Kyle Kirkwood nearly sweeps Saturday's timing sheets with dominant day in Nashville

Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor

Riley Ogle (Motorsports Today, 2026)

Kyle Kirkwood continues hot streak at Nashville Superspeedway with second career Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix pole. He nearly tops every timing sheet en route to an almost-perfect Saturday.

“Quick in practice. Quick again in qualifying there,” Kirkwood said. “Happy that our pace has stayed true over the past three years that we've run around this place.” 

Although Kirkwood made noise in all three of the INDYCAR on-track sessions on Saturday, it was qualifying that set him apart from the rest of the field. He out-timed the Team Penske duo of Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, the two drivers with the best average finishes at Nashville Superspeedway. 

Newgarden (47.599s) and McLaughlin (47.734s) rounded out the podium places in second and third.

With the benefit of David Malukas's crash and a grid penalty for Christian Lundgaard, he was also the only driver within 100 points of the championship fight to out-qualify points leader Alex Palou. Championship rivals Palou, Christian Lundgaard and Malukas start fourth, 23rd and 24th, respectively.

His two-lap qualifying lap of 47.548 seconds earned him his second career pole around the 1.33-mile oval.

“I got more poles here now than anywhere else. A rare thing for me to say. People tend to think I'm a street course driver,” Kirkwood said. “Yeah, but no, happy with our performance. The car has been very fast every year we've shown up here.”

Kirkwood started the day out front, leading Palou and Malukas in the first practice session on Saturday. While Malukas' Turn 2 wreck cut the on-track action short, he still posted 21 laps, running his fastest on lap three.

“This morning I think it was tricky for everyone,” Kirkwood said. “It was not an easy track to drive on, with seemingly high degradation for a speedway-like track.”

He carried that pace into high-line practice, but finished seventh when the field combined in final practice. It wasn’t until the final hour of practice that drivers were able to find more speed in him. 

It was Malukas who rallied back to the top of the leaderboard. He returned to action after his horrific incident in practice one, with a 24.153s lap time, ahead of teammate Scott McLaughlin, who ended the session in second (24.188s).

Although Kirkwood has shown speed on Saturdays in Nashville, it hasn’t translated into a podium effort on Sunday.

He has only managed finishes of sixth and fourth, with 67 laps led over the last two years. A successful performance in 2026’s Music City Grand Prix would break the winless streak and would shrink the 56-point deficit he has to Palou.

“Not falling into the trap of racing too hard and get caught up in something that doesn't matter in the first hundred laps is going to be a focal point for everybody,” Kirkwood said.

Kirkwood will lead the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field to green in the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway on FOX at 5:00 pm EST.