Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood took his third career win at the IndyCar Long Beach GP, his second at the track. Kirkwood had another dominant event. In fact, the weekend had been off to a good start as Andretti secured a front row lockout with Kirkwood on pole and Herta in P2 for the Long Beach GP.
A great run to the win
While there were different strategies at play, ultimately Andretti and Kirkwood had opted for the safest bet, to immediately ditch the softer tyres at the beginning of the race and continue on the more resistant and durable hards through the remaining stints. The same strategy was also employed by Ganassi for championship leader Alex Palou, who then ended the race in P2.
Kirkwood has moved up to P2 in the drivers’ standings after the Long Beach GP and is comfortably the lead Andretti driver, only 34 points away from the three-time champion.
“Yeah, it’s really good to win here, 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.
“This is probably one of our top three circuits on schedule. It’s important that we win those to have any chance of winning a championship. This is a start. Hopefully this is a continuation of great things,” concluded the Jupiter native, who has an impressive junior curriculum, having won back to back the USF Pro championship and IndyLights.
Championship form?
However, Kirkwood warns that it won’t be that easy to beat Palou and secure Andretti’s first title since 2012, especially considering the fact that Long Beach was only the third GP on the IndyCar calendar
“Thinking it and doing it is very different. It’s easy to say you might as well go out there, get pole, lead the whole race, and make it nice and simple. It’s not just that simple, right? A lot of things need to align, especially when you have 26 of the best racers in the world racing against you that all want to beat you.
“This is the days that we live for as drivers, as teams. It’s a special one to go out here and dominate like this. It might have made it a little bit boring to most of the media, the announcers, et cetera, but these are important for us. This is exactly what, as drivers, we want to see happen.”
Leadership change
During the past IndyCar season, Michael Andretti had stepped down from his role as Head of Andretti Global, being replaced by former minority shareholder Dan Towriss. Kirkwood discussed how the change in leadership has not affected the day-to-day life working in the team, but rather the overall performances.
“The question always to us was ‘Have you guys seen any differences?’ The answer is usually, no, because we don’t see exactly what goes on on the development side. But clearly three races in now, we seem better than we have been in the past couple years. That’s due to his leadership and the investment that’s going into the team.
“We have an influx of people, an influx of development. There’s a big will to win. We got to win here, but we also had really good performances at the past two circuits. Thermal was not a good track for us, and we turned it into a great track, having two cars that were running in the top five for most of the race.”
What a weekend for Andretti
Kirkwood also commended Towriss’s presence and ability to focus and cater to all the different need of all the different Andretti teams running during the past Long Beach GP.
“Yeah, hats off to Dan. This is a big weekend for them. This was coast-to-coast, big weekend for Andretti, big weekend for us where they’re racing at Bristol, Formula E down in Homestead. Then the premier sports car team here with Wayne Taylor, us, and INDYCAR. To cap it off with a win is absolutely massive for them. It’s all due to their efforts.”
Finally, the race winner also had kind words for Andretti’s engine provider Honda. Kirkwood praised the openness which the manufacturer has showed to the team created by Mario Andretti in the past pre-season.
Honda’s time to shine
“I just want to give a hats off to them. Honda has done a phenomenal job over the off-season to adjust for the changes that needed to be done. We came out swinging this entire season thus far. I think that’s going to continue to be the case, we had a very honest conversation.
“It was the first time I ever sat down with a manufacturer and spoke with them in detail about everything that happens with the power unit. They really listened to us. They’re a huge part of our organization, they come in, they bring their engineers in. They know everything about us, and we know everything about them. It’s very transparent. Really cool to see.”
Honda was title sponsor for the Long Beach GP, which was also celebrating its 50th recurrency. The former AJ Foyt driver acknowledged the importance of the happening, and of taking the top spot at such an important time.
“To win it in a Honda-powered car is so special. We came out here at the beginning of the week. We actually went to their main facility in Torrance and toured it, got to meet all the employees, the associates, et cetera, et cetera, and spent a lot of time with them. They’re all wonderful people.
“To do it at home, I know there’s a ton of Honda people here. To do it in front of them where they can see where their efforts go is absolutely massive for the morale of Honda and the longevity of them, as well. Very thankful for the product that they’ve given us. It’s because of them that we’re able to come out here and get these wins,” he concluded, grateful for the respect and positive relationship with Honda.
