LEBANON, Tenn. — Kyle Kirkwood will lead the field to green, Sunday.
The driver of the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda, who entered 56 points back of championship leader, Alex Palou, scored the pole for Sunday’s Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway with a two-lap average speed of 196.852 mph. The point he gained for winning the pole cut the gap to 55 points.
“Yeah, it was really good,” Kirkwood said. “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.
“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.”
It’s his fourth career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole, second at Nashville Superspeedway and first of the 2026 season.
Hometown star and defending race winner, Josef Newgarden, still hopping around on crutches after his Indianapolis 500 wreck in May, put his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet second on the grid with a two-lap average speed of 196.642 mph.
“Yeah, it’s good,” Newgarden said. “I think we did what we could today. Go got a good view point for tomorrow, which is great, with the Astemo car.”
His teammate, Scott McLaughlin, lines up third. Palou clocked in fourth. Scott Dixon rounds out the top-five.
Alexander Rossi, Christian Rasmussen, Marcus Armstrong, Rinus VeeKay and Marcus Ericsson rounded out the top-10.
David Malukas, who enters fourth in points, missed qualifying after a wreck in practice, Saturday. He was taken to a local hospital for further evaluation. Just before final practice, INDYCAR announced he was cleared to race, Sunday.
