![\"Kyle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/03-16-Kirkwood-Podium.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMaybe it was for the best that Kyle Kirkwood miscalculated his laps in qualifying for Sunday\u2019s inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington. Otherwise, he might have driven away from the field sooner in the 70-lap race.<\/p>\n
The mistake in qualifying forced Kirkwood to start from the seventh position, third among Andretti Global\u2019s three NTT INDYCAR SERIES drivers. It was soon clear Sunday he was on a heater, driving through the field on a challenging circuit.<\/p>\n
Yes, it took Kirkwood 55 laps to get the lead, but once there he was gone. Oh, a late-race caution created some degree of drama, but four-time series champion Alex Palou, the driver Kirkwood passed for the lead with 16 laps to go, wasn\u2019t disillusioned. He knew second place was the best he could do against this opponent on this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried hard, man,\u201d Palou said of trying to keep Kirkwood at bay. \u201cHe was really fast. I could see already on second and third stint that I was pushing as much as I could, using (the overtake) to try to get gaps. He was closing three-, four-tenths (of a second per lap) on me. I was like, \u2018Oh, man, it’s going to be tough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It certainly was, and Kirkwood\u2019s car was so strong he surely didn\u2019t need to make the pass for the lead look as bold as it was.<\/p>\n
The combination of Kirkwood and his No. 27 JM Bullion\/Gold.com Honda was the class of the field on this windy day, and it wasn\u2019t close. No one should have been surprised. Kirkwood, who was quick all weekend, has become the street circuit king, winning five of the past 14 races. (Alex Palou has won three of those races, Pato O\u2019Ward and Scott Dixon two each.) And lately, Andretti Global has been just as good on such courses as he has been.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sunday, first-year Andretti Global driver Will Power joined Kirkwood (photo, above) on the podium with a third-place finish, and teammate Marcus Ericsson was a step behind him. That\u2019s three of the top four finishers, with the trio nearly equally combining to lead two-thirds of the laps.<\/p>\n
Kirkwood\u2019s car was trimmed out more than Palou\u2019s, giving him a sleeker machine for the long straightaway on the 14-turn, 2.73-mile temporary circuit in an event that drew rave reviews. But Kirkwood also drove with the confidence that came from winning on the streets of Long Beach (twice), Nashville and Detroit in the past three seasons. He also finished second to then-teammate Colton Herta in Toronto in 2024.<\/p>\n
Kirkwood even won Sunday\u2019s race despite a late bobble by his crew on the final pit stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came out further behind (Palou) than I anticipated,\u201d he said of the brief time he lost on pit road. \u201cBut we ran him down in two or three laps. I was like, \u2018Man, we have the pace to make it happen right now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Kirkwood made the late lunge into Turn 14 to get the lead when he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cI (didn\u2019t) know if we were going to have the pace to make it happen in (another) 10 laps,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was part of some of the urgency. I wasn’t quite sure I had the confidence or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I did the first few laps, it was very showing that we had a lot of pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirkwood led Palou by more than five seconds when a late caution arrived. With Kirkwood laying down fast laps and Palou conceding victory, it\u2019s likely the official margin would have been higher without the yellow that bunched up the field.<\/p>\n
Still, a win is a win, and Kirkwood seems to be collecting them with great regularity. He nabbed three last year despite having a poor second half of the season. He already has his first win this season, and he has the points lead as a bonus \u2013 a first for his career. He has finished fourth, second and first in three starts to the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re (only) three races in, (so) I don’t want to focus too much on the championship,\u201d the 27-year-old Floridian said. \u201cI want to focus on the next race in front of us, maximizing our performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, we’re good at street courses. We’ve figured out short ovals now. We’re going to a road course next. That’s where we need to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up is one of those road courses. The Children\u2019s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix is Sunday, March 29 at Barber Motorsports Park (1 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe it was for the best that Kyle Kirkwood miscalculated his laps in qualifying for Sunday\u2019s inaugural Java…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-222601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}