By RaceScene Publisher on Friday, 04 August 2023
Category: The Checkered Flag

Matt Brabham beats Robby Gordon for Nashville pole

Matt Brabham‘s Music City Grand Prix double duty weekend began Friday with him running twelfth in Indy NXT practice, then first in Stadium Super Trucks qualifying.

Brabham battled with Robby Gordon for the top spot before the former set a time of 1:52.17 to knock Gordon off the pole by two tenths of a second. He was previously the Fastest Qualifier at the inaugural Nashville weekend in 2021, while Friday’s pole is his twenty-first.

The three-time SST champion is in for a busy Saturday as he will take part in Indy NXT practice in the morning followed by NXT qualifying in the afternoon. SST Race #1 will follow roughly five hours later.

2022 Fastest Qualifier Robert Stout was third, beating Myles Cheek who is running his first SST weekend outside of Long Beach.

“I wasn’t able to get a draft run like I was hoping for,” said Stout. “Brabham and Gordon were out there, they’re having some big runs so I’m going to have a good time trying to chase after them.”

Gavin Harlien, winner of Race #2 in 2022, qualified sixth while Blade Hildebrand was ninth in his first race since 2019.

Ben Maier just missed the top ten by a tenth of a second behind Trey Hernquist. Maier will hope to rebound in the races as he finished third in Race #2 last year.

Rob Radmann was thirteenth ahead of his series début.

Race #1 will take place on Saturday at 6:10 PM CDT while Race #2 is on Sunday at 2:30 PM.

Qualifying results

PositionNumberDriverFastest TimeMargin
183Matt Brabham1:52.1750Leader
27Robby Gordon1:52.3819+ .2069
328Robert Stout1:53.1780+ 1.0030
4957Myles Cheek1:53.2422+ 1.0672
577Max Gordon1:53.4005+ 1.2255
61Gavin Harlien1:53.4748+ 1.2998
751Ryan Beat1:54.1731+ 1.9981
857Bill Hynes1:55.6564+ 3.4814
968Blade Hildebrand1:55.8350+ 3.6600
1050Trey Hernquist1:57.1030+ 4.9280
1167Ben Maier1:57.2663+ 5.0913
1221Zoey Edenholm1:57.6202+ 5.4452
1384Rob Radmann1:58.2996+ 6.1246
1423David Bernstein2:04.0641+ 11.8891
Original link