Kyle Kirkwood bested Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson in Round 3 of the championship at Long Beach. (Photo: Logan Skidan | The Podium Finish)
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Kyle Kirkwood is the latest first-time winner in the NTT IndyCar Series.
On a weekend Andretti Autosport needed a trouble-free weekend to validate their solid efforts, they accomplished it in Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Kirkwood, a Juniper, Florida native, played it calmly. With help from his No. 27 AutoNation squad and team strategist Bryan Herta, Kirkwood reached the top step of the podium.
Kirkwood’s teammate, Romain Grosjean, finished second for the fourth time in his career while Colton Herta crossed the line in fourth, capping off a superb weekend in Southern California.
Certainly, Kirkwood’s win was a moment of relief after a rough rookie year when he was loaned to AJ Foyt Racing in 2022.
“This is amazing, oh my gosh! What a day! The calmest day I’ve had in two years, and it was a win,” said an elated Kirkwood, who led 53 laps.
“We got a little bit unlucky with the traffic, but we kept our heads straight. We made awesome stops. I was really the only one that made a mistake to be honest. We came out with the win at Long Beach.”
That first win feeling for Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach. (Photo: Maddie Skidan | The Podium Finish)
All throughout the weekend, Michael Andretti mentioned that Kirkwood is the real deal, and it is a matter of time he’d showcase is worth in the sport. Especially, at a venue so dear to Andretti as he won in 1986 and 2002, the site of both his first and last INDYCAR win as a driver.
“We knew a long time ago when he won the championship for us in Indy NXT that he was something special,” said Andretti. “He’s really doing us proud and I’m so happy for everyone that worked really hard to get us back up front.
“Also, to finally not have the bad luck we’ve had in the first two races. It’s definitely big for us and it couldn’t have been a better day right now.”
The patriarch of the Herta family said winning with Kirkwood is satisfying because he is able to be a part of a young racer’s breakthrough weekend in INDYCAR.
Bryan recently moved from making calls for his son, Colton, to now guiding Kirkwood. So far, the combination has clicked, but Bryan knew Kirkwood can get the job done and it paid off at Long Beach.
“I think it’s safe to say this won’t be the last time we see Kyle in victory circle, but it’s sure fun to be a part of the first one,” said Bryan.
“It was easy (working with Kyle) because despite his relatively inexperience, he’s probably had the most successful junior open wheel career of any American driver ever.
“He’s a pretty seasoned guy and just executed. He got fuel numbers when we needed fuel numbers. He opened gaps when we needed him to open gaps. He did everything we asked him to do and victory lane was the result.”
A superb race weekend for Andretti Autosport at Long Beach with Kirkwood standing tall. (Photo: Maddie Skidan | The Podium Finish)
Right away, the 85-lap madness began when 2001 Long Beach winner Helio Castroneves lost control of his No. 06 Honda, bringing out the caution on Lap 1. Christian Lundgaard was behind Castroneves when the incident happened in Turn 2, but no contact was made.
Already a frustrating season, Castroneves’ main damage was only on the front wing. He was able to get re-fired up to continue his afternoon.
On Lap 7, Callum Ilott had a right front flat tire after wall contact, putting another dagger on a rather rough weekend for the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver.
All remained calm up front with Kirkwood leading, but Josef Newgarden was a man on a mission.
On Lap 19, the defending Long Beach winner had a huge run on third-place Grosjean and passed him in Turn 1.
Then on Lap 20, chaos ensued between in turn 8. Battling for sixth, Pato O’Ward went low to get by Scott Dixon. The latter tried shutting the door on O’Ward and it backfired as Dixon stuffed it into the tire barriers.
Dixon was able to continue his race, but a rare incident eliminated him from a strong result and ended up last for only the ninth time in his INDYCAR career.
After his day ended, Dixon was frustrated with INDYCAR in terms of how racing etiquette has changed and how the race started.
“It seemed extremely late. I was already committed into the corner. I understand there’s tire deg, but I wouldn’t have chosen to do that,” Dixon on the incident with O’Ward. “If that’s what INDYCAR wants us to race, I guess it’s all gloves off from this point.”
“Frustrating day, plus the start was a complete joke. I don’t know what the calling up there was. It seemed like Rows 6 or 5 went way before the leader (Kirkwood) did.”
