Kyle Kirkwood Takes Pole for Sunday’s Music City GP
Lebanon, Tenn. – Kyle Kirkwood will lead the field to green on Sunday as he takes the NTT P1 Award for The Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls.
The Jupiter (Fla.) native secured his fourth pole for Andretti Global in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda, with a 196.852 mph average, keeping the prowling Team Penske drivers at bay towards the end of the qualifying order.
Kirkwood has shown his speed on the 1.33-mile concrete oval before in 2024, and likes his team’s consistency.
“Yeah, it’s really good. We were quick in practice, went quick again in qualifying there, and happy that our pace has stayed true over the past three years that we’ve run around this place,” Kirkwood said.
Kirkwood now has two poles at Nashville Superspeedway, a fact the fifth-year driver for Andretti Global finds interesting.
“I’ve got more poles here now than anywhere else, which, I feel is like a rare thing for me to say as people tend to think I’m a street course driver.” Kirkwood said. “Happy with our performance, our car has been very fast every year we’ve shown up here, and hopefully it continues tomorrow.”
The Top Ten
The hometown fans will see the defending winner of the event and Hendersonville (Tenn.) native driver Josef Newgarden start on the front row. Newgarden battled the blazing humidity to wheel his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to a 196.642 mph run. It will be just one spot shy of his 20th NTT P1 Award.
Completing the front row will be Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin with a 196.087 mph average speed.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Scott Dixon will grid fourth and fifth, respectively, and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi fills out the second row.
Rossi’s teammate Christian Rasmussen will start seventh, and has a lot of momentum riding behind him coming into Nashville between his recent contract extension, and his third place finish on the last oval at World Wide Technology Raceway in (St. Louis, Mo.).
Starting eighth will be Marcus Armstrong for Meyer Shank w/Curb Agajanian. Completing the third row is 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda for Andretti Global.
Notably missing from qualifying was Team Penske’s David Malukas, who had a turn-2 incident in Saturday morning’s practice session.
Malukas’ has since been cleared to compete via INDYCAR, so long as he can show he can enter and exit the car under his own power. It was previously announced Conor Daly would be in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske for a shakedown on Sunday morning before the latest update.
The Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by OnlyBulls at Nashville Superspeedway is slated for Sunday, July 18, at 5:30 p.m. ET, live on FOX, the IndyCar Radio Network, and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation, channel 218.
Starting Lineup
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