STEAM CORNERS, Ohio – For Honda driver Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Autosport, the best place to be on Fourth of July Weekend is the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the Honda Indy 200.
It’s a red-white-and-blue celebration for the NTT IndyCar Series and a great way to kick off the Independence Day holiday.
It means camping out, bonfires with friends, firing up the grill and enjoying some fireworks, both on and off the race course.
“It’s a perfect place for that weekend,” Kirkwood said. “If that track doesn’t scream ‘America’, I don’t know what does.
“It falls on the Fourth of July Weekend and people celebrate the Fourth of July there. I couldn’t ask for a better place to spend my Fourth of July Weekend than at Mid-Ohio.”
He also considers the famed Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as his home track, even though he is from Jupiter, Florida.
The term “home track” is generally reserved for a racing venue that is near the hometown of an NTT IndyCar Series driver.
For years, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was considered the “home track” for the Rahals – first Bobby and later his son, Graham – because at the time, they lived down the road in New Albany, Ohio.
When Michael Shank joined the NTT IndyCar Series, Mid-Ohio was considered the team owner’s “home track” because he was from Columbus, Ohio and a few years ago opened a magnificent new race shop in Pataskala, Ohio.
Geographically, Mid-Ohio can be considered the “home track” for both.
It’s 1,133 miles from Jupiter, Florida to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, located near an intersection known as Steam Corners.
But to 24-year-old Kirkwood, who is from the South Florida, coastal community, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course is the “home track” for the Andretti Autosport driver.
He intends to be the hometown hero in the July 2 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
“I pretty much consider Mid-Ohio as my home track, even though it’s the furthest thing from my home track that you could expect,” Kirkwood explained. “I’ve got so much time around there, probably double the amount of laps around Mid-Ohio as any other circuit that I’ve ever been to. And I’ve had my most success there.
“Those are the main reasons I consider it my home track.”
Throughout Kirkwood’s career, from the very beginning to the pinnacle of the NTT IndyCar Series, the rising American star has competed at the 2.258-mile, 13-turn road course.
He has competed in every series that makes up the steps of the IndyCar ladder system and began racing there in 2016.
Philosophically, Mid-Ohio is home to Kirkwood because he has run more laps at the permanent road course than any other circuit currently on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule.
The Honda driver hopes to use that familiarity and experience to his benefit in his second IndyCar Series race at Mid-Ohio, his first with Andretti Autosport.
“What I like most about it is there are a couple of high-speed corners like in Turn 1 and Turn 11 that are super enjoyable,” Kirkwood explained. “The track has so much character with the up-and-down sections through Turns 4 and 5 and the entire back section through Turn 9. I really enjoy the high-speed corners, though. Turn 1 and Turn 11 are two of the most fun corners we go to on our calendar.”
Kirkwood is used to the sun, the surf, and the beaches in Jupiter and up and down the Palm Beaches in South Florida.
But a trip to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course gives him an appreciation for the State of Ohio and the unique area that surrounds the racing facility.
It’s surrounded by Amish farms and rolling farmland.
“I don’t know if it is cool or if the track is out in the middle of nowhere,” Kirkwood said. “One thing that is cool about it, though, given that it is out in the middle of nowhere, the amount of people that show up for that event. There are some die-hard fans that really love that place and are out there every single year, year after year and we get a massive turnout.
“They show up for that weekend and that is really cool. Us drivers love it. We love driving around there. The characteristics with short straights and high-speed corners may not produce the best racing.
“But for one lap around any track in IndyCar, that would be the place that I would choose to do it.”
Because of its high-speed characteristics, the driver of the No. 27 AutoNation Honda for Andretti Autosport stressed that qualifications are very important at Mid-Ohio. With few low-speed turns, starting off fast and up the grid can help a driver get to get to victory lane.
“Qualifying is important around there, although that race typically turns into a strategy race,” the driver explained. “Anything can happen. Qualifying, like any place we go to in IndyCar, is very important, maybe more so there.”
It’s also important for a Honda driver to do well at Mid-Ohio because many of the fans that attend that race work at Honda Marysville Auto Plant, a Honda manufacturing facility located in nearby Marysville, Ohio.
Many of the plant workers bring their families to the race that helps showcase the quality and technology that goes from the race track into the passenger cars built by Honda.
“I haven’t had the pleasure to tour the Honda facility in Marysville yet, but I can imagine they have their whole heart in what they do and what they do turns us around these race tracks,” Kirkwood said proudly. “We are very appreciative of them, and they are very proud of us.
“There is a massive mutual respect between the guys and ladies that work at the plant and us drivers.
