DETROIT — Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi are very difficult to beat in NTT IndySeries competition. That’s a fact that Kyle Kirkwood knows all too well.
Kirkwood, who drives the No. 27 Honda for Andretti Global, finished a distant second to Palou in Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix. It was Palou’s fourth victory of the season, and the four-time champion leads Kirkwood, who is second in the standings, by 62 markers with 10 races remaining.
Kirkwood felt like numerous yellow flags late in the race hindered his efforts to run down Palou.
“I wish we had another opportunity or two to be able to try and pass Palou there. I think the yellows kind of hindered that,” Kirkwood said. “Yeah, overall good day. You can’t be very upset with starting sixth and finishing second. We did all the right things. Pit stops were great, strategy was great. I kind of made the decision to run primes when we did, which I think was probably the right call in hindsight. I don’t know what we could have done better. All the stones were left unturned.”
Kirkwood understands how strong the combination of Palou and CGR are.
“They’re fast. They’re a good team, and he’s a phenomenal driver. It’s kind of expected,” Kirkwood said. “They’ve struggled at street courses in recent years, and they don’t now. They’re clearly one of the best, and they’re a group that we’re trying to catch up to now almost on street courses.
“Can you say it’s frustrating? I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating, it just makes us work harder and want to drive to do better in all aspects because they’re doing everything right. They have for many years now.”
Despite Palou’s success, Kirkwood believes he still has a chance to win his first IndyCar Series title this season.
“Think about how much he’s closed in on me or how fast he closed in on me in a few races,” said Kirkwood, who led the standings after winning in Dallas in March. “If we have the run that he’s had in the middle part of the year here, it would be very possible for us to catch up. If we have a good weekend next weekend — that was a track like Ganassi struggled at in recent years. Maybe they get better, I don’t know. But there’s a lot of good races on our schedule that I still think we can catch up.
“It’s not done and lost by any means. He was about 50 points behind us I think at one point. It’s very possible still.”
