Kirkwood edges out Newgarden for Nashville IndyCar pole

Kyle Kirkwood edged out Josef Newgarden to claim pole for Sunday’s IndyCar race at Nashville Superspeedway.

The Andretti driver was second-last to make his run, and was chasing the 196.642 that had vaulted Newgarden to the top of the timesheets a few minutes earlier. Most of Kirkwood’s response came in his first lap, which put him just over 0.4mph clear of the No.2 Team Penske Chevrolet. The gap between the pair for the second lap was much narrower, but by then Kirkwood had already done enough, and the No.27 Andretti Global Honda finished the job with a 196.852mph average.

“Happy with our performance,” Kirkwood said. “The car has been really good every year we’ve shown up here. Hopefully it continues tomorrow.”

Scott McLaughlin made it a Team Penske 2-3, going third-fastest in the No.3 at 196.087mph, while Alex Palou will start the No.10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda from P4 after his 196.050mph average, putting him just ahead of teammate Scott Dixon’s No.9 (195.802mph).

Elsewhere, Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard was left 17th after losing the upshift lights on his steering wheel – a setback that will be compounded by a nine-place grid penalty for an unapproved engine change.

But he’ll have at least one other unhappy driver to keep him company. Graham Rahal was left a spectator after the No.15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda suffered a fuel pressure problem in pitlane, adding further frustration to a day that began with him being slowest in the field during morning practice.

Meanwhile, Team Penske’s No.12 entry did not make an appearance at all while David Malukas continued to undergo evaluation at a nearby hospital following his heavy crash during practice.

There had been speculation that the team would call upon Conor Daly to use Malukas’s qualifying slot as an opportunity to shake down the spare car that had been prepared after the crash. But with the possibility that Malukas still may be cleared to drive this weekend, the decision was made not to move ahead with a driver change until further information about Malukas’s condition becomes available.

Should Malukas be ruled out, Penske would need to run his potential replacement either in this evening’s second practice session or in a special session on Sunday morning before they are permitted to race.

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