Kyle Kirkwood wins Long Beach from the pole for first career IndyCar victory

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Kyle Kirkwood won the first race of his IndyCar career Sunday by holding off Andretti Autosport teammate Romain Grosjean on the downtown streets of Long Beach.

Kirkwood won the pole a day earlier for the Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Jupiter, Florida, native then closed out the win at the most prestigious street course race in the United States.

“I am over the moon,” said Kirkwood, who blinked back tears.

He was challenged mid-race by defending Long Beach winner Josef Newgarden, but reclaimed the lead when the Team Penske driver pitted for new tires. Kirkwood stayed out for a handful more laps and was able to make his stop for tires and get back on track before Newgarden could reclaim the lead.

Jubilation from the Jupiter, Florida native!@KKirkwoodRacing is an @INDYCAR race winner, his first win coming at the @GPLongBeach. pic.twitter.com/Lcl4cxL3Ad

— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) April 16, 2023

Newgarden, the winner two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway, dropped to sixth and Kirkwood’s primary challengers over the closing laps were Grosjean and Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing.

But neither got close enough to make an attempt at the pass for the win, and Kirkwood celebrated his first win with Andretti.

He was part of Andretti’s development system but the team didn’t have an open IndyCar seat for him when it came time to promote him last season. Kirkwood instead spent the year driving for A.J. Foyt Racing and returned to Andretti this season as the replacement for Alexander Rossi.

Team owner Michael Andretti has so much faith in the 24-year-old that he made a personnel change two weeks ago to move Bryan Herta to Kirkwood’s timing stand as strategist. Herta had spent