Nashville IndyCar beginning lineup: Kyle Kirkwood beats Josef Newgarden to pole

Kyle Kirkwoodcaptured pole for the Borchetta Bourbon Music Metropolis Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.

The Florida native, second within the championship, was the penultimate driver to qualify and produced a surprising two-lap common of 196.852mph within the No. 27 Andretti World Honda. It’s his first pole of the season, and second at Nashville Superspeedway.

“Fairly actually, it’s the automotive that Andretti provides me right here,” mentioned Kirkwood, 27. “We had been fast in observe. We’ve been good right here the previous couple of years. I imply, do the identical as everyone else is doing: maintain it flat and hope your automotive goes quick. They usually construct actually good automobiles round me. Did every little thing proper, managed the instruments a bit of bit, bought aggressive with some trim; it labored out properly.

Josef Newgarden, the defending race winner, ended up second after a 196.642mph two-lap common run.

Workforce Penske’s David Malukas didn’t qualify following his crash in opening observe that prompted a go to to a close-by hospital and the crew bringing out and making ready a backup automotive. Malukas’ standing for the rest of the weekend has but to be decided.

The rundown

ECR’s Christian Rasmussen set the quickest early time, with a 195.585mph two-lap common, to maneuver forward of Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel and AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet.

AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, the ninth driver to exit, jumped to second on the timesheets with a 195.332mph two-lap common.

After the opening 9 runs, Rasmussen led Ferrucci, Siegel, Collet, Mick Schumacher and Louis Foster.

Alexander Rossi was the tenth driver to exit and delivered a robust qualifying effort in his #20 ECR Chevrolet, posting a 195.664mph two-lap common to dethrone teammate Rasmussen from provisional pole.

Neither Kyffin Simpson nor Will Energy might problem the provisional entrance row, though Energy briefly moved into fifth at 194.892mph.

Graham Rahal by no means accomplished a qualifying run after a number of stalls left him unable to go away pit lane inside the necessary 60-second window. He referred to as over the radio with the “gasoline stress at zero” in his #15 RLL Honda. He was pressured out of line and towed again to the storage consequently.

Marcus Armstrong the thirteenth driver to exit following Rahal’s misfortunes, put collectively a few strong laps and put his #66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda in third at 195.578mph. The #76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet of Rinus VeeKay went out subsequent and managed to vault into fourth at 195.434mph. Andretti World’s Marcus Ericsson adopted VeeKay within the order and slotted into fifth.

Six-time IndyCar Collection champion Scott Dixon went out subsequent and posted a 195.802mph common to take provisional pole away from Rossi.

McLaughlin instantly eclipsed Dixon with a 196.087mph common in his #3 Workforce Penske Chevrolet.

Meyer Shank Racing Felix Rosenqvist was subsequent up and dished out a less-than-stellar two-lap run of 194.808mph to sit down thirteenth.

Defending race winner Newgarden was the nineteenth of the initially anticipated 21 drivers to exit, and relegated his Workforce Penske teammate to second after a two-lap common of 196.642mph.

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward could not problem for pole with a 195.154mph two-lap run to fit tenth, immediately forward of teammate Siegel.

Christian Lundgaard’s oval woes continued, with a depressing qualifying outing of 194.086mph that left him holding in seventeenth with two drivers left to go.

Kirkwood backed up his observe tempo with a 196.852mph common to knock Newgarden off provisional pole.

Reigning and four-time IndyCar Collection champion Alex Palou went out final and could not enhance on fourth with a 196.050mph common.

27
2

100.924

2
2

0.0508
100.817

3
2

0.1346
100.532

10
2

0.0090
100.513

9
2

0.0605
100.386

20
2

0.0337
100.315

C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing

21
2

0.0194
100.275

66
2

0.0016
100.271

76
2

0.0352
100.198

28
2

0.0112
100.174

14
2

0.0138
100.145

5
2

0.0439
100.054

N. Siegel Arrow McLaren

6
2

0.0509
99.948

26
2

0.0290
99.887

4
2

0.0005
99.886

47
2

0.0031
99.880

60
2

0.0015
99.877

8
2

0.1122
99.644

7
2

0.0666
99.506

L. Foster Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

45
2

0.0015
99.503

R. Robb Sting Juncos Hollinger Racing

77
2

0.1707
99.152

18
2

0.2036
98.737

19
2

0.0918
98.551

12
0

15
0

Photographs from Nashville – Saturday