Kyle Kirkwood won the pole for the NTT IndyCar Series’ Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway with a two-lap average of 201.520 mph.
It’s Kirkwood’s first pole of the season and second of his career.
Josef Newgarden was the only other driver to average over 201 mph; he’ll start second. Felix Rosenqvist is third, Will Power begins fourth and Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top five qualifiers.
David Malukas starts sixth, Conor Daly in seventh and Pato O’Ward eighth. Scott McLaughlin qualified ninth, but will drop nine places on the grid, moving Linus Lundqvist up to ninth on the pace laps.
Other drivers who were penalized nine spots on the grid are Alexander Rossi, who qualified 20th, and championship contender Alex Palou (15th). Palou will drop to 24th, while Rossi moves to the rear.
Christian Rasmussen‘s car caught fire after he made his qualifying lap.
Additionally, Sting Ray Robb lost power during his run and will start in the back.
During a practice session, Nolan Siegel had a hard crash; he’ll also begin the race from the rear.
IndyCar Qualifying Results at Nashville
The IndyCar season finale is set to begin Sunday, Sept. 15 at 3 p.m. ET and airs on NBC.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.