IndyCar News: Kirkwood wins 50th Acura GP of Long Beach

Polesitter Kyle Kirkwood put his #27 Andretti Global Honda out front at the start, and withstood intense pressure from the #10 Chip Ganassi Honda of points leader Alex Palou to win the 50th running of the Acura GP of Long Beach NTT IndyCar race.

“To win here, for the 50th, with this team, with this group, with Honda, an Acura-sponsored event is absolutely massive. 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.”

Palou got to under 0.5s behind Kirkwood after their final pitstop, but Kirkwood kept his cool, stretched his lead over Palou, and scored his 2nd win on the streets of Long Beach by 2.6859s.

“I’m super happy to be here, Palou commented. ” I think it’s been a great weekend. We really didn’t have that ultimate speed that the 27 car had. Kyle (Kirkwood), they did an awesome job throughout the weekend, qualifying and the race.”

“He was managing. Every time I was having like a small chance, he just had a little bit more pace. So yeah, it’s a shame that we couldn’t make it more interesting for the fans, but I’m super happy to be here.”

Kirkwood led a race-high 46 laps in a caution-free race. There has only been one yellow lap in the season’s first three races.

Autoracing1 asked the drivers why we did not have many yellows in the first three races.

Christian Lundgaard had this to say. “I think the hybrid weight makes it difficult to be close. But I think there’s less kind of close racing in that sense because of the hybrid, in my opinion. Obviously, it might be completely for a different reason. ”

Alex Palou commented, “I think one of the reasons is now we can start the car. Before, as soon as you could see a car out and parked, you would have to throw the yellow. Now you
can wait a little bit and probably restart the car. Thermal would have been a yellow flag with McLaughlin and Devlin stalling. I think that’s probably helping on the yellows.”

“I mean, it’s going to happen. I don’t know if it’s going to be Barber or Indy road course. It’s going to happen. Don’t you worry.”

Alex Palou – Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach – By_ Joe SkibinskiChristian Lundgaard was the top finishing Chevy-powered car in 3rd, 18.7784s behind Kirkwood. The Dane was grateful to his Arrow McLaren team after they had to rebuild his car last night after his qualifying crash yesterday. Lundgaard led 20 laps after the leaders pitted for different tires.

Felix Rosenqvist was 4th driving his #60 Meyer Shank Honda, 19.82s behind Kirkwood.

The Team Penske #12 Chevy of Will Power rounded out the top-5, schooling Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin and Andretti Global’s Colton Herta with passes late.

Veteran Scott Dixon came home 8th in the #9 Ganassi Honda, a distant 27 seconds behind Kirkwood.

50th Acura GP of Long Beach Results

Pos	No	Name	Laps	Behind	Gap	Led	ST	Engine	Points	Team
1	27	Kyle Kirkwood	90	0.000s	0.000s	46	1	Honda	108	Andretti Global
2	10	Alex Palou	90	2.6859	2.6859	0	3	Honda	142	Chip Ganassi Racing
3	7	Christian Lundgaard	90	18.7784	16.0925	26	12	Chevy	96	Arrow McLaren
4	60	Felix Rosenqvist	90	19.8193	1.0409	0	4	Honda	88	Meyer Shank Racing
5	12	Will Power	90	23.3641	3.5448	0	13	Chevy	63	Team Penske
6	3	Scott McLaughlin	90	25.7113	2.3472	0	6	Chevy	69	Team Penske
7	26	Colton Herta	90	26.5802	0.8689	0	2	Honda	73	Andretti Global w/Curb‑Agajanian
8	9	Scott Dixon	90	27.0975	0.5173	2	14	Honda	86	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	77	Sting Ray Robb	90	27.6913	0.5938	12	19	Chevy	39	Juncos Hollinger Racing
10	8	Kyffin Simpson	90	28.1025	0.4112	3	17	Honda	48	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	14	Santino Ferrucci	90	31.4467	3.3442	0	27	Chevy	51	AJ Foyt Enterprises
12	28	Marcus Ericsson	90	32.1430	0.6963	0	5	Honda	55	Andretti Global
13	5	Pato O’Ward	90	39.3900	7.2470	0	9	Chevy	80	Arrow McLaren
14	66	Marcus Armstrong	90	41.6832	2.2932	1	7	Honda	50	Meyer Shank Racing
15	20	Alexander Rossi	90	42.7421	1.0589	0	8	Chevy	58	Ed Carpenter Racing
16	45	Louis Foster	90	44.2727	1.5306	0	20	Honda	25	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
17	4	David Malukas	90	47.0318	2.7591	0	10	Chevy	42	AJ Foyt Enterprises
18	83	Robert Shwartzman	90	49.6677	2.6359	0	24	Chevy	30	Prema Racing
19	18	Rinus Veekay	90	57.6710	8.0033	0	25	Honda	46	Dale Coyne Racing
20	6	Nolan Siegel	90	58.2876	0.6166	0	11	Chevy	26	Arrow McLaren
21	90	Callum Ilott	89	1 LAPS	23.4908	0	22	Chevy	25	Prema Racing
22	15	Graham Rahal	89	1 LAPS	1.7043	0	16	Honda	45	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
23	21	Christian Rasmussen	89	1 LAPS	2.6049	0	18	Chevy	40	Ed Carpenter Racing
24	30	Devlin DeFrancesco	89	1 LAPS	5.3886	0	23	Honda	24	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
25	76	Conor Daly	88	2 LAPS	50.3582	0	21	Chevy	32	Juncos Hollinger Racing
26	51	Jacob Abel	88	2 LAPS	34.5500	0	26	Honda	17	Dale Coyne Racing
27	2	Josef Newgarden	88	2 LAPS	17.5357	0	15	Chevy	58	Team Penske

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 100.395 mph
Time of Race: 01:45:51.2058
Margin of victory: 2.6859 seconds
Cautions: None
Lead changes: 9 among 7 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Kirkwood, Kyle 1 – 6
Armstrong, Marcus 7
Lundgaard, Christian 8 – 27
Dixon, Scott 28 – 29
Kirkwood, Kyle 30 – 34
Lundgaard, Christian 35 – 40
Robb, Sting Ray 41 – 52
Kirkwood, Kyle 53 – 65
Simpson, Kyffin 66 – 68
Kirkwood, Kyle 69 – 90