Tag: Jeremy Milless

Milless attests to Kirkwood’s rapid development with Andretti

Veteran IndyCar race engineer Jeremy Milless has seen a lot of young talent develop in the cars he’s overseen, and after watching Kyle Kirkwood score his second NTT IndyCar Series victory of the year for Andretti Autosport, he’s come to appreciate …

Veteran IndyCar race engineer Jeremy Milless has seen a lot of young talent develop in the cars he’s overseen, and after watching Kyle Kirkwood score his second NTT IndyCar Series victory of the year for Andretti Autosport, he’s come to appreciate how far the Floridian has come in their first season together.

“You could just tell in his voice today how he was super calm and knew he had it under control and no worries, right?” Milless told RACER. “Obviously he’s gaining confidence every weekend and knows that if it weren’t for a few mistakes that we’ve made this year, we’d have been in the top five in points based on where our pace has been. So if we can put all of this together, next year will be a really good year.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

Kirkwood’s win at Long Beach — a runaway performance — was the first of the season for Andretti, and his second, secured in tricky conditions at Nashville that saw him keep polesitter Scott McLaughlin and championship leader Alex Palou in check with ease, was another testament to the strong technical bond he’s formed with Milless in just 13 races.

“From the start, we understood each other on the road and street courses,” Milless added. “We’re still learning each other on the ovals, so I think that’s where we need to button things up a little better. But we’re making progress for sure. On the roads and streets, he knows what he wants so it’s really easy to give him what he wants. Whereas on the ovals, he’s still learning exactly what he needs to have a good race car and qualifying car. So as he learns that, we can do a better job of giving him what he needs.”

Paired with the No. 27 Honda’s former driver, Alexander Rossi, Milless was a frequent race winner before a dry spell kept the car out of victory lane for nearly three years. Taking two wins with Kirkwood — the only triumphs for an Andretti IndyCar driver to date in 2023 — feels wonderful, but like most racers, Milless is greedy.

“It’s good,” he said, looking ahead to Saturday’s race on the Indianapolis road course. “But the best thing is to do two in a row. I would like to do that again.”

Kirkwood the latest American to hit it big in IndyCar with Milless

Jeremy Milless has a knack for winning NTT IndyCar Series races with young American drivers. The latest addition to the race engineer’s record is 22-year-old Kyle Kirkwood from Florida who drove the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda to victory in Long …

Jeremy Milless has a knack for winning NTT IndyCar Series races with young American drivers.

The latest addition to the race engineer’s record is 22-year-old Kyle Kirkwood from Florida who drove the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda to victory in Long Beach, and prior to the 2021 Indy Lights champion stepping into the car, Milless and Alexander Rossi combined to earn seven of the Californian’s last eight victories and 27 of his 28 podiums.

Moving back to 2015, the trend got its start at CFH Racing — the team we know today as Ed Carpenter Racing — when Milless went to victory lane at Bar​b​er Motorsports Park with first-time winner Josef Newgarden, who would go on to secure his second and third wins with Milless at CFH/ECR before Team Penske hired the Tennessean in 2017.

Given his history with Rossi and Newgarden — the 2012 Indy Lights champion — reaching the pinnacle of IndyCar success with Kirkwood should come as no surprise, and in an exchange early in the weekend at Long Beach, Milless didn’t waver when he predicted his new driver would deliver a breakthrough win on Sunday.

As he’s done for more than 20 years in motor racing, connecting with drivers and pit crews has come easily for the outgoing Milless, but is there a special talent he uses to bond with the Kirkwoods and Newgardens in the formative stages of their careers?

“I’m immature, so I can relate to the younger children,” he told RACER with a laugh. “I take the approach that they’ve made it this far, so they obviously are pretty damn good at what they do. So I just listen to what they say and see how that goes.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]

The irreverent IndyCar mechanic-turned-engineer likes to keep things light with his drivers and to that end, Milless tends to be received less like the head coach barking orders at his star quarterback, and more like a goofy older brother.

“One thing I always try and do is if they’re doing something wrong, I always say ‘we’ need to work on this,” he explains. “I always make sure it’s said like that, and I would hope it would be done that way if it’s the other way around. Maybe that makes them less angry.”

Kirkwood’s poise under pressure in Long Beach showed how far and how fast he’s developing as an IndyCar racer. Phillip Abbott/Motorsport Images

Milless received Kirkwood with one year of experience gained from the fluctuating A.J. Foyt Racing team. Experience was certainly earned during the up-and-down season, but it wasn’t clear whether Kirkwood made any significant advancements as a driver. Three races into his second season, he sent a message that a new threat exists in IndyCar.

“I would say he’s about where Josef was in Year 3,” Milless said. “Honestly, he’s a bit more mature and has a little more racecraft. His feedback is really good. The biggest thing is all drivers have feedback, right? But it’s the ones that tell you, ‘I think the car needs this to fix it,’ and they go faster. And so far, I’d say he’s pretty a pretty big hit on things like that. We hit it right off at the Thermal [pre-season] test, he told me a couple things to do to make the car better for him, and I was like, ‘That sounds like we need to put the Barber setup on and it’s gonna work. And it did.”

Leaving Long Beach, Kirkwood’s race engineer has no questions as to whether the IndyCar sophomore can back up his breakthrough win with more victories in 2023.

“Confidence is pretty high right now,” he added. “I wouldn’t have been shocked if we won the first race.”