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After leading from pole, Kirkwood led 53 of the 85 laps of the 48th Grand Prix of Long Beach, despite losing his lead in traffic to Josef Newgarden of Team Penske. However, he performed a great overcut on both Newgarden and Grosjean at the second pitstop, emerged in front and held steady to the end.
Colton Herta came home fourth ahead of Alex Palou who was heavily delayed when Pato O’Ward made an ill-judged attempt on passing Kirkwood, and spun into the Turn 8 tires.
Story of the Race
Polesitter Kirkwood made a strong start despite pressure from the outside from Marcus Ericsson in the Chip Ganassi Racing car with Romain Grosjean in third, but the best start came from Josef Newgarden’s Penske, up from eighth to fourth, ahead of Pato O’Ward’s Arrow McLaren, and Alex Palou and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing.
Colton Herta dropped to eighth, chased by Scott McLaughlin, Felix Rosenqvist, Alexander Rossi, Marcus Armstrong, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud. Unfortunately, Pagenaud’s Meyer Shank Racing teammate Helio Castroneves spun out of Turn 1 and struck the wall, bringing out the yellow. His nosecone was broken off and his steering looked bent but he got it back to t …