Home hero Josef Newgarden reveals freak problem during IndyCar Nashville qualifying

Team Penske star Josef Newgarden qualified P6 at his home race at the Nashville Superspeedway during IndyCar's final race of the 2025 season. The two-time IndyCar champion revealed a freaky issue with the #2 Chevrolet after his qualifying lap, which hindered his progress.

Josef Newgarden has had terrible luck during the 2025 IndyCar season. The Team Penske driver, along with Scott McLaughlin, was one of the strongest-performing drivers coming into the current season. However, the season has been filled with mechanical issues, unforced errors, poor luck with the strategy & caution timings, as well as the attenuator scandal at the Indy 500.

Team Penske has arguably had one of the strongest cars around an oval this season, but hasn't had the results to showcase the same. The Chevrolet cars dominated the qualifying at the Nashville Superspeedway, with the Top 3 drivers in qualifying being in the Chevy-powered cars.

Josef Newgarden, due to his poor position in the IndyCar standings, was the first Team Penske driver to go out and faced issues during his qualifying laps. The #2 Chevrolet could be seen hitting the limiter on the straights, and Newgarden didn't shift into the 6th gear.

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The 34-year-old complained about a false limiter issue on the team radio, which hindered his run. When questioned by FOX about the same after the run, Josef Newgarden said,

“I didn't shift to 6. It was like a false limiter. Very bizarre. But you know, that's our year. Whatever weird is going to happen is going to happen. But good to be here with Astemo and Team Chevy, and trying to have a good race tomorrow.”

Josef Newgarden finished his run with an average speed of 201.390 mph and was on the provisional pole position for a while before David Malukas bumped him. The Team Penske driver at the end of the qualifying was over 1 mph slower than Pato O'Ward’s pole position average speed.

However, David Malukas, who qualified P2, was only half a mile per hour faster, and had Newgarden not had the issue, he could've started on the front row.

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Team Penske’s qualifying woes at the Nashville Superspeedway, as neither Josef Newgarden nor Scott McLaughlin made the Top 5

Team Penske has had one of the better cars around the ovals, and expectations from their drivers are always high. With Chevrolet having the advantage at the Nashville Superspeedway, Roger Penske’s team would've liked a better result in the qualifying than what they achieved.

Josef Newgarden was the top-performing Penske driver and will start in P6. Scott McLaughlin qualified P8, whereas Will Power failed to make the Top 10 and will start the race in P11 after Callum Ilott's penalty.

Will Power also had a big moment on his second qualifying lap where he momentarily lost the car and almost brushed the barriers, but was able to control the #12 Chevrolet.