Kirkwood Caps Breakout IndyCar Season with Podium Finish at Laguna Seca Finale

Kyle Kirkwood closed out his 2026 IndyCar Series campaign on a high note, driving from sixth on the grid to a runner-up finish behind Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

The strong drive cemented a career-best second-place finish in the championship standings for the 27-year-old Florida native.

Kirkwood, driving the #27 Andretti Global Honda, concluded the 18-race season with 545 points, placing 86 points behind champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. Over the course of the year, Kirkwood led Andretti Global’s title challenge, recording two wins, six podiums, 10 top-fives, 15 top-10s, and one pole position.

Reflecting on the finale, Kirkwood acknowledged that points strategy dictated his approach late in the race.

“Yeah, it was,” Kirkwood said regarding securing second in the championship. “Yeah, we played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship. We made all the decisions based on that. Probably could have had a go at Scottie (Scott McLaughlin) at the end on the first few laps on reds. The number one goal was to make the tires last. That’s what we did. Came home with a second, which is something to be proud of.”

The podium finish highlighted a broader surge across the entire Andretti Global organization as the season drew to a close.

“It’s big, right? I hope people consider us as the second best team,” Kirkwood said. “We have a lot to build off of, right? We made a huge jump year over year. Now second in the championship. (Teammates) Will (Power) and Marcus (Ericsson) have come on very strong at the end of the year. We have a lot of momentum going into the off-season. We have a direction. Hopefully we can work on it and better ourselves for next year.”

As the closest challenger to Palou in the overall standings, Kirkwood is already looking at where he and his team can find the final increments needed to mount a full championship run next year.

“Yeah, I mean, couple things, right?” Kirkwood noted. “I think I’ll look at myself, figure out which ones I need to be better at, whether it’s just driving, performance, but also mistakes. Markham definitely didn’t help our championship run whatsoever.

“We can also get better at some circuits, too, right? Indy 500 is probably the biggest circle on our calendar for everybody to get better at, but specifically for us because if we look at average finish across the team, that’s our worst track. That’s a big one for us. Maybe cleaning up some of the short oval stuff. Maybe even some of the road course stuff we can get better at. Yeah, across the board we’re solid. Getting better every season. It’s just little things now that will make the difference in the championship.”

Kirkwood attributed much of the team’s late-season progress to the rising performance across all three Andretti entries.

“I think things are just starting to click, right?” Kirkwood added. “Will and Marcus started doing exceptionally well in the second part of the season, getting solid finishes everywhere except at Milwaukee, right? They’re right there in the hunt. You shine when you have all three cars up there. Our performance was starting to show as the second part of the season came around.”

Source link