LEBANON, Tenn. (Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025) – The good times kept rolling for Salvador de Alba as he was the fastest qualifier Saturday for the INDY NXT by Firestone Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, his first career pole in the INDYCAR development series.
De Alba was fastest with a two-lap average speed of 184.471 mph in the No. 27 Grupo Indi car fielded by Andretti Global. His first career pole, which comes in his 28th career start in the series, came less than a week after he earned his first series victory last Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile.
“It took a while, but it’s great timing to have all these achievements, first career pole, first win last weekend,” de Alba said. “We have one more day to keep doing it. I have a race tomorrow, and I want to win as badly as when I first started doing this. Really happy to be here now and pushing forward for tomorrow.”
The 65-lap race is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday (FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Caio Collet will join de Alba in the front row Sunday after qualifying second at 184.116 in the No. 76 HMD Motorsports entry.
Andretti Global cars filled the second row. Series champion Dennis Hauger qualified third at 183.979 in the No. 28 Nammo machine, while fellow rookie teammate Lochie Hughes was fourth at 183.776 in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship entry.
Michael d’Orlando, who led practice this morning, qualified fifth at 182.690 in the No. 3 Priority/Rising Stars car, tying his career best starting spot in just his third race this season for Andretti – Cape Motorsport. James Roe will join d’Orlando in Row 3 after qualifying a season-best sixth at 182.582 in the No. 29 Topcon car of Andretti Global, a team that placed all four of its cars in the first six spots on the qualifying speed chart.
De Alba’s previous best qualifying spot was second last weekend at Milwaukee. But he took the lead from pole sitter Hauger on the first lap of that race and never trailed thereafter for his breakthrough first victory. De Alba wasn’t calling his shot qualifying today, but he’s confident of a repeat performance Sunday.
“The car, we have dialed it up for the race, especially,” de Alba said. “It’s a very good car we have for the race. All four Andretti cars are there, so we’re going to have a very good fight tomorrow, and hopefully we get the win.”