“That’s home to Honda. Some of the main people at Honda are from that area. It’s cool to represent them at such a historic event for them in their home state and home area.
“I’ve been a Honda guy since my karting days. I raced a Honda shifter in 2012, raced Honda shifters all the way through 2016, moved into a Honda-powered 1600 car, moved into a Honda-powered F4 car, then a Honda-powered F3 car and ultimately did the Road to Indy ladder system up to IndyCar.
“I’ve represented Honda at Mid-Ohio quite a bit, so it’s nothing new to me.”
Kirkwood understands the importance of performing well, and winning, at a Honda race. He scored his first career NTT IndyCar Series victory in the April 16 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, just down I-405 from the American Honda Motor Car Company headquarters in Torrance, California and further to the north, Honda Performance Development in Santa Clarita, California.
“It was big because the CEO from Japan was there and presented us with the trophy and visited us before the start of the race,” Kirkwood recalled. “That was super cool. You don’t get to meet that important people that often. It was cool to see how much he enjoyed motorsports and enjoyed watching a Honda-powered car win.
“That was a little taste, but hopefully we can do it again at a track where it means everything to Honda in a home area.”
It was obvious to NTT IndyCar Series team owner Michael Andretti early in Kirkwood’s racing career that he was a potential star of the future.
On the streets of Long Beach, Kirkwood proved he is “The Real Deal” by winning both the pole and the race at the 48th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
His pedigree in racing is impressive. He was successful on every rung of the lower formulas, even before he joined the “Road to Indy” Ladder system.
He won the Formula 4 United States Championship in 2017. In 2018, he won dueling championships in both USF2000 and the F3 Americas Championship. In 2019, he was the Indy Pro 2000 champion and moved into the top step of the ladder, which is now known as INDY NXT as he won the 2021 Indy Lights Championship.
“Yeah, he’s the real deal,” Andretti said. “I’m happy for him. He’s been a pleasure on the team. We’re really excited, really happy for the results.
Andretti believed it was important for Kirkwood’s development to leave Andretti Autosport for the 2022 season and work on his race craft with AJ Foyt Racing, a team that has less resources than Andretti Autosport, but also less pressure.
“I think it was huge, to be honest with you,” Andretti responded. “A rookie is definitely going to make mistakes and things like that, just because you’re learning, right?
“By him having that year, coming to us, it worked out perfect for us. You see it right away, he’s competitive. Hopefully he can win a bunch of races.”
Kirkwood reflected on the value of working with Foyt and how it taught him how to handle a faster car on a team that has more tools to work with.
“It was extremely beneficial,” Kirkwood said. “It was an important thing to learn. For me at AJ Foyt Racing, I spent a lot of time learning. There wasn’t a ton of media, there wasn’t a ton of sponsors that you had to take away from learning. A lot of it was on track and off track, learning what an Indy car does and what the changes do and understanding the data from it. It was all new to me.
“Having that year away from Andretti Autosport with AJ Foyt Racing was crucial. Starting this year, I already feel I can go for poles and for wins.
“If I had gone into 2022 straight into Andretti Autosport like I thought was going to happen at the end of 2021, I would have been thrown into the deep end with sharks, to be honest.
“I’m really happy with the direction that we took.”
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach victory was Kirkwood’s first IndyCar Series win in his 20th career start, and his first win at Andretti Autosport in just his third start for the team.
“I don’t know if people took notice; it reconfirmed their thoughts,” Kirkwood explained. “At least the people in the IndyCar paddock, it was something that was expected, and some were wondering what it hadn’t been done yet.”
This is an exciting time in the NTT IndyCar Series, with a tremendous influx of young talent and intriguing personalities.
Kirkwood believes this is the perfect time for him to become a star in IndyCar.
“The trajectory we are on right now is massive,” Kirkwood said of the series. “It’s going straight up. The coolest thing in the world right now seems to be motorsports. Day to day, walking around normal streets, you see people wearing more racing clothes and motorsports in general.
“I couldn’t be happier to be in this era of IndyCar. With Penske Corporation putting so much effort into what they have done with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to what they have done with the series, the efforts the teams are putting in, the efforts the sponsors are putting in across the entire grid has been amazing. Hy-Vee at Iowa is one example.
“It has been perceived extremely well by the public and people are getting more and more fond of it. That is showing in the TV numbers and showing in the attendance rates where we have some very, very high attendance this year. I couldn’t ask for a better era, especially when it comes to safety, too.
“I had a massive wreck at the Indy 500, and I walked away from it unscathed. Five or eight years ago, I probably couldn’t say that I would have.”
Kirkwood is coming back home to the track where he has the most experience and hopes to start his Fourth of July celebration in victory lane at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.