For the first time this NTT IndyCar Series season, someone beat Alex Palou.
Kyle Kirkwood drove flawlessly after his final pit stop to hold off Palou to win his second Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, April 13.
From pole position to total domination 🏁
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) April 13, 2025
REPOST to celebrate @KKirkwoodRacing’s victory at the #GPLongBeach! pic.twitter.com/SLLyprTj5U
“I’ll tell you what, (Palou) didn’t make it easy on us,” Kirkwood said post-race. “Hats off to Prefab Honda today.
“What a great day. We controlled the race from practice. We felt like we were in control. Really good qualifying, amazing race, amazing strategy, but it was just execution all across the board. It’s what won us that race today, because if Palou was in front, he’d beat us for sure. It was a track position race today without any yellows today.”
While Palou didn’t become the first driver since 2020 to win the first three races in a season, he has effectively put the paddock on notice that anyone wants this championship they will have to pry it out of his hands.
“You never feel amazing when you finish second, but honestly the [No.] 27 car, Kyle, were amazing all weekend, super fast,” Palou said. “I tried my chances, but we couldn’t really make it work. Had a really bad start on my side, and that kind of put us on the backfoot, but I think we did the best we could.”
Behind Palou in the finishing order was Christian Lundgaard, in a backup car, who used an alternate pit strategy to overcome a crash in qualifying on Saturday, April 12. That was his second consecutive podium in his first season with Arrow McLaren Racing. Felix Rosenqvist earned his best result of the year with fourth, and Will Power led Team Penske in fifth.
To achieve his first win since 2023, Kirkwood had to run the whole race with the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing DHL Honda perpetually in his rearview mirror after he and a large portion of the field pitted within the first laps of the race.
During the 50th running of IndyCar’s second-most prestigious race, polesitter Kirkwood pitted on lap 7 to get off the rapidly degrading alternate Firestone tire compound. For the next two stops, his No. 27 crew got him out in front of Palou. That was significant as Palou’s team has been exceptional in using strategy to get his two wins this year.
Kirkwood held off a determined charge by Palou during his final pit stop exit and earned his second Long Beach win, and third win of his IndyCar career.
The race was a story of opposing pit strategies, as drivers who started the race on the alternate tires rushed in quickly to get off them, as they did not survive long runs. Six cars stayed out on the primaries, including Lundgaard and last year’s winner Scott Dixon. But at some point they too would have to get on alternates. All Kirkwood had to do was beat Palou out each pit exchange, pray for no yellows and the race would come to him.
Which it did.
The rest of the top 10 included Scott McLaughlin, who finished sixth, followed closely by Colton Herta, Dixon, Sting Ray Robb and Kyffin Simpson rounding out the top 10.
Robb had one of his best runs in his three year career, leading during the off-strategy sequences, and Simpson his first career top 10.
IndyCar Long Beach Results
IndyCar’s next stop on the calendar is the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday, May 4, at 1:30 p.m. ET. Broadcasting will be provided by FOX.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.