Tag: Kyle Kirkwood

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.”

Long Beach IndyCar victory lap with Kyle Kirkwood and Marshall Pruett

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race winner Kyle Kirkwood joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett for a beer and a discussion on how the Andretti Autosport driver captured his first IndyCar victory.

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race winner Kyle Kirkwood joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett for a beer and a discussion on how the Andretti Autosport driver captured his first IndyCar victory.

Long Beach IndyCar race report with Bryan Herta and Marshall Pruett

Andretti Autosport’s Bryan Herta joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to discuss his driver Kyle Kirkwood’s breakthrough NTT IndyCar Series victory at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Andretti Autosport’s Bryan Herta joins RACER’s Marshall Pruett to discuss his driver Kyle Kirkwood’s breakthrough NTT IndyCar Series victory at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Kirkwood takes commanding first IndyCar win at Long Beach

First career pole. Near-perfect race. First career win. Kyle Kirkwood has a long NTT IndyCar Series career ahead of him, but regardless of what the future brings, it’s a safe bet that he won’t forget the 2023 Long Beach race in a hurry. Pretty much …

First career pole. Near-perfect race. First career win. Kyle Kirkwood has a long NTT IndyCar Series career ahead of him, but regardless of what the future brings, it’s a safe bet that he won’t forget the 2023 Long Beach race in a hurry.

Pretty much every element of the race that he could control was executed with perfection. His start was on point, he nailed the restarts, and in what proved to be the clutch move of the race, he was able to stretch his middle stint one lap further than the cars he was racing against, setting him up to defend from a position of strength for the final stint.

“This is amazing,” he said after climbing from Andretti Autosport’s No.27 Honda. “Oh my gosh. What a day. The calmest day I’ve had in two years, and it was a win. We got a little unlucky with some traffic and fell back, but kept our heads straight… awesome pit stops… and came away with the win at Long Beach. I was so happy with just the pole yesterday, but I’m over the moon right now. This is incredible.”

The only time he looked in any real danger was immediately after the first round of stops. Team Penske had been among the few to start the race on the harder primary tire, which meant Josef Newgarden had the early advantage of the softer alternate tire for the second stint, and wasted no time in taking advantage of it to duck into the lead when Kirkwood got tangled up in an odd scrap for near-last between the Juncos Hollinger Racing cars, which had been shuffled to the front of the pack.

Newgarden held the lead through the entire middle stint, but Kirkwood remained in range and turned the wick up when the No. 2 Chevrolet had to make its second stop. When Kirkwood emerged from his own visit to pitlane, he did so comfortably in front.

His cause was no doubt helped near the end by the fact that the car immediately behind him was that of teammate Romain Grosjean, who had literally more push-to-pass than he knew what to do with: enough to get him into the lead, but at the likely cost of not having enough fuel keep him there.

“Awesome for Kyle, very happy for him,” Grosjean said. “Obviously I wish I was in his position right now, but he drove a hell of a race, like a champ, all weekend. We tried everything we could, but we had a few situations and couldn’t really attack.”

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

Third place was less than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson hoped for, but it was an solid salvage job after he shaking off contact with Pato O’Ward during the first stint.

“I think we had the speed to win, but unfortunately got involved in that incident when Pato divebombed a few guys and hit my front wing, and I got some damage and lost five or six positions,” he said. “Bit of an uphill battle from there, but we showed the pace and made some good overtakes, which was fun, and I was catching the leaders towards the end, so the speed was there.”

The incident in question was triggered by Pato O’Ward carrying way too much speed into Turn 8 and spinning, sending cars skittering around him. A few laps earlier he’d been involved in another incident at the same corner when he made a big lunge to the inside of Scott Dixon. The pair made side-to-side contact that sent Dixon into the barriers and brought out a yellow.

“I was on the inside, [Dixon] decided to stay on the outside, and I was petty much alongside him,” O’Ward said.

“I don’t know what to say. I’ve been racing Scott for a few years, and if he feels like it is my fault then I’m sorry you feel that way but I don’t agree.

“The other issue that I had in Turn 8… completely my fault, I feel bad that I let my team down. By the time I remembered to stop the car it was too late and I squeezed myself. I didn’t want to take out Kirkwood so I locked the brakes and spun. It’s definitely been a weekend… not to forget, there’s a lot of positives I can take out of the weekend, but disappointed in myslef. I don’t have to be making those stupid moves. I’m not up to the level that I expect of myself.”

Dixon was able to continue, but later dropped out of the race with an oil pressure problem.

