Kyle Kirkwood scores first IndyCar victory at Long Beach

The NTT IndyCar Series held its third race of the 2023 season on Sunday afternoon on the streets of Long Beach, California, for the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Long Beach is a historic race in the IndyCar world.

The first race in Long Beach happened on September 28^th, 1975 as Brian Redman, driving for Carl A. Haas Racing won the Formula 5000 race over Vern Schuppan. Michael Andretti’s father Mario Andretti competed in that race. He won the pole but finished in 13^th place. Mario is a four-time winner, including the only driver in history to win in Long Beach in both Formula 1 and IndyCar series. 

Among the drivers who scored their first career CART/IndyCar wins in Long Beach are Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy, Juan Pablo Montoya, Mike Conway, and Takuma Sato. Another name was added to this list on Sunday.

The race’s first caution happened on the first lap when Helio Castroneves got loose at the entrance of turn two and went around into the wall. His front wing was dislodged. Just as the pace car was approaching turn two, the track crews got Castroneves’s car restarted and he was able to stay on the lead lap. Helio did pit to get a new front wing. However, he could not beat the field exiting pit road and finished the race one lap down.

On the restart, Kirkwood fought off Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson to keep the lead. During the green flag run, Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward made contact on lap 21 as Dixon went into the tire barrier for the second caution. O’Ward was late with the pass and tried to force his way past Dixon.

IndyCar officials did not penalize O’Ward and ruled it a racing incident. Later, Dixon had a mechanical issue and finished in 27^th place. There were no more cautions in the race.

Upfront, Kirkwood lost the lead during pit stops as Josef Newgarden went ahead of him for second place. The race’s new leader was Agustin Canapino, who pitted on the second lap. Shortly after the race resumed on lap 25, Canapino pitted and Newgarden was the new leader.

Newgarden was in command of the race, leading 26 laps before pitting and Kirkwood took the lead. For Kirkwood’s pit crew, they waited for the last second to pit after Newgarden, Romain Grosjean, and Marcus Ericsson pitted. Kirkwood made his last pit stop on lap 54 with Alex Palou the new leader.

After Kirkwood pitted, he beat out Romain Grosjean for the lead as Palou pitted a lap later. Kirkwood, on cold tires, was able to hold off Grosjean and started to slightly pull away. Late in the race, Grosjean used some of his P2P (Push-2-Pass) but could not get close to Kirkwood.

Kirkwood scored his first career IndyCar win by .9907 seconds over Romain Grosjean. Kirkwood dominated the race leading 53 laps. He is the third different winner in the 2023 season. With the win, Kirkwood jumps from 20^th to fifth in the championship standings.

“This is amazing, man. What a day. The calmest day I’ve had in two years, and it was a win,” said Kyle Kirkwood. “I was so happy with just the pole yesterday, but I’m over the moon right now. This is incredible for the whole team. We had a stellar day for the whole team with Andretti Autosport.”

“It’s awesome for Kyle; I’m happy for him,” said Grosjean. “I wish I was in his position right now, but he drove a hell of a race, like a champ, the whole weekend. He deserved that. We tried everything we could on our end, but it was a fuel situation, so we couldn’t really attack.”

The NTT IndyCar Series Barber Motorsports Park for the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on Sunday, April 30^th, at 3:20 pm on NBC.

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