Fourth place isn’t going to cut it. Not when your championship rival is Alex Palou. Not when he’s winning races like it’s his full-time job — which, frankly, it is. While Kyle Kirkwood was piecing together what, in any other season, would be a solid day at Road America, Palou was out front once again, cruising to his sixth win in nine starts. That kind of form doesn’t just win championships, it ends them early.
So yeah, on paper, fourth looks fine. It’s respectable. Clean, fast, composed. But that’s not the bar anymore. When Palou is stacking trophies and stretching his points lead like elastic, a “pretty good” race is basically a loss. Kirkwood knew this was a weekend to strike. Starting a career-best third, with pace in the car and strategy in his pocket, he still came away with a result that, while decent, only deepened the deficit in the title fight.
“That was a good result,” Kirkwood said. “I will definitely take fourth with the kind of performance that we had there. I mean, man, that was a crazy race. Especially since the first half of it was a split strategy. It was everyone throwing huge divebombs at each other, which caused that split strategy, but the No. 27 Siemens Honda came out with another top five, so I’m stoked with that.
“I think that was an overachievement today, so I love to see it. Also, I think we kind of leaned toward the red tires today, but neither tire was bad. Firestone came here with a good product, so I’m happy to be running them.”
Kirkwood’s fourth-place run marked his 12th career top five and his second straight at Road America. He led the charge for Andretti Global from his best-ever starting spot at at the track, third on the grid, and held his ground well despite the chaos that tends to define the opening laps at Elkhart Lake. A first-lap yellow set the tone early, but Kirkwood held his own through the opening exchanges.
It wasn’t until a few laps later, at the ever-tricky Canada Corner, that the first small chip in his day showed up. Trying to avoid contact during a tight on-track exchange, Kirkwood ran wide, surrendering positions and falling back to sixth. It wasn’t an error so much as a damage-control maneuver, but in a title race as razor-thin as this one, every lost second matters.
On lap 14, Kirkwood and Will Power renewed hostilities in dramatic fashion. The No. 27 Honda nudged Power’s No. 12 car wide in Canada Corner, continuing the tension that’s simmered between the two since Detroit. The incident wasn’t catastrophic, but it did allow Palou’s No. 10 car to slip through. And with Palou, that’s never a good thing.
Kirkwood did recover. In fact, by lap 24, he was leading the race. But even that wasn’t immune to disruption. A moment of hard racing saw him run Palou wide only for Felix Rosenqvist’s No. 60 to capitalize and snatch the lead back, pushing Kirkwood to second once again.
The thing about Kirkwood’s race is that it wasn’t defined by one big mistake. It was shaped by a dozen small moments and one very ill-timed yellow flag. After his second pit stop, the caution came out at precisely the wrong moment. He had just cycled through service, but the yellow froze the order and cost him critical track position. The field bunched up. Strategy shuffled. And Kirkwood was left on the back foot.
From there, it was a matter of triage. He stayed inside the top six for much of the remaining laps, pushing hard, making passes where he could, and staying clean through the chaos. But with so many divergent strategies playing out around him and Palou now out front and in fuel-save mode, the climb was too steep.
Still, he fought. And ultimately, he drove back into the top five, crossing the line in fourth.
By most standards, that’s a solid race. It shows maturity, pace, and grit. But when your championship rival is collecting his sixth win of the year and building a 93-point cushion in the standings a quiet fourth just doesn’t cut it.
Let’s put it in perspective.
Kirkwood now sits second in the standings with 293 points, trailing Palou’s 386. That’s a full 93 points back, nearly two full race wins. Behind him, Pato O’Ward (275), Rosenqvist (231) and Scott Dixon (231) round out the top five. But none of them, at this moment, look poised to stop the Palou freight train.
Kirkwood has done plenty right this season. Three wins, seven top 10s, a legitimate shot at being the guy who breaks the Ganassi stranglehold. But Road America was a reminder that sometimes, even your best isn’t enough; not when Palou is in championship form.
What makes this sting even more is that Kirkwood genuinely had the speed to be in the mix. He had the strategy, the car, and the control. He also had to deal with Power nearly punting him into the Wisconsin wilderness at Canada Corner. That move could’ve ended both their races.
Later, his aggressive but fair move to run Power wide at the same corner felt like a statement—not just for the day, but for the season. Detroit had already been a flashpoint, and Sunday’s response showed that Kirkwood isn’t interested in being pushed around. Still, while it may have been satisfying at the moment, the exchange cost him time and gave Palou one more free pass.
He also lost precious seconds dodging a spinning Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard, while attempting to pass Colton Herta, spun and forced Kirkwood into evasive action. Again, not Kirkwood’s fault, but a costly incident regardless.
So now, the big question: where does Kirkwood go from here?
The raw pace is there. The racecraft is there. The confidence is coming into form. But what he really needs more than anything is for Palou to blink. A bad pit call, a mechanical issue, or maybe a misstep in qualifying. Something, anything to break the rhythm. Because as it stands, Palou is running away with this thing, and everyone else is fighting for scraps.
For Kirkwood, the math is simple: podiums aren’t enough anymore. He needs wins. Clean weekends. No more bad breaks. And maybe, just maybe, a little bit of luck to finally fall his way.
