LEBANON, Tenn. – With just two minutes left in Saturday night’s rain-delayed final practice session, polesitter Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global hit the infamous bump in Turn Three and slid into the wall, crashing his No. 27 Honda.
Kirkwood radioed to his crew that after hitting the bump, a part on the rear suspension broke, sending him into the wall.
The damage to his pole winner car appeared to be repairable and the No. 27 is still listed on the pole in the official starting lineup for Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.
Kirkwood won the pole with a two-lap average of 201.520 miles per hour in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda, edging Nashville’s own Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, who ran a two-lap average of 200.676 mph in the No. 2 Chevrolet.
In the final practice session, Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing was the fastest in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda at 195.621 miles per hour. David Malukas of Meyer Shank Racing was second in the No. 66 Honda at 194.087 mph followed by Andretti Global’s Colton Herta in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda at 193.879 mph.
Romain Grosjean of Juncos Hollinger Racing was fourth at 193.539 mph in the No. 77 Chevrolet and Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren rounded out the top five at 193.533 mph in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
The next time IndyCar is on track will be the start of the final race of the season.