Long Beach front row lockout “no shocker” for Andretti IndyCar

Written by Archie O’Reilly

Credit: Sabine Rojas

Kyle Kirkwood has described Andretti Global’s front row lockout at IndyCar's Grand Prix of Long Beach as “no shocker” after taking pole position for the famed IndyCar event for the second time in three years.

The 26-year-old, who took his first IndyCar win from pole on the streets of Long Beach in 2023, will share the front row with teammate Colton Herta for Sunday’s race.

“Andretti has been really good here in recent years - even more so this year,” Kirkwood said. “We rolled off the end of the season last year really, really strong at street courses. We’ve been really strong - especially these more bumpy, less grip street courses - and proved it here once again here today.”

Kirkwood’s two career IndyCar wins - both coming as a sophomore in 2023 - have come on street tracks, with victory in Nashville following his Long Beach success.

“Street courses for some reason suit me,” he said. “They also suit Andretti and our philosophy on how to develop a car. You tend to like the tracks that you do best at and this is one of them."

“This is an enjoyable track to drive. It’s not a typical street circuit where it’s just 90-degree corners. There’s a lot more character to it than just that and some pretty massive brake zones and disparities from high and low speed corners.”

Kirkwood admitted it “definitely helps” to have experience winning from pole at the track, albeit strategy meant he did not lead from start to finish two years ago.

“It is very important,” he said. “Strategy will come into play a little bit to how it dictates the race but it definitely helps to be able to control that strategy and kick it out from the lead. Hopefully I maintain the lead in the first stint and from there it’s clean sailing. But that’s not how IndyCar racing typically goes.”

Credit: Travis Hinkle

Andretti has not had a car qualify outside the top 10 so far in 2025. Herta, who is also a former Long Beach pole sitter and winner, has qualified no lower than fourth and achieved a second front row of the season at Long Beach after also starting second for the opener in St. Petersburg. 

“At Andretti, this is one [race] that I personally mark my calendars for and we mark our calendars for that we tend to come here with good race cars,” he said. “I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed.”

There was a slightly precarious moment at the end of the opening round of qualifying, with Herta relying on his final run to transfer to the Fast 12. He slapped the outside wall on the exit of the Turn 11 hairpin, damaging a toe link, but still advanced.

“It’s tough, the street circuits, because there’s no margin for error,” he said. “At least for me and my feeling, the hybrid has made the street courses a little bit more difficult, especially under braking. So maybe that’s some of [what led to errors]."

“But it’s pretty typical for a few guys to crash in qualifying here. I crashed in Round 1 - I was just able to make it across the line but completely destroyed the toe link. A lot of people have moments and incidents like that. It’s the nature of this track and street course racing in general in IndyCar. It’s so competitive - you have to get everything out of it.”

Having run in Group 1 in the opening round, Herta’s No.26 Honda was safely fixed in plenty of time. Andretti ultimately got all three cars into the Fast Six, with Marcus Ericsson finishing fifth and maintaining a record of qualifying no lower than seventh in 2025.

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Two-time defending and three-time series champion, championship leader and winner of the first two races, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Álex Palou, starts behind Kirkwood and Herta in third. But the Andretti drivers are taking belief from having a pair of cars ahead of the Spaniard.

“That is important,” Kirkwood said. “It still is early in the championship but you obviously want to keep beating the guy that is the most likely to win. We’re there but we need to maintain it so hopefully we got good race cars."

“We have had really good race cars here in the past so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t. We have two opportunities to do it - three with Marcus. Marcus was super fast too. Out of the three of us, we need to get something done here this weekend.”

Kirkwood and Herta, albeit in the reverse order to their Long Beach starting positions, worked together seamlessly to control the race and finish one-two in Toronto last year. They are free to race but there may be lessons to take from last season’s Canadian round.

“It helps that you have teammates around you,” Kirkwood said. “It’s not the same as Toronto because we were in a position there where we needed to win a race - it had been a while. Here, of course you don’t take unnecessary risks but you also race your teammates.”

With no team-based championship in IndyCar, there is an understanding between the drivers that they can fight one another for the win.

“I’m glad that Andretti lets us race,” Herta said. “I think me and Kyle have always been extremely fair with each other in how we go about racing each other; Toronto was an example, Thermal last weekend we raced basically the whole race nose-to-tail."

“We understand that if there’s an opportunity to pass, we’re going to pass each other. But without unnecessary risks. We’re really good at trying to manage that relationship aspect.”

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Herta hailed the dynamic between the three drivers - all proven race winners in IndyCar - and places it in the bracket of being healthy competition. 

“It hasn’t always been this way at Andretti,” he said. “So there’s really no selfishness or no egos in the building. That usually comes from drivers. Luckily, we don’t have that. They’re easy to work with, they provide really good feedback."

“And most importantly, what you want in a teammate, selfishly, is you want them to be extremely fast because you want to be able to look at what they’re doing and make yourself better. I’ve got two of those with me.”

Kirkwood echoed the comments of his teammate.

“We’ve got three guys that can get things done,” he said. “We have different views on things but, at the same time, we all reconvene in a way. So it’s nice having different outlooks, different driving styles. But at the same time we’re all really quick and we can all trust each other that we can reference each other, which is not always the case."

“Sometimes you have really fast drivers but you can’t reference them. That’s not the case with us. We have a good camaraderie amongst us, driving style and friendship.”

In terms of trying to bring home a win for the team at Long Beach, Herta suggested it will be a team decision whether strategy is split to cover all bases but does believe they will give each driver a fair shot at winning.

The race, with five laps more than in 2024, remains somewhat of an unknown. The expectation is that the softer alternate tyre may be unfavoured - similar to in St. Petersburg - but unrepresentative conditions through practice mean warmup will be a crucial session of discovery.

“It’s going to be guessing,” Kirkwood said. “And I couldn’t ask for a better team to guess with.”