Kyle Kirkwood Wins the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville

Kyle Kirkwood has taken another street course victory in the 2023 Indycar season, as he fends off Scott McLaughlin and championship leader Alex Palou to win a strategy-focused race on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee.

The Floridian started the race in P8 after not being able to finish a lap that would have gotten him into the Firestone Fast Six. But, he and others couldn’t improve due to Scott Dixon crashing his Chip Ganassi Racing machine into the outside wall of Turn 11 on Saturday, hindering many drivers.

This race is known for its chaotic nature and being a complete lottery to predict, in last year's Music City Grand Prix we saw 8 Safety Cars in the 2022 race. Another challenge in this already tricky Grand Prix was the heat, with Nashville recording temperatures of 80-85 degrees Fahrenheit (30-35 degrees Celsius) it was a scorching battle of attrition for the drivers for this 80-lap race.

From the start Kyle kept his nose clean against a fast-starting Josef Newgarden and filtered in behind the two-time Indycar champion into Turn 1, Kirkwood then retook the position back from Newgarden who was struggling on the Primary Tyre on the opening laps of the race.

Lap 13 brought out a caution due to a complete structural rear wing failure for David Malukas forcing him to retire, Kirkwood picked his moments on the Lap 17 restart after a clumsy restart from the sister Andretti Autosport car of Colton Herta allowed Kirkwood to slip down the inside into Turn 11. Gifting him P4.

With Kyle now in a great position on his Primary Tyres, Bryan Herta, Kyle’s race engineer and strategist read and managed the strategy perfectly, extending Kyle’s stint to avoid slower traffic in the midfield compared to Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin who opted to pit earlier to try and cover off Alex Palou who pitted under the first caution. Lap 29 Kyle rejoined ahead of them both and with Alex Palou having to save fuel after his early stop, he was in the pound seat and started to have more of a grip on this race.

Lap 51 of 80 and Kirkwood pits again and gets off the Alternate Tyre for the Primes for his final stop of the race, he had amazing pace on the Alternative Tyre and kept them alive for longer than expected, Palou pitted from the lead on Lap 45 but was caught up in traffic allowing Kirkwood to jump Alex in the pits and rejoin the race in P1.

Scott McLaughlin was the pace-setter all weekend and he was now in P2 chasing down the Kirkwood pink AutoNation car for the victory. However, a caution was thrown on Lap 70 for Linus Lundqvist who got onto the tyre marbles into Turn 11 and connected hard with the outside wall, ending his incredibly impressive first race in Indycar for the 24-year-old.

Restarting with 7 laps to go there was a huge collection of cars into Turn 11 involving Felix Rosenquist, Agustin Canapino and Benjamin Pedersen bringing out a red flag for barrier repairs. Leaving us with a 3-lap shootout for the win of the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix, Kirkwood produced a stunning restart and dropped McLaughlin in P2 to the tune of 3 seconds which no one had an answer to come the chequered flag.

Kyle Kirkwood secured a stunning win in Nashville and secured his 2nd win in Indycar and his 2nd street course win, his team and Bryan Herta produced a strategy masterclass propelling him to the front of the field but, Kyle drove with stunning maturity, keeping his nose clean on restarts and picking his moments to push and create gaps to cars behind and be aggressive in his passing.