Kirkwood finds his cadence in Fast Six chaos at Long Beach

Two-time Long Beach pole sitter and race winner Kyle Kirkwood defied uncooperative tires and snaps of oversteer to put on his best qualifying performance of the season, finishing fourth with a slide-filled lap that had him wrestling the car throughout. 

“I was pushing super hard, as you can tell, but it was fun,” Kirkwood said. “You’re just guessing going out there. You don’t get a warm up lap to feel what the balance is.”

After setting the fastest lap in second practice, the championship leader and his Andretti engineers worked on finding more front grip.

“We threw the kitchen sink at it, and we got [more grip],” Kirkwood said. “We can work with [P4]. You know, both of my wins came from a pole, so I’d love to have that pole right now. It’s definitely easier up from there. But honestly, every single race we’ve started a little far back and made our way forward, so this is nothing new to us.”

Kirkwood also credited some of his success to a pre-race visit to the Bahamas, which he took for the second year in a row. 

“I’ve got a theory that if you do things in the exact same order, good things come from it,” he said. “Everything in a similar cadence, right? Creatures of habit, that’s what we are. And I guess that’s a good excuse to go to the Bahamas for a week, isn’t it?”