What is it about Kyle Kirkwood and street course IndyCar racing?
When track temperatures are at their hottest, Kyle Kirkwood is at his coolest. Kirkwood in his No. 27 Honda for Andretti Autosports led 34 of the 80 laps during Sunday’s Music City Grand Prix capturing grabbing his second career IndyCar win.
Kirkwood took the lead for good on lap 54 on a strategy call from Bryan Herta. The 24-year-old outlasted a handful of drivers which included the pole sitter for the race Scott McLaughlin. The Kiwi in his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet led 25 laps to bring home a P2 finish for the 2nd straight year. Ultimately, Kirkwood’s pace was just too strong. Even at the late restarts McLaughlin wasn’t able to put any pressure on the Andretti Autosport driver.
“I’ve got to give up to the 27 crew, Andretti, Honda,” Kirkwood said. “They played everything in my favor, to be honest. They gave me all the tools I needed. They cycled me to the front on strategy, and we just made really smart decisions and hit all of our marks. Just a solid day.”
“I tried my hardest. Congrats to Kyle and his team. McLaughlin said. Another top-three, good points. Bummed we didn’t get the win, but we weren’t the best on the day. Kyle was. Hopefully next year we’re running for the championship and win here and win the championship, as well. There will be a huge party on Broadway.”
IndyCar Championship Scramble
The current series points leader Alex Palou in his No. 10 Honda for CGR led 12 laps while driving to a P3 finish gaining another 36 points towards the championship standings and still maintains a firm 84 point lead with 4 rounds to go over P4 finisher Team Penske driver and Nashville native Josef Newgarden in his No. 2 Chevrolet. Rounding out the top 5 was another CGR driver Scott Dixon in his No. 9 Honda, who made his 318th consecutive start on Sunday, which ties him with Tony Kanaan for the series record streak for starts.
“We had the speed,” Palou said. “It was improbable after the call we did on that first yellow. Honestly, we talked about it before the race. We expected more yellows, and it was not the right call. But hey, we survived, we made it work. It was a tough race, but we made the podium and couldn’t be happier now.”
Making his NTT IndyCar debut this weekend was Linus Lindqvist in the No. 60 Honda for Meyer Shank Racing machine. Lundqvist was driving a very good race until hard contact with the wall ended his race. The 2022 IndyNXT champion settled himself in a top 10 position for most of the race. Ultimately he came home at P25, but did finish with the fastest lap of the race.
.@L_Lundqvist76 into the wall in his first NTT #INDYCAR SERIES race.
Full course caution is out with under 10 laps to go.#MusicCityGP // @MeyerShankRac pic.twitter.com/PjIrtDd3cD
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) August 6, 2023
Up Next: Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, Saturday August 12 2 PM / ET