From there, pit stops happened with Kirkwood just beating out Newgarden to keep the race lead, nearly tangling each other, but nothing serious happened.
Agustin Canapino stayed out and was leading for the first time in his career. Suddenly, his teammate, Ilott, caused pain for the rest of the field after exiting pit road.
More chaos built up once again, this time in Turn 8 which was a burden with O’Ward running out of patience and nearly tangling with Kirkwood.
The championship leader fell back outside the top-10 but didn’t have to pit for damage repairs. O’Ward lost the championship lead to third-place Marcus Ericsson after finishing 17th.
O’Ward dropped to second in points going into Barber in two weeks. (Photo: Maddie Skidan | The Podium Finish)
Meanwhile, Newgarden passed Kirkwood after the latter was held up by a sideways Canapino, making slight contact but it was no harm, no foul for Kirkwood.
As for Canapino, he briefly retired from the race, but returned in the action to gain two more spots to finish 25th, 33 laps behind Kirkwood. The Argentinean explained his day going haywire because of his teammate exiting pit road after the restart.
“I lost a lot of time behind him and after that, Helio tried overtaking me,” said Canapino. “Touched the car, touched the wall. It’s a shame because we had a good car today with the black tires, but it’s racing.”
Newgarden continued leading the race, but Kirkwood was slowly catching him. Patience was key in this sequence, but he also had to worry about seeing a mirror full of Grosjean.
Such battles were on hold with 33 to go when Newgarden was the first among the lead group to pit.
A couple of laps later, Kirkwood pitted and was well ahead of Grosjean and Newgarden to regain the top spot despite his pit stop being slightly slower than the leaders.
The key ingredient proved to be a 0.207 second difference of pit time, including a pit out lap difference of 0.793 seconds. It proved to be the difference of the race outcome.
Therefore, the battle really boiled down to the Andretti Autosport drivers who had not won an INDYCAR race.
Kirkwood’s best outing up to that point was Long Beach a year ago while Grosjean already had three runner-up finishes.
Kirkwood ahead of Grosjean, delivering a great show in Southern California. (Photo: Logan Skidan | The Podium Finish)
However, Kirkwood was beginning to run in a different zip code as he pulled away from Grosjean.
Newgarden faded away and regressed late in the going that he was no longer in the top-five, finishing ninth.
On the final lap, Alexander Rossi’s quiet day ended after crashing into the barriers. Meanwhile, his old ride went to victory lane as Kirkwood became the sixth different driver to win at Long Beach from the pole since INDYCAR began racing there in 1984.
“I was so happy with just the pole yesterday, but I’m over the moon right now. Man, this is incredible for everyone for the team,” said Kirkwood. “We had a stellar day as a team with Andretti Autosport. Romain finished second there and he was keeping me on my toes. Colton got P4, just an incredible day.”
Although INDYCAR will not have its next round until two weeks when they travel to Barber Motorsports Park (Sunday, Apr. 30 at 3 p.m. ET on NBC), drivers and teams will have a two-day open test session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The test will take place Thursday and Friday to prepare for the 107th Indianapolis 500 with both sessions streaming on Peacock.
48th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Results:
- 27 – Kyle Kirkwood
- 28 – Romain Grosjean
- 8 – Marcus Ericsson
- 26 – Colton Herta
- 10 – Alex Palou
- 12 – Will Power
- 6 – Felix Rosenqvist
- 11 – Marcus Armstrong (R)
- 2 – Josef Newgarden
- 3 – Scott McLaughlin
- 14 – Santino Ferrucci
- 15 – Graham Rahal
- 30 – Jack Harvey
- 45 – Christian Lundgaard
- 60 – Simon Pagenaud
- 29 – Devlin DeFrancesco
- 5 – Pato O’Ward
- 51 – Sting Ray Robb (R)
- 77 – Callum Ilott
- 18 – David Malukas
- 06 – Helio Castroneves
- 7 – Alexander Rossi (Off Course)
- 20 – Conor Daly (-1 lap)
- 55 – Benjamin Pedersen (R) (-2 laps)
- 78 – Agustin Canapino (R) (-33 laps)
- 21 – Rinus VeeKay (Mechanical)
- 9 – Scott Dixon (Mechanical)
