Kyle Kirkwood earns maiden IndyCar victory at Long Beach

After two races filled with bad luck to start the 2023 IndyCar Series season, Kyle Kirkwood and all of Andretti Autosport finally have something to celebrate.

Kirkwood drove a nearly perfect race on Sunday to claim his maiden IndyCar victory in the Grand Prix of Long Beach. He started first, drove away, then fought back attacks from veteran drivers and even his own teammates to take a well-earned victory at one of the sport's crown jewels.

After a disorganized start, Helio Castroneves brought out a caution before the end of lap one, spinning his car just after turn one. Castroneves went a lap down, but continued in the race.

Multiple incidents involving O'Ward brought tension to the event. Scott Dixon was unhappy with O'Ward's discipline during the start of the race. That wasn't helped by an incident where O'Ward dove under Dixon and made contact, sending Dixon into the tire barrier in turn 8. Dixon continued, but suffered a mechanical failure 37 laps in forcing the car to retire.

Dixon was unhappy with O'Ward's aggressive driving, which went unpenalized by the IndyCar officials. "I guess it's all gloves off from this point," Dixon said, referencing the lack of action by stewards as a precedent for the series going forward.

O'Ward had another incident after the restart, looping the car in front of Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson attempting a three-wide pass on the inside in the same corner. All cars continued, but O'Ward finished 17th, the first car one lap down.

Josef Newgarden, last year's Long Beach winner, had control of the race through the midway point, grabbing the lead on tire strategy by using his black primary tires instead of the green alternates. As other drivers began to fade when the softer green tires wore out, Newgarden charged ahead with the harder, more durable black tires.

When Newgarden ran his alternate tires, which are mandatory for at least one lap on IndyCar road courses, Kirkwood was able to match his pace on primary tires, and forced Newgarden to pit early than his team would have liked. Kirkwood put his foot down and pulled out a sizable gap with clean track.

By pitting a few laps later than Newgarden, all of Kirkwood, Romain Grosjean, Ericsson and Colton Herta, who finished fourth, were able to push harder than Newgarden, who had to save significantly more fuel than the other four.

In the final laps the gap from Kirkwood to Grosjean hovered around one second. Grosjean had a surplus of push-to-pass, a timed boost of horsepower via the engine's turbo components, but was unable to take advantage due to necessary fuel-saving measures. Ericsson too got on the gas in the closing stages, but neither were able to mount a charge to get past Kirkwood.

Grosjean earned his fourth second place finish since joining the IndyCar grid in 2021. Marcus Ericsson took the last step of the podium, reclaiming the championship lead from Pato O'Ward by doing so.

Kirkwood was a champion in all three stages of the Road to Indy development ladder, and winning at Long Beach is a graduation of sorts for one of the most decorated junior series drivers in American open wheel history.

His win also signals a true return to form for Andretti Autosport. An improvement in pace this year had not yet been accompanied by great results, with multiple DNFs stifling genuine optimism. Now, leading into the crucial month of May, Andretti has a momentum it hasn't had in years.

Andretti's tire and fuel strategy took down Team Penske, and were good enough to score a 1-2-4 finish on the day. That's a great result for a team that needed something to smile about.

Honda had a banner day as well, sweeping the top five spots. It appears Honda has a fuel milage advantage, and that's a key factor to winning races like Long Beach, where you have to stretch stints to eliminate one or more pitstops over an extended period. Considering the last few Indianapolis 500s have had long green flag stretches, Honda may have a strategy advantage heading into May.

Results

1. (Start: 1) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, Running, 85 laps
2. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, Running, -0.9907 sec.
3. (2) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, Running, -2.0588
4. (7) Colton Herta, Honda, Running, -7.6371
5. (4) Alex Palou, Honda, Running, -8.7770
6. (13) Will Power, Chevrolet, Running, -30.3224
7. (10) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, Running, -30.9744
8. (12) Marcus Armstrong (R), Honda, Running, -31.9119
9. (8) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, Running, -33.7842
10. (9) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, Running, -42.8320
11. (18) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, Running, -45.4351
12. (24) Graham Rahal, Honda, Running, -46.2809
13. (15) Jack Harvey, Honda, Running, -47.2828
14. (17) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, Running, -47.7781
15. (14) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, Running, -49.4864
16. (20) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, Running, -59.9343
17. (6) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, Running, -1 lap
18. (21) Sting Ray Robb (R), Honda, Running, -1 lap
19. (22) Callum Illot, Chevrolet, Running, -1 lap
20. (25) David Malukas, Honda, Running, -1 lap
21. (16) Helio Castroneves, Honda, Running, -1 lap
22. (11) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, Mechanical Failure, -2 laps
23. (27) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, Running, -2 laps
24. (23) Benjamin Pederson (R), Chevrolet, Running, -3 laps
25. (26) Agustin Canapino (R), Chevrolet, Running, -33 laps
26. (19) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, Mechanical Failure, -37 laps
27. (5) Scott Dixon, Honda, Mechanical Failure, -48 laps