Kyle Kirkwood secured a hard-fought third-place end in Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports activities Automobile Course, elevating him again into second place within the championship standings.
Beginning tenth within the #27 Andretti International Honda, the 27-year-old Florida native navigated a grueling, caution-free 90 laps across the 13-turn, 2.258-mile pure terrain street course. Excessive humidity and temperatures peaking at 95 levels Fahrenheit turned the race into an intense bodily problem, leaving drivers with no yellow-flag breathers to flee the warmth.
The efficiency marks Kirkwood’s fourth podium end of the season. Whereas it is usually the tenth podium of his profession, it’s his first-ever on a standard street course in IndyCar.
“Yeah, that was some of the bodily days I’ve ever had in a race automotive,” Kirkwood stated. “I am cooked proper now. Operating all inexperienced round right here with it being scorching and this place is simply so busy as it’s, and it is qualifying laps each single lap. My shoulders are shot. That is why I am leaning over. I am positively hydrated, simply cooked.”
Kirkwood attributed his rise by way of the sector to a mix of early overtakes and flawless execution on pit lane. Whereas he famous that the crew missed its visible targets in Saturday’s qualifying session, the race-day automotive setup and technique allowed the restoration towards the entrance.
“We drove from tenth to 3rd,” Kirkwood stated. “A whole lot of it was technique and pit stops. We had a variety of good technique that put us in a podium place there, and we additionally handed some vehicles at first of the race, so a bit of little bit of each.
“A extremely good day general. It wasn’t the place we had been meant to qualify. We must always have certified in direction of the entrance, I believe. I suppose I am glad that we had been capable of get us again in direction of the entrance within the race.”
With seven rounds remaining within the season, Kirkwood has now moved again into second place within the standings. He now trails factors chief Alex Palou by 56 factors (404-348), having steadily chipped away six factors over the past three race weekends.
The breakthrough comes at a venue the place Kirkwood was traditionally dominant throughout his ascent by way of the junior ladder system (eight wins in 9 begins throughout USF2000, USF Professional 2000, and Indy NXT), however had discovered problem since graduating to IndyCar, having beforehand solely completed a better of eighth (twice – 2024, 2025) in 4 begins on the monitor. He dismissed the concept that he had all of a sudden modified his driving type to unlock the monitor.
“Nicely, it wasn’t that I simply figured it out,” Kirkwood stated. “I wasn’t driving in a different way (Sunday) than I’ve the final 4 years round this place. We had a extremely good take a look at right here two weeks in the past and the automotive was actually good. That tempo was confirmed from observe 1, observe 2, into qualifying. After all qualifying did not go unbelievable, and even in warmup we had been P2. We simply had a variety of tempo.
“It wasn’t like I simply discovered one thing, per se.”
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