Kyle Kirkwood, Alex Palou Agree Tight Title Duel Has Season-Long Legs

Alex Palou isn’t the favorite entering Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Say that again.

Palou, a four-time series champion with three straight titles, owns 21 career victories, including eight last season.

However, he’s 0-for-5 at Long Beach.

Palou (photo, top) finished second to Kyle Kirkwood last season, one of five top-five finishes in as many tries on the scenic 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit.

The duo shares Row 2 for Sunday’s 90-lap race airing at 5:30 p.m. ET on FOX, FOX One, FOX Sports app, FOX Deportes and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls, with Palou starting third in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and Kirkwood fourth in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda for Andretti Global.

“Just feels the same,” Palou said. “Honestly, although we won some races last year, going to Barber last race, I didn’t feel like we were the favorite. I knew we had a great car, but I didn’t feel like we were the favorite. I feel like you’re the favorite once you go out in practice and qualify and you’re up there.”

Palou has been up there this weekend. He was fourth fastest in both practice sessions and in the pre-race warmup. Felix Rosenqvist earned the NTT P1 Award. Pato O’Ward starts second.

Despite that, the target remains Kirkwood, the defending Long Beach winner and a victor in two of the last three years here. Five of his six career wins have come on street circuits, including the inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington on March 15 when he passed Palou with 15 laps remaining.

“I think his (Kirkwood) team is ready,” Palou said. “They’ve been really good here in the past. It’s pretty impressive. We’ve been working to see if we can catch them a little bit. I think we’re closer than last year. We weren’t super close in Arlington, but hopefully we can find something to be at their level because their pace is pretty impressive.”

Andretti Global has won five of the last seven Long Beach races and placed three drivers in the top four at Arlington.

Kirkwood (photo, above) leads Palou by two points in the standings despite Palou recording three top-two finishes in four races this season. His only result outside the top two came after a crash on Lap 21 at Phoenix Raceway, leaving him 24th in the 25-car field. Kirkwood finished second that day.

“I feel like the points leader, but he’s closed that gap after having a DNF pretty quickly,” Kirkwood said. “So, there is a lot of pressure, but we’re at a track where we’ve done very well. Hopefully, we can stretch that once again. There’s pressure with the last few years here, but I think we can execute.”

Does that make Sunday’s race a must-win opportunity?

“I’d say at the beginning of the year, that was definitely the thought process,” Kirkwood said. “But we’ve been good at all types of courses. If we had qualified further up at Barber, I think we would have had a shot at winning, as well.

“I still have the mindset that we need to win this race. This is one of our best opportunities. At the same time, it’s not immensely crucial for a championship, because we’ve had a good start.”

Kirkwood believes Andretti Global has gained on Palou since last season. Entering the fifth race in 2025, Kirkwood was third in points, 69 behind Palou. That marks a 71-point swing in the same span this year.

Andretti Global hasn’t won a season championship since 2012 with Ryan Hunter-Reay, but Kirkwood is in position to challenge.

“We’ve closed it, for sure,” Kirkwood said. “He’s had some bad luck, but I’d say the first string of races, we didn’t expect to be as good as they were. Barber and Phoenix weren’t tracks where people thought Andretti would be the team to beat, and that was kind of the case. We were very good at both. I think we’ve closed the gap mostly through development.”

Palou agrees the gap has narrowed, though he points to Kirkwood’s pace last year.

“I feel like Kirkwood was already at the pace last year,” Palou said. “He’s not suddenly closer. He was already up front.”