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Kyle Kirkwood doesn’t look like someone who races at over 230 mph for a living. The 27-year-old from Florida carries himself with a quiet ease that’s more beach than racetrack – and that’s exactly how he’d have it.
“I’m really just a beach bum, and I tend to be decent at driving cars,” he says.
When he’s not behind the wheel, Kirkwood is usually on the water – surfing, fishing, or just out on the boat. It’s a far cry from the intensity of IndyCar racing, where he’s quietly become one of the series’ biggest threats.
Closing In On Palou
Three wins last season and a fourth-place championship finish put Kirkwood firmly on the map. In 2026, he’s taken another step. Entering the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500, he sits second in the standings – just 27 points behind reigning champion Alex Palou – with only one finish outside the top five through six races.
Palou, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing and has won four of the last five IndyCar championships, speaks in a similarly quiet, measured tone. The parallels between the two are hard to miss.
But Kirkwood isn’t chasing Palou just to be close. He wants the title.
“We’re getting better, but there’s still some work to be done. We’re second in the points, 27 points behind. We were almost gifted a win this past weekend, and we kind of dropped the ball a little bit on that. So there are some things we can clean up. At the end of the day, we’re having a really good start to our season, better than I’ve ever had, but it can always be better.”
He’s optimistic – but clear-eyed about what it’s going to take.
“The 10 car doesn’t make mistakes. And we’ve had some mistakes, whether it’s on pit road, it’s on strategy, it’s me and driving. We’re still having some of those mistakes, and that has to be cleaned up for us to have a good shot at winning the championship. Because Alex has just set the bar so so high for all of us.”
A Complicated Relationship With The Brickyard
The Indy 500 has not been kind to Kirkwood. In four prior starts, his best finish is seventh. His most memorable moment at the track is one he’d probably rather forget – a crash in 2023 that left him sliding on the roof of his car for half a mile, a tire flying over the catch fence.
It still plays on highlight reels. Kirkwood knows that.
His team, Andretti Global, has five Indy 500 wins to its name and has historically run well at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That history hasn’t translated for Kirkwood personally – not yet.
“Quite honestly, it’s a lot of execution. We put ourselves in positions the last couple of years to win this race, and ultimately, things have happened that are in our control, probably, right? You look at the one crash that I had that still plays on highlight reels everywhere, where I flip and I slide on my lid for half a mile, and the tire goes over the fence? Ultimately, we put ourselves in that position because we made some mistakes. We were running at the front. We stopped there. We cycled to ninth, which we shouldn’t have, and we put ourselves in that position. So we’ve got to execute across the board: strategy, pit stops, my driving, qualifying, everything has to go right.”
Starting 27th, Again Digging Out
Qualifying didn’t help. Kirkwood will start from 27th on the grid after a tough session that tripped up the entire Andretti team. Palou, meanwhile, starts from pole.
It’s a familiar spot for Kirkwood this season – behind, and working to catch up. What’s also familiar is what comes next; he’s answered that call every time so far.
The Indy 500 is a different kind of test. More cars, more variables, more room for things to go wrong. But Kirkwood has handled pressure well all season, and there’s little reason to think race day will be different.
Whether it’s enough to finally break through at Indianapolis – that’s the question he’s been building toward answering.
