Kyle Kirkwood banters with IndyCar reporter as newspaper gets his name wrong after Long Beach GP win

Kyle Kirkwood's name was misspelled by a newspaper as "Kirk Kirkwood," and the Andretti driver shared the finding on X. While speculating why such an error took place, Kirkwood blamed IndyCar reporter Marshall Pruett to be at fault for it, who then continued the banter with the 26-year-old.

Kirkwood joined the Andretti squad in 2023 and scored his maiden win at the Long Beach Grand Prix in the same year. The circuit witnessed his first pole position and race win, a feat that he was poised to continue in the near future.

The 26-year-old bagged the pole position for the event's 50th-anniversary Grand Prix this year and won the race while fending off reigning champion Alex Palou. Talking about his stellar drive, a newspaper published an article on the same.

However, the headline of the story had a major flaw as Kirkwood's name was accidentally printed as "Kirk Kirkwood," which Kirkwood found and wrote on X:

"Oh no not this again."

The three-time race winner, then, reckoned Marshall Pruett to be at fault for this in jest:

"For the record, I undoubtably blame Marshall Pruett for this. Also, James Hinchcliffe was the one to recognize this."

Pruett understood Kirkwood's sarcastic response and wrote:

"I accept 100% fault for this. I wonder if it’s because I called you Kirk in the post race press conference. And every other time I reference you on earth."

Meanwhile, a similar incident was pointed out by another person, X, where Kyle's name was written with the same mistake:

"My smart ass caught this at IMS and it just won't end."

Kyle Kirkwood's win ended Alex Palou's early winning streak.

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Kyle Kirkwood asserted that he had the IndyCar Long Beach Grand Prix in his control

Kyle Kirkwood at the NTT IndyCar Series Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey - Source: Getty

While he was successfully able to fend off a charge from the Spaniard, Kyle Kirkwood had to remain inch-perfect in his drive. Though some doubted whether he would crumble under Palou's pressure, the Andretti driver prevailed and bagged his first win of the season.

Moreover, when talking about the victory, the Long Beach Grand Prix race winner said, via IndyCar:

"We controlled the race, even from practice. Really good qualifying, amazing race, amazing strategy. It was just execution all across the board that won us that race today because if Palou was in front, he would have beat us, for sure. This was a track-position race here today, without any yellows.”

Kyle Kirkwood's win propelled him up in the championship standings. He sits second in the championship table with 108 points amassed to his name.

While he still has a considerable deficit to Palou in the standings, one bad race for the Spaniard could turn things around for Kirkwood.