Kirkwood\u2019s win at the 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach<\/a> was just the first of his career. He now has six IndyCar victories under his belt.<\/p>\n\u201cThe question is, \u2018Can we be consistent?\u2019, and I think a lot of those questions are being answered based on our performance and capabilities,\u201d Kirkwood said.<\/p>\n
The moment to overtake Alex Palou to win the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington in Texas on March 15 was based largely on confidence or \u201cintentional risk,\u201d Kirkwood said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to drive through the field a little to get back to (Palou), but as soon as I got to him, I was like, \u2018You know what, I just need to go right now,\u2019\u201d Kirkwood said. \u201cBecause if I make the decision to not (pass), who knows what\u2019s going to happen in a couple laps. Maybe my tires will degrade, maybe he\u2019ll get faster (or) maybe he\u2019ll start defending, and I won\u2019t be able to get by him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo as soon as I saw the opportunity to try to catch him off-guard a little bit, I set myself up through Turn 12 and then down into 14 I sprayed my overtake, used all of the hybrid system that I had and gave it a good launch and a good try at it and made it stick,\u201d Kirkwood said. \u201cI was a little but of a risk for a reward, I\u2019d have to say, but it was an intentional risk for reward.\u201d<\/p>\n
LEGEND IN LONG BEACH<\/p>\n
Over the past 20 years, four other drivers \u2013 Will Power, Scott Dixon, Mike Conway and Alexander Rossi \u2013 have won twice at Long Beach. All are icons of the sport.<\/p>\n
Kirkwood is now a Sunday\u2019s drive away from joining an even more legendary list that includes Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy and Sebastian Bourdais as three-time winners.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a good shot at another win, but No. 1 is putting a good lap together in qualifying,\u201d Kirkwood said. \u201cHaving the right race strategy is very, very important, too, and it\u2019s what got us back into the lead last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirkwood earned last year\u2019s poll but ran behind race leaders to save on tires and fuel before regaining the lead following a late pit and taking it across the finish line.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, we won\u2019t have as big of a target on our back as I probably would anticipate because we are the most recent winners and we have won two of the last three,\u201d Kirkwood said. \u201cLong Beach is typically a two-stop race, and you\u2019re trying to go as long as you can on alternate tires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rossi, who won at Long Beach in 2018 and 2019, will be inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
BEST IN THE U.S.?<\/p>\n
He was called a street-course \u201cking,\u201d \u201cspecialist\u201d or \u201cmerchant\u201d by industry writers after his first four series victories, so those two wins on the streets of Long Beach, one each in Nashville, Detroit, Madison, Ill., and now Arlington have given Kirkwood something of a reputation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that I anticipated what street courses were going to become for me,\u201d he said. \u201cMy background is in carting and road courses and that style of racing, but street courses have suited the team as much as me. We\u2019ve just been clicking on street courses.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the debate rages among fans whether it\u2019s Kirkwood or Palou who own the streets in IndyCar, the two-time GPLB champ deflects from engaging with driver-focused ratings or polls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team still has good racing to do,\u201d Kirkwood said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to win on more than just street courses to win a championship. We gotta win on road courses (and) we gotta win at ovals, which we did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
His win at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Ill., in June helped shred some of the previous labeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just gotta keep that up, and we have to keep our form at every place we go because in IndyCar, it matters what you do on all the courses and not just the street courses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re only a few races in, and you\u2019re only as good as your last race, but it is a good feeling right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Kirkwood is leaning into IndyCar\u2019s media machine as the series\u2019 man of the moment. After winning with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,28942,133,132,14396,127],"class_list":["post-267915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-grand-prix","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-motorsports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267915","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=267915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}