Kirkwood Dominates Long Beach, Pulls Closer To Palou
Kirkwood Dominates Long Beach, Spoils Palou’s Bid For Three Straight
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Coming into the weekend, Alex Palou had been looking to become just the sixth driver ever to win the first three races of the IndyCar season. His bid was spoiled by the likes of Kyle Kirkwood Sunday.
Kirkwood, starting on the pole for the second time at the Acura Long Beach Grand Prix, outclassed Palou at his own strategy game in the waning moments of the race to grab his first win of the season.
“(Palou) didn’t make it easy for us,” Kirkwood said. “What a great day. We controlled the race, even from practice we were in control. It was just execution that won us the race. This is huge for me and huge for our moral!”
As always, tire strategy dictated the race. Only six drivers started on the harder and longer-lasting black primary tires. The rest started on the softer green alternates. The strategy did not take long to unfold with Josef Newgarden being the first to pit and bail on the soft tires. This then set off a flurry of multiple different strategies.
Kirkwood and Palou followed the suit of Newgarden just a couple of laps later to maintain their track position on Newgarden’s alternate strategy. On the other hand, Christian Lundgaard and Scott Dixon started on the harder tires and inherited the lead once the aforementioned drivers pitted. Lundgaard and Dixon committed to the primary strategy and it worked for a while as they held the lead until about the halfway point in the race.
During this stretch the racing was intense. Log jams and hang-ups were aplenty as every driver jockeyed for position on their respective strategies. The differentiation came once Sting Ray Robb, of all drivers, was in the lead on a third strategy having gone on the hard tires for his first two stints.
As this played out, the alternate strategy was the strategy that played out the best. Kirkwood and Palou were dueling for the lead as both came close to their final pit stops.
The overcut had been the winner on pit strategy all day, but Palou chose the undercut. He pitted first ahead of Kirkwood in an attempt to grab the lead. Kirkwood, who was caught up in lap traffic, nearly lost out to Palou. But, he pitted a lap later and only just beat Palou on the subsequent pit blend. Palou challenged Kirkwood for about a lap and a half, but in the end, Kirkwood’s driving was just that much better.
Kirkwood never looked back, cruising over the final 30 laps to the checkered flag.
“If Palou was in front of us today, he would have beat us,” Kirkwood said. “It was a coast-to-coast weekend for us, what a great way to cap off the weekend. This is where we turn it around. We need to start getting more of these.”
Lundgaard’s primary strategy nearly paid off, but he slotted in third by the time the race’s end came. It’s Lundgaard’s best finish of the season thus far and equally so for Arrow McLaren as a whole.
The win is Kirkwood’s third of his still very young career. Kirkwood also inched closer to Palou in the championship standings now 34-points back of Palou. Lundgaard’s podium finish also puts him third in the championship.
“You never feel amazing finishing second, but I’m happy with the result,” Palou said. “We did the best we could, but hopefully next year we can improve one more step.”
It’s another two-week break for the series as drivers will kick off the Month of May at Barber Motorsports Park for the Grand Prix of Alabama on May 4th.