Eyes will be focused on the front and rear of the field at the season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix Presented by Gainbridge on Sunday after the results of NTT P1 Award qualifying Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway.
Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global earned his second career pole – his first on an oval – with a two-lap average speed of 201.520 mph in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda. 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.
SEE: Qualifying Results
“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.”
Reigning series champion Palou leads fellow two-time series champion Will Power by 33 points entering the 206-lap season finale Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, Universo, INDYCAR Radio Network). Palou must finish ninth or better to secure his third title in the last four seasons. He led the opening practice today at 199.862.
“It wasn’t ideal,” Palou said. “It was a lot more comfortable this morning during practice, so we don’t really know what happened to the 10 car. The first lap wasn’t too bad, then the second lap was really, really bad. Not what we wanted, not what we needed.
“It’s not making it easier, for sure. It’s time to see what we can do. Hopefully we can make up some spots. The car was really good this morning.”
Power will start fourth after his qualifying run of 200.628 in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet. He must finish third or better to have any chance of capturing his first title since 2022.
“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.”
Two-time and reigning Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Josef Newgarden will join Kirkwood on the front row Sunday after qualifying second at 201.352 in the No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet. Nashville-area native Newgarden has won 10 of the last 17 oval races in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified third at 200.676 in the No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing. All-time INDYCAR SERIES pole leader Power will join him in Row 2 after failing to earn a pole in a season for the first time since 2008.
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.
Nearly all 27 drivers in practice and qualifying coped with lack of track knowledge, as this is the first INDYCAR SERIES race at the facility since 2008. Power, Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal are the only drivers in the field this weekend who previously raced at the concrete oval.
Drivers also adapted to a tricky bump in Turn 4 that unsettled some cars. Kirkwood said his Andretti Global engineering team, led by Jeremy Milless, found a smooth setup for that challenge that helped Kirkwood earn his first pole since July 2023 on the streets of Toronto, a race he won.
“That’s something we worked on heavily in practice one, just to get compliance over that,” Kirkwood said of the bump. “I don’t know if it’s going to pay off in the race, but it paid off right now for us in qualifying.”