IndyCar Long Beach: Kirkwood converts pole to win in a dominant drive

Evan Roberts
2 days ago
3 min read

Written by Evan Roberts

Ahead of the green flag, it appeared the teams had learnt from losing out at St Pete where they found themselves caught out on the primaries by an early caution.

Throughout the grid there were only six primary starters, with the top 11 all opting for the softer alternates.

The opening lap was fairly well behaved for IndyCar standards, the main shake up being winner of the first two rounds Alex Palou, losing a couple of places into the first corner.

Team Penske and Josef Newgarden were one of the first of the poor qualifiers to make incredibly early stop at the end of only the second lap, getting rid of the alternates and charging into clean air.

The first of the lead group to head to pit road was Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin on lap five. McLaughlin got the jump on the Californian in the Andretti on their first lap out the box.

Once the first pit stop cycle ironed out by lap 9 Kirkwood maintained the lead. As if by magic, the squabbling between the drivers attempting the undercut led to Palou popping up into an incredibly advantageous position, moving up three positions to second.

Those who had opted for the harder primary tyre at the start, led by Christian Lundgaard, made their first stop on lap 27, and having started in 12th worked the overcut to great effect, moving his way onto the softs and into fourth.

It soon became clear the race was to be a three stop strategy, the lack of longevity of the green ‘guayule’ cited as the reason.

The second pit cycle was somewhat less dramatic than the first, Palou pulling the pin on lap 33 in an attempt to undercut the Andretti of Kirkwood. A move that did not work however as Kirkwood managed, over the course of a lap, to gain a three second buffer to his closest competitor.

Surprisingly, over on the alternate strategy, Lundgaard’s soft stint was more prosperous than expected, the higher degradation not having hurt him as much as was assumed.

The Dane emerged from pit lane in third. He wouldn’t hold the position for long though, cold tyres costing him the position on the podium to fellow Scandinavian Felix Rosenqvist.

One of the emerging stories of the day came in the form of Sting Ray Robb and Juncos, who opted for the primary tyre in the first two stints which meant for the first time in his IndyCar career he led a race. It wasn’t without result either, the American popping up on the alternate tyre in ninth.

Another peculiar event occurred for Newgarden who seemed the aggressor on pit road had his race undone by a seatbelt issue. Losing a lap as the Penske crew sorted it out in the box.

The first of the leaders to make their final stop would be Lundgaard from fourth, followed a lap later by Rosenqvist. Both maintaining their respective positions.

Palou followed suit two laps later, one lap earlier than race leader Kirkwood. A mix of lapped traffic and cold tyres led to a close call for the Andretti driver as his mirrors were quickly filled red and yellow by the Chip Gannasi Racing car of Palou.

In what was a tense moment, it came down to lap 65 to decide the outcome of the race and whether Kirkwood would be able to get his tyres up to temperature. Thankfully for the Floridian, he managed to just in time, as by the time the pair got to the back straight, the primaries were in their working window.

That would end up being the tale of the tape, as the rest of the race was fairly uneventful, running caution free in Long Beach for only the fifth time in the event’s storied history and the first time since 2016.

Kirkwood took his second win at Long Beach in three years, dominating the race from start to finish. Moving himself up to second in the championship too.

He would be joined on the podium by championship leader Palou as well as Arrow McLaren’s Lundgaard who made a late charge to claim the final spot on the rostrum from Rosenqvist with five laps to go. Taking his second consecutive third place.

The rest of the top ten: P4 Rosenqvist, P5 Power, P6 McLaughlin, P7 Herta, P8 Dixon, P9 Robb, P10 Simpson.

Two other notable performances towards the bottom of the top ten were for the aforementioned Robb as well as Kyffin Simpson who both equalled their best IndyCar result with ninth and tenth respectively.