Kyle Kirkwood Looks To Build on INDYCAR Strong Start at Long Beach GP

Photo: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment

Kyle Kirkwood is one of six drivers to score back-to-back top ten finishes in the opening two races of this year’s NTT INDYCAR Series season. While it’s a good start for the driver of the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda, Kirkwood feels it could’ve been better.

“I should be a lot more satisfied than I am, I would say, because if you look back at St. Pete, one of our better races, I pretty much followed Alex Palou the entire race and watched him win, which is disappointing.

“Then Thermal we were on for what seemed like a locked top-four finish, two top fives in a row, we had huge tire deg for five laps to go, which ruined our race and we finished eighth. Of course, could be worse. As a driver, as a competitor, you always want better.

“We'll be excited to get back to Long Beach, at a place we all know very, very well, and is one of our top tracks at Andretti Global.”

To that point, Kirkwood scored his initial INDYCAR win at Long Beach two years ago and is why he’s so eager to return.

“Definitely,” replied Kirkwood. “I think if you look back at history in general, Long Beach has been one of the best tracks for Andretti Global. I think Toronto and Detroit are starting to grow on that. Street courses in general, really, really good.

“Long Beach has been a top one for the team. We’re always excited. That place just produces a lot of good energy with the amount of fans, et cetera, et cetera.

“Always a good place to get back to.”

Photo: Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment

Making this weekend more special is the celebration of the 50th running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, arguably an event on the schedule that’s second in prestige only to the Indianapolis 500.

“The history behind it is what makes it so special, the fans that come out to it. It made it even more special that I won it with Andretti, given that they have so much history around that track.

“It's prestigious because of how many people show up, really, the history behind it, which is the same reason for the Indy 500, right? It still is our second biggest race of the year. It was a really big deal for me to win there.”

In addition to his 2023 win, Kirkwood has two top ten finishes in his previous three starts at Long Beach. While he’s at a loss to explain exactly why he’s been so good at Long Beach, he knows he enjoys the challenge in presents.

“I mean, some people like to say I’m kind of a street course merchant. That place is just an enjoyable place to drive. It's very unique for a street course. It's not just 90-degree corners, like most of them are. The constant change in asphalt makes you adapt very quickly to what the grip level is going to be in one corner versus the next. I enjoy that. I think it's fun.

“I couldn't tell you why I'm fast around there, because if that was the case I would take that to every single track I ever go to. I just find it really enjoyable to drive.”

Off to the best start of his young INDYCAR career, the Florida native is quick to credit the team for his early season results.

“I would like to say it's me, but it's not (smiling). I mean, I think I'm doing a decent job. The team has also put a huge effort into making sure that we’re quicker at some of these other tracks, right?

“I think Andretti has always been really good at street courses. We needed to get maybe a little bit better at some of the road courses. Maybe as the years went on, they degraded a little bit. Same with short ovals. I think that's something we nailed last year and we've gotten closer on the road courses this year. It's a magnitude of things.

“I'm doing a decent job, but also the team has gotten better at some of these tracks.”

Photo: Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment

In previous years, Andretti had an affiliation with Meyer-Shank Racing, with drivers and engineers from both teams all debriefing in the same meeting. Now that that affiliation has ended, Kirkwood doesn’t feel like the team is missing anything.

“It’s hard to say. I would say more often than not having so many cars under one umbrella confused us.

“Even though you have so much information from running that many cars, sometimes it gets a little too confusing, especially when you have as many different dynamics amongst the drivers, how they want to have things. It can just get confusing.

“We don't feel like we're missing anything is the simple answer. At the same time it is nice to have that information, especially if you're running out of information to look at. I don't think that is the case at the moment.”

Now in his fourth season in the series, Kirkwood feels like he’s improving and getting closer to being a more consistent winner and a championship contender.

“I mean, I feel like I'm chipping away at it. I'm disappointed that we haven't gotten the wins we had in 2023. We're also putting ourselves in positions to be a lot closer to a lot more wins.

“My goal coming of out of 2023 was to get more top fives after 2023. We have definitely done so, put ourselves in position to win a lot more recently, but we still haven't gotten those wins.

“It's a two-edged sword,” continued Kirkwood. “I think this weekend coming into Long Beach is one of our best opportunities to do so. We're obviously going to be looking for a win.

“Honestly, at this time we need wins to be able to win a championship here because Alex Palou is just walking away with it at the moment. We need to turn that ship around”

Photo: Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment

And how does Kirkwood go about doing that?

“We got to do the same thing that they're doing: we got to win races. We can't let them get a big head start. That is one thing that Palou has done in the past couple years, gets a huge head start, then everybody claws back at him at the end of the season. He's kind of on cruise control at that point.

“We need to not let him get out front and hold him back a little bit. That comes with not letting him win at all these tracks, especially the ones that we're strong at.

“This is a very crucial weekend for us to turn things around in the championship hunt. Even though it's still early in the season, a lot of people don't look at points. They're like, well, it's only two races in of the 17-race season. If the guy is 60 points ahead of you, you got to kind of pay attention to that.

“There is a long way to go. You're also falling behind very early, which is not something you want to do.”

There is one thing Kirkwood learned last year that he says he needs to apply this weekend at Long Beach, and throughout the season, if he’s to challenge for the championship.

“Yeah, I would say I learned how to be consistent, I learned how to get ourselves in a good position, but I also realize that it takes somewhat of a conservative mindset to get the consistency. You need a little bit more aggression to be able to get the wins and podiums.

“Trying to balance that is kind of the name of the game for me this year.”