By David Morgan, Associate Editor
LEBANON, Tenn. – Kyle Kirkwood, oval ace?
Thus far through the opening day of action at Nashville Superspeedway for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix, it’s been the Kyle Kirkwood show with the driver of the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda kicking off the day as the top driver in practice and then backing it up in qualifying with a pole winning run.
Kirkwood’s two-lap average of 196.852 mph boosted him to the top of the board as the penultimate driver to make a qualifying run, which would not be elapsed as he scores his first pole of the season and second at Nashville Superspeedway having won the pole here back in 2024 as well.
“Yeah, it was really good. Quick in practice. Quick again in qualifying there. Happy that our pace has stayed true over the past three years that we’ve run around this place,” said Kirkwood.
“I got more poles here now than anywhere else. A rare thing for me to say. People tend to think I’m a street course driver, so…
“Yeah, but no, happy with our performance. Car has been very fast every year we’ve shown up here. Hopefully continues tomorrow.”
🗣️ KIRKWOOOOOD!@KKirkwoodRacing delivers a pole-winning run! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/basGMjrzTT
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 18, 2026
Josef Newgarden, who calls Nashville home, will start alongside him on the front row as he looks for a repeat of last year’s Nashville race that ended with his Team Penske Chevrolet in victory lane.
Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin will start in third place, followed by points leader Alex Palou in fourth. The remainder of the top-10 starters will be Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Marcus Armstrong, Rinus VeeKay, and Marcus Ericsson.
Graham Rahal and David Malukas will start shotgun on the field on Sunday, with Rahal not making a qualifying run due to mechanical issues and Malukas still unavailable as he continues to undergo evaluation at a local hospital following his crash in practice on Saturday morning.
“I would’ve loved to get the qualifying run just to understand the changes that we made,” Rahal said. “Were they better? Were they worse? Where were we at? But yeah, we didn’t run.
“We had a fuel…I don’t know. The engine wouldn’t run so we ran out of our 60 second clock. It started okay. We were getting temp and then power just shut off and it wouldn’t restart. So, I mean, we’ve got a lot of work to do, unfortunately.
“I mean, even our other two, I though Mick [Schumacher] actually had a great run. He’s already 10th with probably 10 or more to go, which is a little surprising because I thought maybe he’d sneak into the top 12 or 15 there. So, we’ve got work to do as a team. Sad to not get a qual run.”
Rahal explained that even if they would have been able to make a run, his No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda likely would have been back toward the tail of the field anyway.
“The realist in me says that we would’ve qualified about the same place,” said Rahal. “I hate to be that way, but the realist in me says that we are not where we need to be.”
As of publication time, it is still unknown if Malukas will be cleared to make a return to the cockpit for practice later this evening and for Sunday’s race.
Team Penske had lined up for Conor Daly to shake down the car in qualifying should it have been ready to go, but the car remained in the garage for the duration of time trials.
Next up on the docket at Nashville will be high line and final practice for Sunday’s race, with drivers and teams getting their final opportunity to dial in their cars starting at 6:00 and 7:00 pm ET, respectively. Practice will be televised on FOX Sports 1.
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