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Kyle Kirkwood won the 2025 Acura Long Beach Grand Prix after dominating the race and being the effective race leader throughout the race distance. However, the Andretti Global driver was put under pressure by Chip Ganassi Racing star Alex Palou on multiple occasions. Kirkwood revealed how and what he learned from Palou that helped him at the Long Beach GP.
Kirkwood started P9 at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with Palou starting ahead of him in P8. The Andretti Global driver followed the CGR driver for most of the race and learned a thing or two from him.
The Long Beach winner spoke with Will Buxton after the race, as the FOX play-by-play announcer asked Kirkwood how he managed a Palou-esque performance and whether the Andretti Global driver had learned anything from St. Pete. He replied:
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“It's actually been nice, it's been very nice following him at St. Pete, I learned a lot of what his tendencies are and how his thought process is around a race. And not to get into too much detail, but he pushes at the right times and he knows how to execute when things need to happen.”
“And I understand that while I watched him do it in front of me, I understood it today when he was in my mirrors, which is a big part of today's race, and how I managed it with fuel save, making sure that we kept going a lot longer than him, and how I managed the car to only push in the times I knew that he would be pushing too,” added Kyle Kirkwood.
After the first round of pit stops where Kyle Kirkwood overcut Alex Palou, the Spaniard came out just behind the Andretti Global driver. It made the race a two-way fight between Palou and Kirkwood.
Palou followed the Andretti driver for the remainder of the race but failed to pass. Despite undercutting in the pit stops, the CGR driver just didn't have enough in the tank to make a move for the race lead.
Kyle Kirkwood revealed how Alex Palou could've beaten him at Long Beach
The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach saw zero caution flags, making it a pure pace battle. Alex Palou, who started P3, was stuck behind Kyle Kirkwood. The overcut was a powerful tool around Long Beach as the new hard primary tires took time to get into the operating window, and the initial lap on the new set was generally slower.
The race winner suggested that if Palou had gotten ahead of him, or started on the pole position, then the Spaniard would've taken the win. Speaking with FOX after the race, Kirkwood said:
“Really good qualifying, amazing race, amazing strategy. But it was just execution all across the board is what won us that race team here 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. And I mean, hats off to the Prefab Honda Andretti guys.”
Alex Palou continues to lead the championship but the win at Long Beach promoted Kyle Kirkwood up to second in the standings.
