Kirkwood ends Palou’s unbeaten start to IndyCar season at Long Beach

Kyle Kirkwood has ended Alex Palou’s winning start to the IndyCar campaign with his first victory since 2023 at Long Beach.

Polesitter Kirkwood led a race-high 46 laps and kept defending champion Palou at bay for his second career win at Long Beach – his third IndyCar victory and second from pole in the iconic street race.

The result ended a 23-race winless streak for Kirkwood, who won twice in the 2023 season with Andretti Global after debuting with AJ Foyt Racing in 2022, but failed to triumph in 2024. It also elevated the 26-year-old to second in the standings.

“What a great day,” Kirkwood said. “We controlled the race. Even from practice we felt we were in control. Really good qualifying. Amazing race. Amazing strategy.

“It was just execution all across the board. [That’s] what won us that race here today. Because, if Palou was in front, he would have beat us for sure. This was a track position race here today, without any cautions.”

Palou bolted from third into second past Colton Herta in the first round of pitstops and, despite an undercut attempt in the second stops, Kirkwood held on to win by 2.6859 seconds.

One driver to make impressive gains was Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, who rallied from 12th after crashing in qualifying to snag the final spot on the podium.

The Dane stayed out until the end of lap 27 on his opening stint, made it to the end of lap 39 on his softs and the switched on to the same strategy with the other contenders with a final stop on lap 60.

He chased down Felix Rosenqvist over the final stint and used a deep lunge to sneak past the Swede for the final podium place with five laps remaining.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Rosenqvist held on for fourth, with Team Penske driver Will Power rising from 13th to salvage fifth place.

Fellow Penske driver Scott McLaughlin came home in sixth ahead of Andretti racer Herta.

Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon, Juncos Hollinger’s Sting Ray Robb and Kyffin Simpson (Ganassi) capped the top 10.

There were no cautions for the entire race and all cars reached the chequered flag. The only major issue came for Josef Newgarden, who suffered the same seatbelt problem three times that ultimately relegated him to last in 27th for Penske.

IndyCar Long Beach – race results