ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood never seemed to have the right luck at home when it came to NTT IndyCar Series racing.
Before racing on the St. Petersburg street course on Sunday’s (March 2) IndyCar season opener, Kirkwood’s best finish came in 2024 when he narrowly earned a top 10 finish in 10th.
Yet after four years of full-time IndyCar racing and his third year with Andretti, Kirkwood finally earned a top-five finish in his home state during this year’s Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
“It feels amazing, right?” Kirkwood told Frontstretch on pit road after the race. “Like, of course, you want more. You’re never satisfied unless you win, but I feel better than I do typically coming out of this event, so it’s good.”
The only fond memories Kirkwood had of the southern Florida street course before Sunday was his victory when racing in what is now the Indy NXT Series in 2021. Other than that, the Jupiter, Fla. native had felt no love from his home track.
“I have not good races around here in IndyCar,” Kirkwood said during a presser on Friday. “This is one of the races I enjoy coming to the most because it is a home state for me, but it’s interesting because I haven’t had good races here. It’s not lack of pace. It’s a multitude of things that cause the bad races.”
Kirkwood’s average finish in his home state before Sunday was 14.3 after three total races there. For an Andretti driver that has two career wins under his belt already in the open wheel series, it wasn’t an impressive resume for the circuit.
Until this weekend.
Kirkwood started the 2025 season strong when he posted the fastest time during the first practice session of the year. During qualifying, he earned a ninth-place starting position.
On lap 1 of the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Will Power, Nolan Siegel and Louis Foster were collected in a crash in the mid pack that brought out the event’s first and only caution of the day. Kirkwood and the No. 27 crew took the opportunity to pit early and get off of the alternate tire for the more durable primary tires.
The result was a steady strategy and race for the rest of the 94 laps in the afternoon for Kirkwood.
“It was very uneventful for us, to be honest,” Kirkwood said. “We had good stops, good strategy. We started on the right tire, cycled a few positions ahead. We just did nothing wrong. We didn’t have the ultimate pace, but we were, we were pretty good.
“I don’t know if we had Ganassi [Racing] pace, but we definitely had [Team] Penske pace today. We were really strong. I think we could have gotten a podium out of that if we played our cars perfectly right.”
Indeed, it was a relatively uneventful day for the Andretti entry. Kirkwood sat in the 14th position after his first stop until lap 31. Afterward, he climbed to sixth, pitted again and then again before his final pit stop on lap 70. The No. 27 cycled to fifth position on lap 76 where he stayed until the checkered flag. Rinse and repeat.
“I’m happy with fifth,” Kirkwood revealed. “Fifth is good for us. It starts the season off strong. It’s the best I’ve started off. Number one goal is to get top fives, right? That’s how you win championships.”
Even better, he did it in his home state where, despite his lackluster finishes in previous years, he never didn’t enjoy coming to.
“I’m from Florida,” Kirkwood continued. “I’m from three-and-a-half hours away from here. It’s a quick drive over from my house, so it’s always enjoyable because I can meet family and friends.”
Maybe after Sunday, he can enjoy being home a little more.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loudcolumn, co-host of the Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT