Kyle Kirkwood delivered a masterful performance to claim victory in the 50th running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13, 2025, leading from pole to the checkered flag under flawless sunny skies. Driving the No.\u202f27 PreFab Honda for Andretti Global, the Florida native pulled away in the closing laps to finish 2.6859 seconds ahead of championship leader \u00c1lex Palou, ending Palou\u2019s two-race win streak to open the season .
From the drop of the green flag, Kirkwood set a blistering pace, leading 46 of the 90 laps on the 1.968\u2011mile, 11\u2011turn street circuit. The race remained caution\u2011free\u2014the second straight of the season and the first at Long Beach since 2016\u2014turning the event into a strategic duel centered on tire management and pit\u2011stop timing .
\u00c1lex Palou, who started third in the No.\u202f10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, made an early bid to undercut Kirkwood by pitting at the end of Lap\u202f6, one lap ahead of his rival. Despite rejoining just behind Kirkwood on fresher Firestone Firehawk primary tires, Palou was never able to close the 2.6859\u2011second gap, settling for second place and extending his championship lead to 34 points over Kirkwood . \u201cYou never feel amazing when you finish second,\u201d Palou admitted, \u201cbut the 27 car and Kyle, they were amazing all weekend. I tried my chances, but we couldn\u2019t really make it work\u201d .
Christian Lundgaard completed the podium in the No.\u202f7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet after executing a bold late\u2011race overtake on Felix Rosenqvist at Turn\u202f1 with five laps remaining. Lundgaard\u2019s third place marked his first podium of the season and capped a remarkable recovery after his car was rebuilt overnight following a qualifying crash . Rosenqvist held on for fourth, while two\u2011time Long Beach winner Will Power rounded out the top five in the No.\u202f12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet .
The contest featured nine lead changes\u2014the most at Long Beach since 2012\u2014as teams juggled the mandated use of both alternate and primary Firestone compounds. Kirkwood and Palou\u2019s identical three\u2011stop strategies, with final pit visits on Laps\u202f65 and 64 respectively, proved decisive in maintaining track position in the closing stint .
With three races complete, Palou\u2019s consistency\u2014two wins and a runner\u2011up finish\u2014has set a torrid pace in the championship, but Kirkwood\u2019s victory underscores Andretti Global\u2019s threat. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES now shifts to Barber Motorsports Park for the Children\u2019s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix on May\u202f4, where the battle for early\u2011season supremacy will continue .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kyle Kirkwood delivered a masterful performance to claim victory in the 50th running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13, 2025, leading from pole to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[145,48,146,88,144],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1903,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions\/1903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromtheinfield.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}