Kirkwood encouraged by “amazing” Foyt car, despite crash

The team struggled in qualifying, with Dalton Kellett, Kirkwood and JR Hildebrand only 22nd, 23rd and 26th on the speed charts. However, in second practice Kirkwood was 15th with his race setup, and overnight the team made further progress.

When the first caution period occurred on lap 12, reigning Indy Lights champion Kirkwood was running 21st so the team elected to pit him, and his progress from the lap 16 restart was spectacular. Despite this being Kirkwood’s first race on a 1.5-mile oval, he took full advantage of his 10-lap fresher tires, and sliced forward.

He passed nine cars in three laps, and by lap 28 he was ninth, having got around Ganassi’s Marcus Ericsson and Penske’s Josef Newgarden, the pair of whom would go on to finish third and first respectively.

Kirkwood even led five laps, albeit off-strategy, but his second stop was costly, as he slid slightly long through his pitbox. He resumed 17th and was up to 14th when he tried to pass former Indy Lights teammate Devlin DeFrancesco.

When the latter’s Andretti car moved up slightly from its trajectory entering Turn 4, Kirkwood adjusted his line in response, getting further onto the less grippy track surface. That, combined with running in the dirty air of Graham Rahal who was running the same high line to get around Helio Castroneves, was enough to send Kirkwood out of control and into the wall.

“Unfortunately, we ended our race a bit too early," said Kirkwood. "Making some passes happen, we came through the field at one point from the mid-20s up to the top 10, we were actually leading for a few laps off strategy.

“So super-happy with the team, the #14 car was just amazing.

“Unfortunately, we got caught out by some of the sealer at the top of the track. I was