It’s a week on from a famous first win for Kyle Kirkwood in the NTT IndyCar series. The 24-year-old American converted his pole into a victory — although it was far from straightforward.
On lap 26 for the second restart, he found himself in P2 behind Agustin Canapino as the Argentine had not pitted under caution. Callum Ilott and Helio Castroneves were also in the mix as they wanted to avoid going a lap down. Canapino and Castroneves touched into turn 6, and that forced the Andretti of Kirkwood to check up to avoid hitting the Juncos driver. The door was opened up for Newgarden to take the lead at that point.
For the next 26 laps, Kirkwood closely tracked the Team Penske driver. Newgarden’s stint was all about managing the softer alternate tyre as the Andretti Autosport man hounded him on the primary — the harder tyre proved to be the superior one at Long Beach.
In spite of all the pressure, Newgarden never looked like losing the lead until he pitted. As Scott McLaughlin showed, preserving the alternate and maintaining good pace throughout the stint was extremely difficult. The two-time champion ultimately fell away to 9th as he had to save a mountain of fuel in the final stint.
While understandably thrilled and delighted at what he achieved, the racer in Kirkwood concedes that he wants to learn and get better. He was left impressed by what Newgarden was able to do against him.
“As a racer, we’re competitors. I’m also going to take some information that I got from Newgarden today. He’s sneaky. I got to figure out a way to get by him in situations like that,” Kirkwood stated.
“He’s smart. He is so smart. I feel like I’m good in those situations, but he’s better because there is a lot of times where I’m trying to push him to use his tyres, and he’s not falling for it. I’m trying to push him to use his overtake, and he’s still not falling for it. He knows exactly when to turn it up and when to turn it back.
“It was cool to see, it really is, because he’s such a smart driver. I learned that today because I haven’t been around him that much in my previous races.”
Photo credit: Penske Entertainment | Joe Skibinski
