Kyle Kirkwood left the field behind in qualifying for the IndyCar Series and secured pole position for the season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.

The 25-year-old Floridian native drove two serene laps averaging 201.520 mph around the 1.33-mile oval in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda, enough to beat Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden by 0.0395 seconds. The pole was the second of Kirkwood’s career and first on an oval.

“This is great for our season,” Kirkwood said. “I was a little disappointed that we hadn’t gotten a pole yet this season. This was our last chance and we got it. I’m super happy. The No. 27 AutoNation Honda is absolutely on track; Honda has given us great performance.”

Felix Rosenqvist of the Meyer Shank Racing Team qualified third. Will Power of Team Penske made a positive start to his final battle for the championship, finishing fourth, just 0.2112 seconds behind pole.

The No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of Santino Ferrucci finished fifth, while David Malukas finished sixth in his final race with Meyer Shank Racing and will join Ferrucci at AJ Foyt Racing in 2025.

Trouble for the league leaders

Championship leader Alex Palou was the last driver to take to the track, with the qualifying order set in reverse order of overall points. During his run, he had noticeable speed issues in his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, clocking 201.99 mph for 15th place. However, having been demoted nine places over the weekend for an engine change, he will start his Astor Cup Trophy hopes from 24th place in Sunday’s 206-lap race.

“It wasn’t ideal,” Palou said. “I felt a little more comfortable in practice this morning. So I don’t really know what happened with the No. 10 car. We’ll just have to check that and see, but the first lap wasn’t that bad. But the second lap was really, really bad. So yeah, not what we wanted or needed, but we’ll have to keep going tomorrow.”

Arrow McLaren’s Alexander Rossi also had a close call when he had to rescue his No. 7 Chevrolet after hitting the same bump at Turn 3 that knocked teammate Nolan Siegel out of the race in the first practice session. Rossi was in 20th place at the end of his laps, but like Siegel, he will drop down the grid due to a nine-place grid penalty for an engine change.

“I don’t know why this happened to two of our cars,” said Rossi, who is driving his last race with Arrow McLaren. “… a bit of a mystery.”

Siegel did not take part in qualifying and is unlikely to take part in the final practice session due to repair work following his accident earlier in the day.

The only other driver to have to accept a nine-place grid penalty is Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske, who started the race in ninth place.