Kirkwood tops Andretti teammate Herta for Long Beach pole

Kyle Kirkwood delivered a monster lap to claim pole position for Sunday’s 90-lap Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Andretti Global driver — pole and race winner in 2023 — rocketed around the 1.9-mile street circuit in 1m06.1921s, which was nearly a half-second faster than Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the final minute of qualifying.

The vast 0.5s margin demoted Palou to second, and with Andretti teammate Colton Herta’s final run complete, Palou dropped another place as Herta produced a lap that was good enough to capture an all-Andretti front row, but fell 0.2311s shy of Kirkwood’s stellar work.

Palou held onto third (+0.4333s) ahead of stablemate Felix Rosenqvist from Meyer Shank Racing (+0.4437s) in fourth and Andretti’s Marcus Ericsson in fifth (+0.5140s).

“When you’re in an Andretti Global car at Long Beach, you know you’re going to be quick,” Kirkwood said. “You’ve got to be so happy with that, right? A front-row Andretti Global lockout here at Long Beach.

“I’m shaking. That was great. That was such a good lap, such a good qualifying. Fortunately, I didn’t put any wheel wrong or hit anything. That’s always a question here at street courses. You’ve got to send it to get that top spot.”

On top of Andretti’s great day in qualifying, the top five also belonged to Honda. Completing the Firestone Fast Six was Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, the only representative from the team and Chevy, but the margin was significant (+0.8472s).

Qualifying’s big story, just as it was at the most recent event at The Thermal Club, was the struggles of Team Penske, whose Will Power (13th) and Josef Newgarden (15th) failed to make it out of the opening qualifying round.

Tire strategy was on display in the Fast Six as Kirkwood and others put a second new set of the faster alternates to good use. With track position vital at Long Beach, the use of two new sets of alternates was the smartest call employed by the six runners.

Some of IndyCar’s fastest drivers locked into a battle to transfer in the opening knockout round. Penske’s Power clipped the wall with his right-front wheel, just as Scott Dixon did in practice, and headed straight to the pits for inspection by his crew. The timing was unfortunate as it was his last lap before intending to pit — with approximately three minutes left — to put on the faster alternate tires. He was able to make it out in time to deliver a few quick laps but was unable to crack the top six.

Teammate Newgarden complained about being slowed by Rosenqvist at what would have been his final lap, but IndyCar disagreed and left the matter alone.

Fastest were Christian Lundgaard, Herta, Rosenqvist, Pato O’Ward, Marcus Armstrong, and David Malukas. Finished for the day were Power, Newgarden, Kyffin Simpson, Sting Ray Robb, Conor Daly, Devlin DeFrancesco, and Rinus VeeKay.

Kirkwood lead Palou, McLaughlin, Nolan Siegel, Ericsson, and Alexander Rossi in the other opening knockout round. Those who failed to transfer were led by Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Christian Rasmussen, Louis Foster, Callum Ilott, Robert Shwartzman, Santino Ferrucci, and Jacob Abel.

Firestone’s Fast 12 session ended when Lundgaard — fifth at the time — clouted the Turn 9 wall. Kirkwood, Herta, Palou, Ericsson, Lundgaard and McLaughlin would continue to fight for pole while seventh through 12th were locked in with Rosenqvist, Armstrong, Rossi, O’Ward, Malukas, and Siegel. Lundgaard was demoted to 12th for the incident, which promoted Rosenqvist to the Fast Six.

The final reckoning, though, was all about Kirkwood and Andretti, who were untouchable.