Kyle Kirkwood threw a Hail Mary to win the first-ever IndyCar Grand Prix At Arlington in the shadow of the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium, but he probably didn’t have to.
Kirkwood was chasing down Alex Palou on lap 55 of the 70-lap race after they made their final round of pit stops when he went deep into Turn 13, which hadn’t emerged as one of the preferred passing zones on the new street circuit. He got by on the inside as Palou opted to give him room instead slamming the door and potentially wrecking the pair.
Kirkwood then drove away and built up a nine-second lead before a wreck brought out a yellow flag with four laps to go and bunched of the field for the restart. The race went green with one lap remaining, but Kirkwood stayed in front until another yellow came out and ended the race.
“That was so incredible,” Kirkwood said afterward. “Man, did we have some pace. This JM Bullion Honda, Andretti, all these guys right here, they gave me the tools today. It’s because of this race car we won today, because of teamwork.”
“He did an awesome pass, hats off to him, it was super clean, it was pretty impressive,” Palou said, adding that the Andretti cars looked faster than his Ganassi all day.
Kirkwood’s Andretti teammates Will Power and Marcus Ericsson finished in third and fourth ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in fifth.
The win moved Kirkwood to the top of the season standings after three races and three top five finishes, with Palou and O’Ward rounding out the top three as the series takes a one-week break before resuming at the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on March 27.
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