KIRKWOOD RUNS LONG AT THE BEACH
On the 50th occasion of the Grand Prix of Long Beach, there was some nice synchronicity about the IndyCar victor as Kyle Kirkwood took his third career win at the site of his first (also from pole), while Will Power and Scott McLaughlin also showed strong speed.
Across a sunny Californian weekend where the third round of the IndyCar season followed the big GTP machines of the IMSA series onto the street track, Andretti’s poleman proved a popular winner and did what none had been able to do so far: hold off Alex Palou.
Having made his way through the Road to Indy tiers by weight of taking every scholarship available, Kirkwood also made his way up to second in the championship, cutting points out the Palou lead with a three second win.
Third place went to Arrows McLaren driver Christian Lundgaard who rallied from 12th, with the podium finishing respectively of the championship’s top three.
The race would be decided entirely on trye strategy with the Primary Firestones the favoured long run rubber across a three stopper, whilst the 2025 class remains remarkably well behaved as there hasn’t been a flag since the opening laps of the season.
After taking pole with a 1:06.192 over Colton Herta and Palou, the Floridian native led for 46 of the 90 laps but remained the respective leader throughout the pit cycles.
In chasing three straight victories – which would have been the first such occasion since Scott Dixon in 2020 – Palou looked like a chance through the last pit cycle on lap 65 when Kirkwood took his final stop with both drivers on the Primary tyre. Pulling out of the pits, Palou found the back of the #27 Honda and pestered him for several laps.
Kirkwood had to be perfect and he remained so, and with over 50 of his allotted 100 seconds of push-to-pass still in the bank, plus the use of lapped traffic, steadily built up the tenths over the championship leading Spaniard.
With track position at an absolute premium, Kirkwood thanks his lucky stars that started with an advantage over Palou.
“What a great day, we controlled the race, and even from practice we felt we were in control,”
the Andretti driver said.
“Really good qualifying. Amazing race. Amazing strategy. It was just execution all across the board. That’s what won us that race here today, because if Palou was in front, he would have beat us for sure. This was a track position race here today, without any cautions. He didn’t make it easy on us.”
For the Antipodean crew, Aussie Will Power continues to warm into the season after a poor start at St Petersburg, fighting from 13th on the grid up to a hard earned fifth place behind Felix Rosenqvist in fourth.
“Very good day. Very good day,” Power said.
“Just methodically getting to it, but it was methodical. I was driving very hard, biding my time, used up the perfect amount of push-to-pass in the race to finish it off on the last pass.
“Love those sorts of days. I didn’t feel very good, to be honest. Felt sick. I could feel myself getting achy in the car but drove the crap out of it.”
Scotty McLaughlin ran the perfect middling race, starting six to finish sixth behind his Penske teammate, whilst Dixon laid down an excellent recovery mission to rise from 14th to eighth – behind Herta.
“We were just locked out a little bit there early, and then getting caught up with some guys that came out of pit sequences and stuff like that,” McLaughlin said.
“So, lost some track position where we were in a really good spot at the start, but it is what it is. I mean, that was the most solid race I’ve had at Long Beach for a long time. So, it’s a P6 for me. I got a little bit of work before we come back here next year to be better.”
The ninth and tenth place finishers deserve mentions for career best efforts, with former LMP2 driver Kyffin Simpson finishing over Sting Ray Robb.
In an interesting situation looking forward, the top four of the championship have never won an Indy 500, and with the Indianapolis Month of May creeping up – which leads the field into the oval season. Although there’s no double points for the 500 anymore, the likes of Dixon, Power, and Newgarden will be looking at the event as a means to fight back into the title race.
However, there’s still two road races to come before that bridge is crossed, with Alabama’s Barber Motorsports Park on May 4 (a happy place for McLaughlin), and there Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course on May 10.
Image: Getty
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