Salvaor de Alba breaks Indy Nxt pole duck at Nashville Superspeedway

Photo: Penske Entertainment / Travis Hinkle

Salvador de Alba took pole position for the final Indy Nxt race of the season at Nashville Superspeedway.

The Andretti Global driver lapped at an average speed of 184.471mph, more than 0.3mph quicker than HMD Motorsports’ Caio Collet in second place. It was de Alba’s first pole in the category, one week after his maiden victory.

Andretti stablemate Michael d’Orlando topped the times early on with an average speed of 182.582mph, the field heading out one by one for their runs of two flying laps.

He was second in the running order, which is the championship standings reversed, due to being a part-timer who has only done the last two rounds.

Even after half the field had completed their laps of the oval, the Andretti Cape driver was still on top ahead of Andretti Global’s James Roe Jr and HMD’s Hellie Deegan. As the usual frontrunners put in their two flying laps, Deegan began to slip down the order, but d’Orlando and Roe remained the provisional front row starts until de Alba began his run.

Among those that struggled in the closing stages of qualifying were HMD’s Josh Pierson and Abel’s Callum Hedge, the two drivers to hit the track just before de Alba. Pierson could only go 13th fastest and Hedge qualified 15th, with Davey Hamilton Jr (the first driver on track) splitting the two.

De Alba’s average speed was 1.781mph quicker than d’Orlando’s, and he was the first to exceed 184mph on both laps.

Abel with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe was next on track after him, but only managed an average speed of 182.231mph and qualified ninth. He ended the session just ahead of Deegan, who matched her best result of the season in 10th.

The final three drivers were all able to better d’Orlando on a grippier track surface, but none could come close to de Alba.

Collet slotted into second, ahead of Andretti’s champion Dennis Hauger and his team-mate Lochie Hughes. 

Qualifying results