By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
It was a perfect weekend for Kyle Kirkwood and the No. 27 Andretti Global team as they won the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. This marks Kirkwood’s second win on the California street circuit and his third in IndyCar competition and Andretti Global’s fourth win in the last seven races at Long Beach.
“To win here, the 50th, with this team, with this group, with Honda, an Acura-sponsored event is absolutely massive,” Kirkwood said after the win. “This was a flawless weekend for myself, for the team, for the crew, for everyone involved. When you have flawless weekends like this, you tend to
win. This is a big step in the right direction. I know coming into this event, this was our time to turn things around. Fortunately we were able to get it done. This is probably one of our top three circuits I think on
schedule. It’s important that we win those to have any chance of winning a championship. This is a start.
Hopefully this is a continuation of great things.”
Kirkwood won the pole on Saturday and led 46 laps, all while holding off Alex Palou, who was seeking a third straight win. Sunday’s result continues the top 10 streak at Long Beach for Kirkwood as he has finished in the top 10 in all four starts.
Following Kirkwood and Palou was Christian Lundgaard in third (his second podium in a row), Felix Roseqvist in fourth and Will Power in fifth.
This was the second caution-free race in a row and drivers had to maximize their tire strategy. Only six drivers started on the primary, black tire, while 21 drivers started on the alternate, green tire. All the drivers that started on the alternate tire pitted off of them within the first 10 laps of the race, setting up dual strategies. All six drivers that started on the black tire stayed out, led by Lundgaard.
Lundgaard made his first pit stop on lap 28, allowing Kirkwood and Palou to retake the command of the race. In every pit stop, Kirkwood would come out ahead of Palou, all while holding gaps of half a second or more. Kirkwood and Palou would hold first and second for majority of the race as they alternated the overcut and undercut strategies in order to hold off and overtake each other.
Lundgaard would be the driver to get the best out of the alternate tire strategy, as he had a great last pit stop on lap 61 and come out in third position, lose the stop to Rosenqvist while on cold tires but would make the pass again to bring the No.7 machine home.
On the final round of pit stops, Palou pitted before Kirkwood on lap 64, in hopes of getting the undercut. That strategy almost worked, as Kirkwood, who pitted a lap later on lap 65, and came out ahead of Palou but by mere inches. Kirkwood would hustle his PreFab Home Wiring sponsored Honda away on cold tires from Palou and lead until the checkered flag.
“We had great pit stop,” Palou said regarding the last pit stop sequence. “I think they[ Kirkwood] had quite a slow one. It was pretty close. I thought I was going to have a chance, but then my tires were not 100% either. Just had a big oversteer out of five and couldn’t really go on power to get a good exit and he [Kirkwood] was safe from there.”
Important to note that there were two drivers who had career best days at Long Beach that are worth highlighting: Sting Ray Robb and Kyffin Simpson. Both drivers were in the group who started on the primary tires and executed that strategy to ninth and 10th place finishes, respectively.
Robb, a third year driver for Juncos Hollinger Racing, led 12 laps during pit stop cycles en route to his second career IndyCar top 10. Simpson, a 20 year-old, second year driver for Chip Ganassi Racing, gets his first career top 10 and led three laps to boot.
Another 21 day gap awaits until the next race of the NTT IndyCar Series season when the circuit heads to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama for the Children’s of Alabama Grand Prix on May 4.
In between that gap will be the Indianapolis 500 Open Test on April 23 & 24. This will give everyone their first look at the entrants for the 109th Running coming this May.