Kyle Kirkwood Claims Pole for Season Finale at Nashville

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

LEBANON, Tenn. – Oval or street course, Kyle Kirkwood has Nashville figured out.

The driver of the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda bested the streets of Music City a year ago, winning the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix and now that the race has transitioned out to the Nashville Superspeedway oval, he’s still got the speed.

Pacing the 1.33-mile concrete oval with a two-lap average of 201.520 mph, the Jupiter, Florida native jumped to the top of the scoring pylon to give himself the best seat in the house when the green flag drops on Sunday.

“It was a good two laps,” Kirkwood said. “I think we rolled off the trailer exceptional, and we made minor changes in practice. Got a good feel for what we needed in qualifying, and it was a good two laps. I think we figured out everything we needed to, and it panned out for us.

“I’m a little surprised actually that we were that quick right out of the gate. I was in the limiter really quick, so I think that might have definitely turned us up there.”

Kirkwood added that he takes additional pride in winning a pole on an oval for the first time in his NTT IndyCar Series career.

“I’ve been showing some oval skills,” he said. “If I’m being quite honest, I wasn’t the proudest after qually performances at Milwaukee or Gateway or Iowa. So, to actually get a pole on an oval is big for me.

“Yeah, very good start to this weekend.

“I think my racing on ovals has been a lot better. I’ve been finding myself up front quite a bit. But still not fully there…I’m still figuring it out, but the pole is a nice step in the right direction.”

He will be joined by hometown hero Josef Newgarden on the front row for the 206-lap event to wrap up the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series season campaign.

“I think it would be irresponsible of me to not be happy with that,” Newgarden said. “I’m a little disappointed. That’s why I wanted to preface it with, we are happy. You always look back at it afterwards and think we could have done this different.

“We had a one limiter hit at the end of the second lap. I think that second lap was going to be faster. It was trending faster off of Turn 2. Now that it’s all over and you look at it and wonder if that would have been the difference.

“The team did a great job. The car was really great to drive. Honestly, it was amazing, so comfortable and simple to put the laps together. We could have been more aggressive too. The track cooled off a lot and I gained a significant amount of grip just from practice.

“We’re happy with it. At least a good field of view to start the race, which is fantastic and now we get to go to work on the race car and try to figure that piece of the puzzle out.”

Felix Rosenqvist was the fastest driver for a good portion of qualifying before getting bested by Newgarden and Kirkwood.

Fourth place went to Will Power as he looks to pull off the comeback of the century in his bid for the championship, with Santino Ferrucci rounding out the top-five.

The remainder of the top-10 starters will be David Malukas, Conor Daly, Pato O’Ward, Scott McLaughlin, and Linus Lindqvist.

Current IndyCar Series points leader Alex Palou timed in 15^th fastest, but will have to serve out a nine-place grid penalty, dropping him down to 24^th on the starting grid. A stumble, but not insurmountable start for the driver bidding for his third championship in the last four years.

Next up for the drivers and teams will be a pair of practice sessions to close out the day with a high line practice at 5:15 pm ET in an effort to rubber in the second groove, followed by final practice at 6:00 pm ET. Both are scheduled to air on Peacock.

Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Qualifying Results: