Kyle Kirkwood Stakes Claim for Pole After Leading Long Beach Practice

The current kings of the streets in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES – Kyle Kirkwood and Andretti Global – appear poised for another super Saturday after leading pre-qualifying practice for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Defending Long Beach winner Kirkwood, who has won two of the last three races on this 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit from pole, led this abbreviated session at 1 minute, 7.5417 seconds in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda of Andretti Global. It was the quickest time among the two practice sessions so far this weekend.

SEE: Practice Results

“We’re just tuning on it, getting it ready for qualifying,” Kirkwood said. “Conditions are a bit warmer today, so we’re just adapting to it a bit. But we’ve got a fast car, so all things forward.”

Series points leader Kirkwood and Andretti Global will try to continue their recent dominance on street circuits in NTT P1 Award qualifying at 6:30 p.m. ET today (FS1, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls). Five of Kirkwood’s six career wins have come on temporary circuits, and Andretti Global has won six of the past 14 street races in the series.

The 90-lap race starts at 5:30 p.m. ET Sunday (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).

David Malukas continued the impressive start to his Team Penske tenure by ending up second at 1:07.7750 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Pato O’Ward put two Chevy-powered cars into the top three at 1:07.7919 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

“It’s going to be tough,” Malukas said. “I look at Kyle’s time, and it was quick, as always. So, we’re going to try to go for these Andretti cars and see what this No. 12 car can do.”

Reigning and four-time series champion Alex Palou was fourth at 1:07.8339 in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, the same position he held after the first practice Friday. Marcus Armstrong also held station from Friday, fifth again in this session at 1:07.8817 in the No. 66 Remax Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian.

Andretti Global drivers took three of the top spots Friday, with Will Power first in the No. 26 TWG AI Honda, Kirkwood third and Marcus Ericsson sixth in the No. 28 Allegra Honda. The team wasn’t quite as strong in this practice, as Ericsson was 11th and Power 14th.

There were three red flags in the session, all for significant contact.

Nolan Siegel hit the wall in Turn 8 approximately 11 minutes into the second practice group, inflicting moderate damage to the left side of his No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

Rookie Mick Schumacher’s tough weekend continued 16 minutes later when he hit the tire barrier in Turn 3 adjacent to the famous fountain on the circuit. The impact created light damage on the No. 45 Liquid Death Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, which managed just three laps Friday before being parked for an engine change.

The practice ended roughly five minutes early when Romain Grosjean made heavy contact with the concrete barrier in Turn 1 in the No. 18 BMax Honda of Dale Coyne Racing. The car suffered heavy damage to the front and rear.

All three drivers were unhurt.