By Roy J. Akers-www.skyviewsports.net
Kirkwood leads early… midway and takes the checkered flag
Kyle Kirkwood came into Long Beach ranked second in NTT Indy Car points. He leaves that way with only Alex Palou in front of him. It’s rare, but Palou finishes second and Christian Lundgaard third.
Checkered Flag
Kyle Kirkwood had a dominant weekend and led four times for 43 laps came in ahead of NTT series leader Alex Palou. Kirkwood has had a win, a second top-five and a top-ten in three races. His goals for 2025 are consistency and earning a victory. So far he has accomplished all three.
You mentioned you sit second in the
championship, as high as you ever have been in your young INDYCAR career. We haven’t had you any sort of title fight position the last couple years. Do you feel like you’re ready to win a championship in 2025?
KYLE KIRKWOOD: Of course. When I was younger,
that’s all I did was win championships. It’s a different sensation when you’re fighting kind of for those even top fives in the championship, right? It’s a completely different
mindset.”
Podium Second
Alex Palou won the first two races of the NTT Indy Car season and his worst finish is second thus far. Palou is the last driver you want to see in your rearview mirror coming down the stretch and Kirkwood gave the two-time defending champ no room to close the gap. Palou leads Kirkwood by 34 points after three races with 14 to go this season. Palou said passing was tough, but not impossible. “Yeah, at the end of the day it’s a street course. When you have a fast car starting up front and not many cars out of position, it’s tough to overtake on track.
It’s always going to be tough. But I think, yeah, Power moved from 13th to fourth or fifth.
So that’s pretty awesome. And also him, yeah, it’s tough. It’s always going to be tough to overtake on street courses.“
Podium Third- Christian Lundgaard
Lundgaard led the race twice for 26 laps and earned his second top-five finish in three races and a third finish in the top-ten. Lundgaard started the race in the 12 position and ran up front. It looks like NTT Indy Car has a changing of the guard with all three podium finishers. Lundgaard on his podium finish. “Yeah, awesome day. I told the team this morning, even before warm-up, Let’s try to go aggressive, and le’s see what we can do. We have the most tires of everybody. We had two sets of alts, three sets of new primaries. So I think all options were open for us today.”
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NTT Indy Car Story
| LONG BEACH, Calif. (Sunday, April 13, 2025) – Kyle Kirkwood used a superhuman drive Sunday on the streets of Long Beach to prove that Alex Palou is human, after all.Kirkwood mastered an intriguing contest of tire strategy and speed to win the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach under sunny Southern California skies, ending Palou’s two-race win streak to start the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season. SEE: Race Results Florida native Kirkwood earned his second Long Beach win from the pole in the last three years, driving the No. 27 PreFab Honda of Andretti Global to a 2.6859-second victory over runner-up Palou in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Kirkwood also won this race in 2023, his first NTT P1 Award and series victory.“We controlled the race, even from practice,” Kirkwood said. “Really good qualifying, amazing race, amazing strategy. It was just execution all across the board that won us that race today because if Palou was in front, he would have beat us, for sure. This was a track-position race here today, without any yellows.”Kirkwood led 46 of 90 laps in the second consecutive caution-free race this season, the first NTT INDYCAR SERIES race without a yellow flag on the iconic 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit and its formidable and close concrete walls since 2016.Christian Lundgaard finished third in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet after passing Felix Rosenqvist’s No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing in Turn 1 for the final podium position with five laps remaining. Rosenqvist placed fourth, as the top four finishers in the race also hold the same spots in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings.Two-time Long Beach winner Will Power rounded out the top five finishers in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet.Reigning series champion Palou, who started third, fell short of becoming the first NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver to win the first three races of the season since fellow series title winner and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon in 2020. But Palou’s metronomic, fast consistency helped him keep the championship lead, by 34 points over Kirkwood in second.“You never feel amazing when you finish second, but honestly, the 27 car and Kyle, they were amazing all weekend,” Palou said. “Super fast.“I tried my chances, but we couldn’t really make it work. I had a really bad start on my side, and that kind of put us on the back foot. But we did the best we could. Amazing to be here second, but hopefully next year we can just improve one step.”The race quickly became a contest of dueling strategies between the Firestone Firehawk primary and alternate tires. INDYCAR rules require teams to use both tire compounds for at least two laps per race, and many drivers who started on the grippier but less durable alternate tires shed them within the first 10 laps for the more durable primary compound.Kirkwood and Palou were on the dominant strategy of the race, as Palou pitted after Lap 6 and Kirkwood Lap 7 to get on the black-sidewall tires. It became clear through the next fuel and tire cycles that Kirkwood and Palou were the two fastest drivers on track, as the strategists from each team kept close tabs on each other, ensuring no missed chances to pounce due to changing tactics.The true flashpoint of the race came on Lap 66. Palou made his final pit stop at the end of Lap 64, taking a final set of Firestone Firehawk primary tires. Kirkwood did the same at the end of Lap 65, and Palou was right on his gearbox on hotter, grippier tires when Kirkwood exited the pits at the start of Lap 66.But Kirkwood stared down intense pressure on his out lap from Palou, who never got close enough to make a move for the lead. Kirkwood then took the lead for good on Lap 69 when Kyffin Simpson, one of only six drivers to start the race on primary tires, pitted from the lead in the No. 8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi Racing Honda as he was off-sequence on pit strategy from the drivers who started on the alternate tire. That was the last of nine lead changes today, the most for the INDYCAR SERIES at Long Beach since 2012.Lundgaard led 26 laps – second to only Kirkwood – despite starting 12th and using the less-popular strategy of starting on primary tires. His strong result came after Arrow McLaren mechanics worked overtime to rebuild his car after Lundgaard crashed Saturday in qualifying.The next NTT INDYCAR SERIES race is the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday, May 4 on the natural-terrain road course at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. |
He Said It…
Tale of the Tape
Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 100.395 mph
Time of Race: 01:45:51.2058
Margin of victory: 2.6859 seconds
Cautions: None
Lead changes: 9 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders:
Kirkwood, Kyle 1 – 6
Armstrong, Marcus 7
Lundgaard, Christian 8 – 27
Dixon, Scott 28 – 29
Kirkwood, Kyle 30 – 34
Lundgaard, Christian 35 – 40
Robb, Sting Ray 41 – 52
Kirkwood, Kyle 53 – 65
Simpson, Kyffin 66 – 68
Kirkwood, Kyle 69 – 90
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 142, Kirkwood 108, Lundgaard 96, Rosenqvist 88, Dixon 86, O’Ward 80, Herta 73, McLaughlin 69, Power 63, Newgarden 58, Rossi 58, Ericsson 55, Ferrucci 51, Armstrong 50, Simpson 48, Veekay 46, Rahal 45, Malukas 42, Rasmussen 40, Robb 39, Daly 32, Shwartzman 30, Siegel 26, Ilott 25, Foster 25, DeFrancesco 24, Abel 17
