LEBANON, Tenn. — The IndyCar championship battle took another twist at Nashville Superspeedway, where Kyle Kirkwood captured his first career oval pole position in the final race of the 2024 season.
Because of a mediocre qualifying run and a nine-position penalty for changing an engine in the No. 10 Dallara-Honda, points leader Alex Palou will start 24th (according to IndyCar) in Sunday’s finale (3 p.m. ET, NBC and Peacock).
“It wasn’t ideal,” Palou told NBC Sports’ Georgia Henneberry. “It was a lot more comfortable this morning during practice, so we don’t really know what happened to the 10 car. The first lap wasn’t too bad, then the second lap was really, really bad. Not what we wanted, not what we needed.
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“It’s not making it easier, for sure. It’s time to see what we can do. Hopefully, we can make up some spots. The car was really good this morning.”
Palou has a 33-point lead over Will Power, who qualified fourth in his No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet and must finish third or better to surpass the Chip Ganassi Racing driver for his third championship.
Palou can clinch his second consecutive title and third in four years by finishing ninth or better regardless of Power’s result.
IndyCar at Nashville: How to watch on NBC, Peacock; start times; schedules; streaming
The season finale will feature a championship battle between Alex Palou and Will Power.
Josef Newgarden, a native of nearby Hendersonville, rebounded from crashing twice in Milwaukee two weeks ago by qualifying second. The Team Penske driver said the return of IndyCar to Nashville Superspeedway after a 16-year absence had been challenging.
There were multiple practice crashes for Indy NXT and IndyCar drivers who got crossed up over a bump between Turns 3 and 4.
“The bump is definitely the overriding concern of everybody right now, and it’s kind of nice, it definitely has character,” Newgarden said. “It’s not like all over the track, it’s just this one point, but you’ve got to make up for it, and some are setting the car up around it, too. It reminds me of Iowa in Turn 1, Turn 2 when you have huge big corner bump that everyone always had to account for, so it feels a little bit like that, but I think 3 and 4 will be the tougher spot.
“The second lane, it’s just hard to say right now. I don’t know if it’s going to come in. I really hope it does. Everyone does.”
It’s the second career pole position for Kirkwood, who scored his first IndyCar victory last year after qualifying first at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
“I’m stoked right now,” Kirkwood told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “It’s huge for our season to end off with a pole. I was a little upset we didn’t get a win or a pole (this season), and this is our final chance to do it, and we got it done.”
Here is the IndyCar starting lineup for the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, a 1.33-mile concrete oval in Lebanon, Tennessee (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, and speed):
ROW 1
1. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 201.520 mph
2. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 201.352
ROW 2
3. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 200.676
4. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 200.628
ROW 3
5. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 200.497
6. (66) David Malukas, Honda, 200.479
ROW 4
7. (78) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 200.393
8. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 200.294
ROW 5
9. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 200.173
10. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 200.104
ROW 6
11. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 199.713
12. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 199.634
ROW 7
13. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 199.592
14. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 199.471
ROW 8
15. (28) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 198.897
16. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 198.885
ROW 9
17. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 197.318
18. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 200.230 (nine-position grid penalty)
ROW 10
19. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 196.218
20. (18) Jack Harvey, Honda, 195.507
ROW 11
21. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 195.469
22. (51) Katherine Legge, Honda, 193.081
ROW 12
23. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, no speed
24. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 199.532 (nine-position grid penalty)
ROW 13
25. (20) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 199.146 (nine-position grid penalty)
26. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 198.060 (nine-position grid penalty)
ROW 14
27. (6) Nolan Siegel, Chevrolet, no speed (nine-position grid penalty)
