Following the announcement of the NTT P1 Award qualifying results on Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, all eyes will be on the front and back of the field at Sunday’s season-ending Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, presented by Gainbridge.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood 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 equally big headline during qualifying on the 1.33-mile concrete oval was the performance of championship leader Alex Palou, who started 15th in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and will start 24th in the 27-car field due to a nine-place grid penalty for an unauthorized engine change following the final NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on Sept. 1 at the Milwaukee Mile.
SEE: Qualification results
“I’m excited right now,” Kirkwood said. “It’s great that we were able to finish our season with a pole. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get a win or a pole (this season). This is our last chance to do that and we did it.”
Reigning series champion Palou leads fellow two-time series champion Will Power by 33 points heading into Sunday’s 206-lap season finale (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, Universo, INDYCAR Radio Network). Palou needs to finish at least ninth to secure his third title in the last four seasons. He led opening practice today with a 199.862.
“It wasn’t ideal,” Palou said. “This morning in practice it was much more comfortable, so we don’t really know what happened with the No. 10 car. The first lap wasn’t that bad, then the second lap was really, really bad. Not what we wanted, not what we needed.”
“It certainly doesn’t make it any easier. Now we have to see what we can do. Hopefully we can gain a few places. The car was really good this morning.”
Power will start fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet after his qualifying run of 200.628. He must finish at least third to have any chance of winning his first title since 2022.
“This is the best I could do there,” said Power. “You can never ask for more than that. It would have been nice to get a pole, but that’s life.”
“We will do our best in the race tomorrow. You know how it goes. If it’s our day, then it’s our day. If not, we’ll try again next year.”
Two-time and reigning Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Josef Newgarden will line up alongside Kirkwood on the front row on Sunday after qualifying second at 201.352 seconds in the No. 2 Hitachi Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden, a Nashville native, has won 10 of the last 17 NTT INDYCAR SERIES oval races.
Felix Rosenqvist qualified third with a time of 200.676 seconds in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing AutoNation/SiriusXM Honda. Power, who has been on the pole position in the INDYCAR SERIES, will line up alongside him on Row 2 after failing to secure a pole position in a season for the first time since 2008.
Santino Ferrucci continued his breakout season for AJ Foyt Racing by finishing fifth at 200.497 mph 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 for Foyt’s team in 2025.
Almost all 27 drivers in practice and qualifying struggled with a lack of track familiarity, as this is the first INDYCAR SERIES race on this facility since 2008. Power, Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal are the only drivers in the field this weekend who have previously driven on the concrete oval.
The drivers also adjusted 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 the challenge, helping Kirkwood to his first pole since July 2023 on the streets of Toronto, a race he won.
“That’s something we worked hard on in FP1 to try and overcome,” Kirkwood said of the bump. “I don’t know if it will pay off in the race, but at the moment it’s paid off for us in qualifying.”
