Kirkwood beats out Palou for Grand Prix of Arlington win
- Morgan Holiday
- Mar 15
- 4 min read
Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood overcame several pit stops worth of trouble to take the win in IndyCar's return to Arlington, making the overtake on Álex Palou late in the race and surviving a late caution.
Palou secured a second place finish, with Kirkwood's Andretti teammate Will Power securing third place, his first podium with his new team.
How it happened
Sunday's race time was moved up an hour due to inclement weather, with heavy winds set to come in throughout the afternoon, the race was started earlier.
First-time IndyCar polesitter Marcus Ericsson led the field to green ahead of Álex Palou and Pato O'Ward. While Ericsson held the lead throughout a surprisingly clean start, his Andretti Global teammate Kyle Kirkwood was an early mover, jumping up two spots to get into the top five in the opening laps.
It was a good start all around for the Andretti group, as Will Power also moved up several places to get into the podium positions ahead of O'Ward. Less fortunate was Meyer Shank Racing's Marcus Armstrong, who procured a puncture in his tyre on the opening lap and dropped from his starting position of sixth down outside the top 20 after having to pit.
Also in the opening laps, rookie Mick Schumacher picked up a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact after hitting Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard, dropping both drivers down the order.
Nine laps in, Palou was within half a second of Ericsson, the Spaniard hunting the Swedish driver down for the lead of the race. Further down the field, Christian Rasmussen, in classic form, scrapped with the Team Penske pair of David Malukas and Josef Newgarden before making his first pit stop of the race.
Ericsson and Palou came in for their first pit stops at the start of Lap 17, coming in together with Ericsson ahead. But it was Palou who came out in front after a slow stop for Ericsson, the Chip Ganassi No.10 jumping ahead and coming out in 10th to Ericsson's 11th in the overall order. Power took the lead on track as a result of the pit stops, ahead of Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Rossi.
On Lap 20, Rosenqvist got past Power for the on-track lead but came into the pits shortly after to put on a set of the softer tyre compound. Power came in two laps later, narrowly avoiding Louis Foster as he was leaving his pit box, costing him precious time as the Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver entered the pits. Power came out behind Rosenqvist in sixth place.
Meanwhile, in other narrow misses, Penske teammates Malukas and Newgarden came together, Newgarden coming out worse for wear but able to continue as a caution was avoided.
Palou was out in front with Ericsson in second and O'Ward in third, but the leaders soon came back into the pits to shuffle the order again. Kirkwood came in from fifth and had a second slow pit stop, eventually coming out in 13th place.
Ericsson pit a few laps before Palou but again was stuck behind the CGR driver as Palou came out after his stop in fifth to Ericsson's eighth. Out in front, Rosenqvist led on Lap 30 ahead of Power and Rossi as the drivers approached the halfway point of the race.
Rosenqvist made a pit stop on Lap 36, coming out in eighth behind Kirkwood. Despite Kirkwood's pit stop misfortunes, he was the quickest driver on track for most of the race as he slowly made his way back up the field. By Lap 39 he was up to fourth behind Lundgaard, working to close the gap to Palou in hopes of eventually stealing the win.
Yet another narrow miss almost-caution occured on Lap 39 as Newgarden made contact with Schumacher coming out of pit lane, forcing Schumacher into a spin and into the runoff area. Schumacher was able to get his car turned around and continue before a caution could come out, keeping the race green since the start.
Kirkwood overtook Lundgaard and was up to third place on Lap 41, putting him just seven seconds behind the net-leader Palou. Power was still out in front, hoping for a caution to help his race strategy. But he didn't get one, and came into the pits with 25 laps to go, dropping from the lead to fifth.
Out in front, Kirkwood had cut his seven second gap to Palou to less than four seconds. Ericsson followed him in for his final stop a few laps later. Palou and Kirkwood came in in tandem with 21 laps to go, and true to form, Kirkwood's pit crew struggled to pull of a clean stop and the Andretti driver came out behind Palou.
But the pair came out still in first and second, giving Kirkwood 20 laps to close the gap and beat the unbeatable Palou for the win in Arlington, and it wasn't long before he was within a second of the lead. With 16 laps to go, Kirkwood was in position and ready to make his move, which he pulled off in style heading into Turn 14.
With 13 laps to go, Palou's gap to Kirkwood was over two seconds, not insurmountable but certainly an unlikely gap to overcome so late in the race, with Power in third place nine seconds off the lead.
The race settled down in the final laps, Kirkwood widening his lead to over five seconds. With just four laps to go and a cautionless race at Arlington in sight, Rasmussen stopped on track and brought out the yellow for the first time.
The caution ended with one lap to go, leaving everything on the line for the final lap of racing. Kirkwood jumped ahead but didn't need to defend for long as Romain Grosjean and Nolan Siegel came together, ending the race under caution once again.
So it was Kirkwood who took the win and the championship lead in the process, Palou falling to second place in the race result. Power secured his maiden podium with Andretti, polesitter Ericsson falling to fourth in what was ultimately a great recovery day for Andretti.
O'Ward completed the top five ahead of Rosenqvist, Malukas, Lundgaard, Scott Dixon and Rossi.
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