Kirkwood was able to keep others behind as he saved fuel and took his maiden IndyCar win. Photo: IndyCar
The NTT IndyCar Series visited the picturesque streets of Long Beach for the third round of the season, and it was Kyle Kirkwood who took his maiden victory.
The sophomore driver had the car to beat all day, starting from pole and leading the most laps during the afternoon.
Kirkwood nearly had to defend a challenge from his Andretti Autosport team-mate Romain Grosjean in the closing laps, but the gap never shrunk below one second and there were no attempts at a last lap pass for the win.
Part of the reason Grosjean was not able to mount a real charge was because he was having to save fuel for nearly the entire last third of the race. He even left over half of his Push-to-Pass on the table because he didn’t have the fuel available to tap into the extra horsepower.
Marcus Ericsson was close challenging the top two at the end, but ran out of laps before he could set up a pass attempt. A second podium early in the season was his reward, as was the points lead.
A third Andretti driver finished in fourth, with Colton Herta helping to give the team a Long Beach result to dream about. Alex Palou filled out the top five, earning his third consecutive finish in the top 10 spots.
Josef Newgarden led the field for the entire middle stint, but completed his final pit stop two laps before most of the others around him, which forced him into an extreme fuel saving mode for the final stint.
The Texas winner could not defend against the those around him and dropped from third to ninth, and still barely made it to the checkered flag before his fuel ran out.
Scott Dixon had a day to forget, and ended up in the tire barriers when Pato O’Ward made an ambitious move to the inside on lap 20 and bumped the veteran off course.
Dixon was able to get re-fired and continued for a while, but eventually had to retire due to mechanical troubles and finished down in the 27th and final position.
Dixon’s day ended early after contact with O’Ward. Photo: IndyCar
O’Ward escaped unscathed from his battle with Dixon, but still was not able to grab a result fitting of his speed early in the weekend. He ended up a disappointing 17th position, a full lap down to the leaders.
The resulting caution came a few laps before the ideal pit stop strategy demanded, but most pitted anyway and chose to stretch their remaining stints.
Agustin Canapino did not pit, however, and was at the head of the field for the restart. He was quickly swallowed up the by his faster competitors, and caused a bit of chaos as he fell through the field.
Canapino suffered some damage as everyone poured around him and unfortunately had to retire a couple laps later. The result puts a halt to the rookie’s strong start to his IndyCar career.
IndyCar is now firmly in the midst of the championship race, and drivers will be back on track in two weeks’ time at Barber Motorsports Park for the first natural road course race of the season.
Keyword: Kirkwood masters fuel saving race to take Long Beach victory