“That [move] seemed extremely late,” he said. “I understand there’s tire deg and all that stuff going on, but I wouldn’t have chosen to do that. But if that’s how the series wants us to race then it’s gloves off from this point and that’s how it will be. So, disappointed with that.

“I don’t know what happened at the end; we passed the 60 car and lost drive. Frustrating day. It was going to be hard on the strategy we were on, Plus the start was a joke as well. I don’t know what they are calling up there, but it seemed like row six or five went before the leader did.”

Dixon was unimpressed by the start…and things only got worse from there for the No. 9. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Colton Herta climbed from seventh to fourth to complete an Andretti Autosport 1-2-4, leaving Alex Palou to complete a somewhat more adventurous journey to the top five.

“It was a bit of a sour day today for us,” he said. “We had a strong car; we were running really well at the beginning then caught up in Pato’s incident and I got stuck there and saw a lot of cars flying by. I think we were 12th or 13th. So, super-happy that we recovered back to fifth, great pit stops, the speed of the car was amazing, so looking forward to Barber now.”

Newgarden’s challenge faded in the final part of the race due to a problem that he didn’t identify other than to describe as “brutal,” leaving Will Power as Team Penske’s top finisher with a masterclass in fuel saving to climb from 13th to sixth. Also notable was Ganassi youngster Marcus Armstrong, who had what he considered to be a pretty uneventful afternoon in his second IndyCar start, but still planted the No. 11 inside the top 10 with an eighth.

An opening-lap crash by Helio Castroneves threatened to set the tone for another afternoon of concrete canyon chaos, but outside of O’Ward’s adventures at Turn 8 the race was largely incident-free. The only notable exception came right at the end, when Arrow McLaren’s hopes of seeing two cars inside the top 10 were derailed by Alexander Rossi’s car suffering a suspension failure and finding the wall with one lap to go.

RESULTS

Presented by:

Advertisement

LBGP polesitter Kirkwood on Andretti Autosport – ‘It’s like they’ve become my family’

Michael Andretti rode away from the Long Beach media center with a giant smile on his face after Kyle Kirkwood, in his third NTT IndyCar Series race for the team, clinched pole position for the Acura Grand Prix with the No. 27 Andretti Autosport …

Michael Andretti rode away from the Long Beach media center with a giant smile on his face after Kyle Kirkwood, in his third NTT IndyCar Series race for the team, clinched pole position for the Acura Grand Prix with the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise for those who’ve followed the IndyCar sophomore from Florida who tore through the USF Championships presented by Cooper Tires, winning three straight titles on the way to spending his rookie season last year with A.J. Foyt Racing. Kirkwood had a rough introduction to the big leagues, but with his shift back to Andretti Autosport where he won the Indy Lights title in 2021, it’s been a homecoming in all the best ways.

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

Fast throughout pre-season testing and at the opening round at St. Petersburg, Kirkwood’s been fast in the No. 27 Honda, but has been a lightning rod for misfortune. With his pole, there’s a new feeling that the bad early days of the new season might be in the rearview mirror.

“We’ve had just a spell of bad luck,” Kirkwood told RACER. “And there’s been some unfortunate things that happened, so it’s kind of like now we’ve got the monkey off our back. I’m ecstatic for the team. We’ve been working in such a good direction with me, (race engineer) Jeremy Milless, (race strategist) Bryan (Herta), and all the crew members. I feel like we’ve gotten into a really good spot now.”

Kirkwood says the warm atmosphere within the No. 27 Andretti program is a big reason for the change of fortunes.

“It’s like they’ve become my family,” he added. “And that’s something that’s so important in racing, right? And so regardless of what happens, I’m always happy with them because we’re having a good time or joking around. Even when we were under the red flag, we’re joking around on the intercom. So it’s been a lot of fun and it just makes it that much sweeter to do it with people that you really enjoy.”

Presented by:

Advertisement

Kirkwood grabs first career IndyCar pole at Long Beach

Kyle Kirkwood used a tire advantage to maximum effect to claim the first NTT IndyCar Series pole position of his career at Long Beach on Saturday. Kirkwood’s 1m06.2878s in the No.27 Andretti Autosport Honda was just enough to see off a late …

Kyle Kirkwood used a tire advantage to maximum effect to claim the first NTT IndyCar Series pole position of his career at Long Beach on Saturday.

Kirkwood’s 1m06.2878s in the No.27 Andretti Autosport Honda was just enough to see off a late challenge from Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson — the Swede ultimately came up just 0.03s short — but the tone for the final battle for pole was actually set in the previous session, when Ericsson’s teammate Marcus Armstrong hit the wall in the final two minutes.

