now in qualifying.  So tomorrow, I will have to be passing.”

Kyle Kirkwood

Kyle Kirkwood earned his first pole on an oval and the first pole of the 2024 season.

“I’m stoked right now,” Kirkwood said. “It’s huge for our season to end off with a pole. I was a little upset we didn’t get a win or a pole (this season), and this is our final chance to do it, and we got it done.”

“I am super happy with my car.  I stayed flat, which is the important part for me.  And a good run for qualifying.”

“I don’t think anyone has run in traffic or gotten close to another car.  And we have not seen any passing yet.  So, that is something we’re going to have to learn quickly how our cars will react in race trim.  This morning, we focused on qualifying, so we will have to work on passing in the next practice.”

Qualifying Results

Lucille Dust reporting live from Nashville