After a titanic duel between Andretti Autosport teammates it was Kyle Kirkwood who triumphed over Romain Grosjean to win his first race in the NTT Indycar series
Polesitter Kirkwood drove with stunning maturity as the second year driver led 53 of the 85 laps around the famed Californian streets to deny his French teammate Grosjean a maiden win.
Marcus Ericsson rounded out the podium to regain the championship lead, ahead of Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta in fourth, and Alex Palou in fifth.
Elsewhere in the field, Will Power finished sixth, and Rosenqvist was seventh ahead of Armstrong, Newgarden and Mclaughlin in the top 10. Santino Ferrucci finished eleventh for AJ Foyt Racing and Graham Rahal made up 12 spots to finish twelfth.
Heading into the race, Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward led the championship, but an erratic drive saw the Mexican come home in 17th and slip behind Ericsson in the points standings.
Kirkwood repays the faith of Michael Andretti
Kyle Kirkwood’s rookie season was a tough watch for all involved. He was racing for AJ Foyt Enterprises, a team with far fewer resources than Andretti Autosport, and his time in the #14 ROKIT car was a torrid one.
His only top 10 finish all season came at Long Beach, and plenty of incidents throughout the year meant Kirkwood was always under pressure. He signed to drive for Andretti Autosport in 2023 early in the 2022 season, replacing the outgoing Alexander Rossi in the #27 AutoNation Honda, but that only meant the stakes were higher for Kirkwood coming into this season.
He began 2023 with a trip to the fast 6 in qualifying at the season opener, before incidents plagued the final part of qualifying and his race. In Texas, he made contact on pit road with Rossi, causing more controversy.
But his race in Long Beach was faultless. Kirkwood drove a fabulous pole position lap to claim the NTT P1 award, and backed it up by managing his race perfectly. He came under pressure from Grosjean, Ericsson and Josef Newgarden throughout different points of the race, and excelled against each one of them.
Behind him, Grosjean’s final pitstop one lap earlier than Kirkwood cost him a real opportunity at attacking Kirkwood as the Frenchman was forced into saving more fuel, whilst Herta’s fourth place finish meant Andretti Autosport’s strong pace finally resulted in a large haul of points for the team.
O’Ward loses his head as Ericsson keeps his
Coming into the race, the top two in the championship were separated by only seven points, as the drivers had put on very mature drives to take strong points hauls from both Texas and St. Petersburg.
O’Ward’s problems began on lap 20 as a daring move up the inside of Scott Dixon into turn 8 saw the #9 PNC Bank Honda veer into the tyre barrier, bringing out a caution period. Pato O’Ward was able to continue relatively unscathed.
‘if this is how the series wants us to race, then the gloves are off.’
Scott Dixon gives his view after the contact with Pato O’Ward went unpenalised
O’Ward described his move as fair on Scott Dixon, but after the restart an opportunistic move up the inside of both Ericsson and Kirkwood for third saw him lock the rear tyres and spin his car around, in a move he himself described as ‘stupid’.
Dixon was visibly angry at the initial move from O’Ward, who was not penalised for the contact, saying that ‘if this is how the series wants us to race, then the gloves are off.’
Ericsson made slight contact with the Mexican’s car after his lunge on Kirkwood, dropping him to eighth but the #8 Huski Chocolate Honda fought back brilliantly, coming back to finish third. For O’Ward, his damage limited him to 17th, and meant his championship lead disappeared almost as quickly as it was obtained.
Long Beach delivers another solid race
The 253 on track passes at this weekend’s race meant that the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach had the most passes in the race’s history since records began in 2009. The combination of the intriguing tyre strategy and an early caution period meant that racing was wild following the third restart, and that the race was always interesting.
Josef Newgarden looked in contention for long swathes of the race, before his final stint required a huge amount of fuel saving and meant he dropped back to finish ninth. Penske were rather anonymous all day, as teammates Power and Mclaughlin could only recover to sixth and tenth respectively.
Helio Castroneves suffered contact with the wall on lap 1 and ended up finishing 21st, whilst a nightmare day for Juncos Hollinger saw Callum Ilott and Augustin Canapino both having trouble. Scott Dixon ultimately retired after an oil pressure issue caused by the contact with Pato O’Ward.
The NTT Indycar series heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for some testing ahead of the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, before the next race at Barber Motorsports Park on April 30th.
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