LONG BEACH, Calif. — Team owner Michael Andretti scored his first and last IndyCar victories on the streets of Long Beach.
After Sunday’s 48th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Andretti got to celebrate with the latest first-time NTT IndyCar Series. It was Andretti Autosport driver Kyle Kirkwood, who started on the pole, led 53 laps, and drove to the win in the 85-lap contest over teammate Romain Grosjean.
It was Kirkwood’s first IndyCar Series in his 20th career start, and his first win at Andretti Autosport in just his third start for the team.
Andretti knew he had a tremendous talent in Kyle Kirkwood when he was part of the Road to Indy ladder series throughout his career.
After one year away from the team when he drove for A.J. Foyt Racing in 2021, Kirkwood took over the No. 27 AutoNation Honda at Andretti Autosport after Alexander Rossi was told he would not be back with the team.
The 24-year-old driver from Jupiter, Florida defeated Grosjean’s Honda by 0.9907-of-a-second. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Marcus Ericsson was third and takes over the points lead in the NTT IndyCar Series.
Andretti Autosport driver Colton Herta was fourth, giving the team three drivers in the top four. Chip Ganassi Racing driver and 2021 IndyCar champion Alex Palou rounded out the top five, giving Honda a sweep of the first five positions.
“Michael knew that we could go out there and do it,” Kirkwood said afterwards. “One thing that’s really nice about Michael, he obviously has so much information that he can share with us, but he knows that he’s hired a ton of good people that will get the job done, with that being Bryan Herta, who has kind of mentored me through this entire weekend.
“He pretty much told me, like, ‘This weekend, if you’re up front, we’ve already done the hard part, the rest of it is pretty easy for you. You’re going to be surprised how easy it is to win a race when you’ve already done the hard work and you’re out front and you’re doing all the right things and you have a fast car.’
“He was exactly right.”
Boy was he ever.
Not only did Kirkwood score his first victory, but it came in one of IndyCar’s premier events, the biggest street race in North America and second only to the Grand Prix of Monaco in Formula One.
“Oh, it’s huge,” Andretti said afterwards. “I know he’s going to remember this day for a long, long time. Well, forever, I think.
“It’s always extra special to do it at places like here in Long Beach. It’s just a great event, great history, great fans. The fans are so into it. You just love doing well here.
“Yeah, for us Andrettis, it’s been a very special place for us. I won my first and very last race of my IndyCar career here. My dad I think won four times. He’s the only time an American won a Formula 1 on American soil. There are so many things we’ve been able to do here in Long Beach to make it that special for us.”
The 24-year-old controlled the race. He was never really challenged, even when teammate Romain Grosjean had cut into this lead in the closing laps.
Grosjean wasn’t going to push the issue because he understood how important it was to get a 1-2 finish.
Throw in Colton Herta’s fourth place effort and it was quite a day for Andretti Autosport.
“Unbelievable,” Michael Andretti said. “We needed this bad. The way we started off the year with really fast cars, not getting any results. It’s nice to get the results we did. 1-2-4 is not a bad day.
“This is going to really help especially rolling into Indy in a few races. This always puts an extra bounce in everybody’s step. Yeah, we’re very excited about the rest of the year.”
With Kirkwood in front for 53 laps and Josef Newgarden leading 27 laps, the real battle for positions were further back in the field.
Since IndyCar first started tracking on-track passes in 2009, there were 253 on-track passes, a record. The second most was 2012 with 246 on-track passes.
Up front, Kirkwood was going for a Sunday drive on the streets of Long Beach.
“Ultimately, I’ve just had a moment of calmness,” the driver said of the win. “It’s kind of shook the monkey off my back a little bit because we had a spell of bad luck there. All of it was out of our control. At St. Pete we were extremely fast, running in sixth. We got caught up in someone else’s incident. Texas we weren’t really that fast, but we got the car in a really good window, ultimately, we weren’t able to finish the race from a mechanical, which was super unfortunate. We had the pace.
“This weekend we had the pace and were able to execute. I think that was possible at the past two events. Hopefully this is now just creating some momentum that will carry through the rest of the season.”