Kyle Kirkwood scored the pole for the Nashville Grand Prix in the IndyCar Series with a time of 47.548 seconds in Saturday's qualifying at Nashville Superspeedway, his fourth career pole and his second on this same oval. Josef Newgarden was 51 thousandths behind in the Penske Chevrolet, the same margin that separated them on the grid in 2024. That time, Kirkwood also started first and Newgarden second, and the race ended with the Tennessee driver on top. Scott McLaughlin was third, and Alex Palou, the championship leader, was fourth in the fastest Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Kirkwood arrived at Nashville 56 points behind Palou, who has recorded two consecutive fifth‑place finishes at Mid‑Ohio and Road America. The morning practice session had already shown Andretti Global at the top of the timesheet with the same Kirkwood, who carried that speed into qualifying. Newgarden, with thirteen wins in the last thirty ovals in the series and a right‑foot injury he has been managing since Indianapolis, said the team gave him a car to fight with and that he is confident in his race pace. "We started well and the car responded. We have a good outlook for tomorrow," he commented.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

The third row went to Scott Dixon in fifth and Alexander Rossi in sixth in the ECR Chevrolet. Christian Rasmussen was seventh, and Marcus Armstrong eighth in the Meyer Shank Honda. Pato O'Ward, who won at Mid‑Ohio two weeks ago, will start 12th, while his Arrow McLaren teammate Christian Lundgaard will start 19th. The morning practice ended early due to an accident involving David Malukas, who lost control of the Penske Chevrolet and hit the wall hard. The impact destroyed the right‑side of the car, and Malukas was taken to a local hospital as a precaution. He was released hours later and declared fit to compete, but he was unable to set a time in qualifying. He will start last in the 25‑car field, just behind Graham Rahal, who also did not qualify.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Sunday's race is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time, though organisers have warned that the FIFA World Cup final could delay the start. Last year on this same oval, the pole‑winner saw second place take the victory away from him. This time, with Palou fourth and Malukas at the back, the grid has more than one story to follow.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix - Qualification

Pos	#	driver	team	time
1	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	0:47.548
2	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	+0.051s
3	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+0.185s
4	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.194s
5	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.255s
6	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+0.289s
7	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	+0.308s
8	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.310s
9	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+0.345s
10	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+0.356s
11	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+0.370s
12	5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	+0.414s
13	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	+0.465s
14	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+0.494s
15	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+0.494s
16	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.497s
17	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.499s
18	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.611s
19	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+0.677s
20	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.679s
21	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+0.850s
22	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	+1.053s
23	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+1.145s
24	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	-
25	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	-