IndyCar Long Beach: Kirkwood scores first win, leads Andretti 1-2

After leading from pole, Kirkwood led 53 of the 85 laps of the 48^th Grand Prix of Long Beach, despite losing his lead in traffic to Josef Newgarden of Team Penske. However, he performed a great overcut on both Newgarden and Grosjean at the second pitstop, emerged in front and held steady to the end.

Colton Herta came home fourth ahead of Alex Palou who was heavily delayed when Pato O’Ward made an ill-judged attempt on passing Kirkwood, and spun into the Turn 8 tires.

Story of the Race

Polesitter Kirkwood made a strong start despite pressure from the outside from Marcus Ericsson in the Chip Ganassi Racing car with Romain Grosjean in third, but the best start came from Josef Newgarden’s Penske, up from eighth to fourth, ahead of Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren, and Alex Palou and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing.

Colton Herta dropped to eighth, chased by Scott McLaughlin, Felix Rosenqvist, Alexander Rossi, Marcus Armstrong, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud. Unfortunately, Pagenaud’s Meyer Shank Racing teammate Helio Castroneves spun out of Turn 1 and struck the wall, bringing out the yellow. His nosecone was broken off and his steering looked bent but he got it back to the pits and rejoined a lap down.

Following the restart, O’Ward lost out to both Palou and Dixon, as he struggled on his primaries and fell to seventh. The next lap saw his teammates swap positions, as Rossi on alternates passed Rosenqvist on primaries for 10^th.

Kirkwood, Ericsson, Grosjean were running 0.7sec apart in the opening 10 laps, but Newgarden was clinging on well with his primaries, around two seconds back, and well able to stave off the Ganassi attack from Palou and Dixon. On Lap 19, Newgarden got the run on Grosjean down the front straight and neatly outbraked the Andretti car into Turn 1, and closed on Ericsson who was now 1.7sec down on Kirkwood.

That became irrelevant when the full course caution flew again on Lap 20 when O’Ward made a late but legit attack on Dixon at Turn 8, before the back straight, and the Ganassi car bounced off the McLaren and skidded nose-first into the tire wall.

Most front runners took the opportunity to pit, and the #2 Penske crew finished just in time for Newgarden to fishtail out of his pitbox just a nosecone ahead of Ericsson. Juncos Hollinger Racing left Agustin Canapino out, so he took the lead ahead of Kirkwood, now on primaries, chased by Newgarden on alternates. Ericsson and Grosjean were fourth and fifth on primaries ahead of O’Ward on alternates, chased by Palou, McLaughlin, Herta, Rossi, Power and Rosenqvist.

The restart saw Canapino retain his lead since he had a buffer of the lapped Castroneves behind him. But it all started to go crazy at Turn 6, when Canapino caught clipped the inside wall at Turn 6, and that slowed Kirkwood’s momentum, allowing Newgarden to zap past the pair of them and grab the lead.

O’Ward, who had made a strong restart then tried to take advantage of Kirkwood to dive down the inside at Turn 8 but too late. His left-front made contact with the erstwhile leader, and spun the McLaren into the tires, heavily delaying several front runners, including Palou who dropped to 12^th and Ericsson who fell to seventh.

The muddle left Newgarden leading Kirkwood and Grosjean, with McLaughlin being a major beneficiary up to fourth ahead of Herta. Ericsson clawed a place back from Rossi on Lap 29, with Power, Rosenqvist and Armstrong completing the top 10. O’Ward ran 13^th and radioed in that his car remained undamaged.

Dixon’s sorry day came to an end on Lap 38, as he was seen cruising with no oil pressure and limped the #9 Ganassi machine back to the paddock.

Fellow Kiwi McLaughlin on alternates lost two places on Lap 43, Herta passing him into Turn 1, and Ericsson grabbing fifth under braking for Turn 6. McLaughlin’s troubles continued as Rossi, Power, Rosenqvist and Armstrong demoted him to tenth. On Lap 48, McLaughlin was bumped out of the Top 10 by the recovering Palou.

After one failed attempt to pass Herta at Turn 1 on Lap 51, Ericsson got the job done at the same spot the following lap.

Newgarden pitted from the lead at the end of Lap 52, and O’Ward did the same.

Grosjean came in the following lap, and Kirkwood went a further lap, with Grosjean managing to emerge ahead of Newgarden – and retain his spot – with Kirkwood making his overcut work too to emerge in front.

With 30 laps to go in the 85-lap race, Kirkwood and Grosjean ran 1-2 for Andretti, 1.7sec apart, with Newgarden, Ericsson, Herta, Rossi, Palou and Power completing the top eight. All drivers of note were now on their second set of primaries.

Palou passed Rossi for sixth on Lap 58, and he wasn’t the only Ganassi driver on the move, as Ericsson sliced inside Newgarden for third on Lap 60. Tim Cindric, Penske president, was giving Newgarden dire warnings over fuel consumption, which is why he conceded fourth to Herta with 23 laps to go, and fifth to Palou on Lap 66.

Into the final 10 laps, Kirkwood maintained a 1.6sec lead over Grosjean who had the same margin over Ericsson, but with five laps to go these gaps compressed. On Lap 80, Rossi got around the miserable Newgarden who also had to let teammate Power through, then Rosenqvist.

Kirkwood passed the checkered flag a second ahead of Grosjean and two ahead of Ericsson with Herta further 5.6s down. Palou claimed fifth, while Power was promoted to sixth when Rossi finished his race down an escape road.

Ericsson now leads the championship, 15 points ahead of O’Ward.