Kyle Kirkwood wins the 48th Acura Long Beach Grand Prix

Kyle Kirkwood capped off his weekend with his first victory in the NTT Indycar series. After turning in his first pole position on Saturday, Kirkwood finished first at the 48th Acura Long Beach Grand Prix on Sunday.

“It’s incredible, I was trying to hold back tears in the car, that’s something I’ve never felt before,” said Kirkwood on his first NTT Indycar series win. “The next best race to win outside of this one is Indianapolis.”

Kirkwood’s perfectly timed pit stop on lap 54 allowed him to exit the pit lane and come out in front of racers Romain Grosjean and Josef Newgarden, effectively leading the race once again. After this pit stop he never gave up the lead. Kirkwood led 53 of the 85 laps.

“I was so happy with just the pole (Saturday), but this is…I’m over the moon right now,” said Kirkwood.

Kirkwood shot up 14 places and sits fifth in the NTT Indycar driver’s championship with 74 points.

Andretti Motorsport cars led the way as three of their drivers finished at 1-2-4.

Grosjean finished second for the second year in a row and Colton Herta finished fourth.

“I would lie if I said I wouldn’t have loved to be on top of the podium today and of course, I had the chance, but the way that the race turned out and the way the situation was, it wasn’t possible,” explained Grosjean.

Gene Carbonaro, dean of career and technical education at Long Beach City College presented Grosjean his second place trophy.

Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing finished fifth, which propelled him into the lead of the NTT Indycar Championship with 110 points.

“I think we were really strong last year. We were fighting for the championship and leading the championship for a long time. I think we’ve come out even stronger this year. We’re definitely in the fight. Leading the championship feels good, but it is a long way to go,” said Ericsson on becoming the points leader.

In second place was Pato O’Ward, who dropped a spot with his 17th place finish. O’Ward attempted to overtake Kirkwood on lap 26, but he ended up drifting backwards into the tires on turn 8 and he was never able to recover.

O’Ward is coming off of back-to-back second-place finishes and is currently in second place in the standings with 95 points. Right behind him is Alex Palou with 91.

Josef Newgarden, who was favored to win the Long Beach Grand Prix and battled with Kirkwood most of the race, was looking to secure another win for the second year in a row, but his team informed him he had to conserve fuel and he allowed other drivers to pass him up late in the race.

Newgarden finished ninth in the race and sits at fourth in the points with 89.

The NTT Indycar series continues its season on April 28 through 30 with the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix.