LONG BEACH — Just think, a year ago the best Kyle Kirkwood could do in 17 races was a 10th-place finish over the course of his first NTT IndyCar season. He didn’t fare well in the first two races this season, either, with finishes of 15th and 27th.
But Kirkwood, 24, was in all his glory Sunday when he won the 48th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach by just under a second over Romain Grosjean. Kirkwood was on the pole.
Marcus Ericsson made the podium with a third-place finish, Colton Herta was fourth, Alex Palou fifth and two-time race winner Will Power was sixth. Power started 13th.
It was Kirkwood’s first IndyCar victory. He led 53 of the 85 laps. Just after crossing the finish line, Kirkwood could be heard saying to his team over the radio, “Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much, guys.”
About an hour after the race, Kirkwood spoke to reporters in the post-race news conference. He was asked if he had been able to wrap his head around this victory — which comes at one of the series crown jewels — especially considering how the first year-plus of his IndyCar career had gone.
“I mean, I’ve been running non-stop since I got out of the car, so I haven’t really had a moment to think,” he said, with a big smile. “But, ultimately, I’ve just had a moment of calmness, you know?”
Kirkwood won the Indy NXT (formerly Indy Lights) — IndyCar’s support series — in 2021 for Andretti Autosport. There was not an Andretti ride available in IndyCar in 2022, so Kirkwood raced for A.J. Foyt Enterprises and his best finish was 10th here in Long Beach.
Kirkwood re-signed with Andretti this year for IndyCar, but began the season with finishes of 15th and 27th at St. Petersburg and the Texas Motor Speedway, respectively.
“All of that was out of our control,” said Kirkwood, of Jupiter, Fla. “At St. Pete, we were extremely fast, running sixth, and then we got caught up in someone else’s incident. Then at Texas, we weren’t really that fast, but then we…
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