ARLINGTON, Texas — Kyle Kirkwood keeps taking it to the streets in IndyCar, and this time he won a new race to take the lead in the points standings for the American open-wheel series.
Kirkwood made an aggressive pass below four-time series champion Alex Palou with 15 laps to go, stayed in front the rest of the way, and took the checkered flag under caution Sunday in the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington. It was the sixth career win for the 27-year-old Florida native, including his fifth on a street circuit.
“I mean, it’s a statement of how good we are on street courses, right?” Kirkwood said.
On a day when Andretti Global had some problems in the pits, including a long stop for Kirkwood midway through the race, all three of the team’s Hondas still finished in the top four and combined to lead 47 of the race’s 70 laps. Will Power was third for a podium finish, while Marcus Ericsson, who started in pole position for the first time in his 171 series starts, led 15 laps and was fourth.
The winning pass by Kirkwood came on the last of 14 turns on the temporary 2.73-mile circuit that ran between the home stadiums of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys and Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.
“He just launched, and it was a clean pass, amazing pass,” said Palou, the 28-year-old Spaniard who is seeking a fourth straight IndyCar title and bounced back from crashing out on the one-mile flat oval at Phoenix Raceway a week earlier.
“It was kind of all or nothing,” Kirkwood said. “I just had to do a bit of a late lunge to kind of surprise him a little bit, because I think if he started defending, there was probably no chance of us getting by him. That was probably the only place that we were going to be able to pass him.”
Palou, who wound up second in his Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, knew Kirkwood had been gaining on him.
“Should have obviously defended a little bit better, but it’s very easy to say now. But yeah, honestly, I didn’t really have much for him,” said Palou, who won the season opener on the street course in St. Petersburg, Florida, a week before failing to finish at Phoenix. “I’m really happy getting on the podium and trying to steal a little bit of Andretti’s party this weekend.”
During his IndyCar career, Kirkwood has won twice in Long Beach, California, and he also took the checkered flag at street courses in Detroit and Nashville. He began this season with a fourth-place finish at St. Pete, and a runner-up finish to Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden at Phoenix. His only victory not a street course came last June on the 1.25-mile oval at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis, which was his third and final win of the 2025 season.
While matching Kirkwood and Power for a race-high 16 laps led, Palou wasn’t able to regain the series points lead; he had been on top of the IndyCar standings since June 2024 until the trouble in Phoenix. However, he did move up from fifth to second and has an even 100 points through three races — 26 behind new leader Kirkwood.
After making up a more than five-second deficit to take the lead, Kirkwood was in front by more than five seconds until two late cautions tightened the field.
A final sprint for the checkered flag never materialized because of a collision in the back of the field on the restart as Kirkwood and Palou were beginning the final lap. That crash in the tight 14th turn brought out a full-course caution, and safety crews were still on the track when they got back around nearly two minutes later to cross the finish line.
Pato O’Ward — who was fifth for Arrow McLaren in the highest finish for a Chevrolet — and Newgarden, who placed 15th in Arlington, are tied for fourth in the points standings with 93.
Race officials said the nine temporary grandstands that held nearly 22,000 people were sold out. That number doesn’t count the numerous hospitality suites for folks like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who was in attendance, or the crowded general admission areas throughout the Arlington entertainment district where fans watched cars racing on the city streets.
“Every stand was full. … The track looked amazing,” said Power, a two-time IndyCar season champion. “It just looked like a big event. This is setting a new standard of what our events should look like.”
Said Kirkwood: “This event was done right. I can see this being one of our marquee events outside of the (Indianapolis) 500 in a very short period of time if we continue coming back here.”
The first weekend off of 2026 is ahead, and the return to competition comes March 29 in the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix, which is held on a permanent road course at Barber Motorsports Park just outside of Birmingham.