That set up a late scramble: under IndyCar’s qualifying rules, the remaining cars in the group were given 30s after the green flag to take the opportunity for a single final flyer. That, in turn, created an additional complication. Use the final set of stickered alternates to secure a spot in the Fast 6, or try to get into the Fast 6 with the tires that are already on the car and use the last set to try for pole?

Kirkwood went for Option B. Everyone else went for Option A. And by the time the Fast 6 was over, several of them were wishing they hadn’t.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Kirkwood immediately after climbing from the car. “Our car is on fire this weekend. We’re constantly chipping away at it, getting it better and better. Third weekend with the team and I’ve already got a pole. I couldn’t be happier.

“I knew this day would come. I didn’t know if it was going to come this early; there are a lot of tough guys out here. It’s kind of solidifying myself; it’s kind of, ‘He can do this.’ Starting from the pole, a lot of people win from the pole… It’s a good moment, no doubt.”

Ericsson, while just short of the ultimate prize, was still pleased to have earned a front row start for Sunday’s race, while Kirkwood’s teammate Romain Grosjean, who will line up third, was one of several who coulda, woulda, shoulda.

“I had it,” he said. “I messed up at the hairpin and I think I lost about three tenths. It’s my fault — I braked too late, got the rear locking and had to pull the clutch in the middle of the corner to try to keep it going. We didn’t have an easy session; we got really blocked in Q2 then we got the red flag and had to use the new tires to get into the Fast Six. I knew Kyle was going to be good, he’s been driving well all weekend. Really happy for him and all the Andretti team. I think I had it, I just didn’t put it together.”

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

The driver on the other end of the blocking that Grosjean referred to was Ganassi’s Alex Palou, who had slowed because he had another car ahead of him. The incident was investigated and dismissed by race control, and Palou will line up alongside Grosjean on the second row.

Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward completed the Fast Six, and it looked a lot like one that got away for O’Ward in particular. The Arrow McLaren driver had been fastest when the red came out, but the No. 5 team didn’t feel confident that his time would stand when everyone else did their last flyer on stickers, and sent him out — albeit at the back of the pack, where they could have the luxury of monitoring everyone else. As soon as it became clear that his passage to the Fast Six was safe, engineer Will Anderson sent repeated pleas over the radio for O’Ward to back off and save his tires. Those instructions appear to have gone unheeded.

O’Ward is far from the only driver left to ponder what might have been, though. Colton Herta took the same gamble to save the new rubber for the Fast Six as Kirkwood, but in his case it resulted in his being bumped to seventh at the end of the second round.

Just behind Herta are two-thirds of Team Penske, with Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin qualifying eighth and ninth respectively.

“Frustrating,” Newgarden said. “I think there’s time in the car, I just can’t extract it. I can’t put the lap together. I don’t know where we are at on the long run this weekend, but certainly in the short run it’s been hard to put together.”

Compounding Team Penske’s irritation, Newgarden had also been responsible for bumping Will Power out of the opening round.

“We had fuel for four plus three, and I did my three and didn’t do four in the first round because it went red,” said Power, who will start 13th. “I missed out by that amount to Newgarden last year for the top six. Same thing.

“It’s difficult (to try something with strategy) with the two stops. If it was three stops, you could do some big strategy stuff. The two stops with the small windows make it harder, but we’ll do what we can.”

The red flag that Power referred to was prompted by a big crash by David Malukas in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing w/HMD Honda. Malukas hit the wall at Turn 9 and continued on in the belief that the car had not been seriously damaged. The first indication that it had not came at Turn 4, when it speared itself into the outside wall as soon as he hit the brakes.

“I just have a little bit of a headache,” said Malukas after he emerged from the medical center.

“It was unfortunate. I started the lap previous and looked at the data and knew I had to brake a little bit deeper to catch up some time into Turn 9. So I tried braking a little bit deeper and was probably two laps too early, so I ended up losing the car and tapped the wall on the left.

“I gave the car a bit of a shake going down the straight and it felt OK but clearly it wasn’t, so going into Turn 4 I went in and hit the brake and it just whipped out on me and I couldn’t save it. At that point I was just letting go and taking the impact. My mistake. I had a chance to pit and maybe we could have fixed something and kept going, so two mistakes on my part.”

Malukas will need further evaluation before being cleared to race tomorrow.

RESULTS

Presented by:

Advertisement