By David Morgan, Associate Editor
WASHINGTON – Kyle Kirkwood knows a thing or two about winning on new street courses in the NTT IndyCar Series, having accomplished that feat earlier this year on the new Arlington, Texas street course.
But with a 147-lap slugfest ahead on Sunday in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., the driver of the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda explained that it will be a tough afternoon for not only the drivers, but also the teams to navigate the seven-turn, 1.7-mile street course that weaves its way around the National Mall.
“I don’t know how many pit stops it’s going to be. I’d say likely three or four. I guess we got to see what kind of fuel economy and whatnot we’re getting or tire deg. But it’s not going to be easy for anyone,” said Kirkwood.
“It’s going to be hot out. But this is why we train. This is why we prepare for events like this. The crew on my side, at least on the 27 crew, they do a very, very good job in these situations. A lot of oval races that we go to, we have four, five, six pit stops. So, this isn’t something that is atypical.
“But for us drivers, 147 laps on a street course is not going to be an easy thing. So, trying to mentally prepare as much as possible because any other prep that you have, you might not be able to do by now. So, I guess we’ll get out there tomorrow, see how physical it is and see what we need to do to make sure that we’re fresh for the end of the race.”
Kirkwood added with the length of this race, which was increased from its original length of 125 laps to 147 laps, Sunday will be more of a marathon than a sprint as drivers will look to position themselves for the end of the race to be in position to bring home the trophy.
“I’m just going to send it as hard as I can from the get-go, to be honest. No, I’m kidding,” Kirkwood joked.
“It’s 147 laps, right? I mean, you look at it in stages. It’s like the beginning of the race, okay, it matters, but it could flip on its head at any point. The middle part, okay, you need to start working your way towards the front and then the end you got to be at the front. And that kind of dictates exactly how hard you want to push or how much risk you want to take. That’s pretty typical of any IndyCar race, but the race is longer, so those stages become bigger.”
Andretti Global has won both of the new street courses this season, with Kirkwood’s victory in Arlington and Marcus Ericsson winning last weekend in Markham, the team will be looking to pull off the trifecta on Sunday with a clean sweep of all three new street courses.
Kirkwood explained that the speed that the team has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to get their street course program to where it is today, which gives them excitement that the victory may very well go through them this weekend.
“Quite honestly, it starts with development within the team. Our cars are really, really good at Arlington. They were really, really good last weekend at Markham,” said Kirkwood.
“Our race pace has been phenomenal, especially on new street courses. And I think we’re definitely in the hot seat for the team that is likely to be. So, we’re excited for this one. This would be the trifecta for us on new street courses. So, we’re very excited for it.”
Kirkwood is also one of a number of American drivers in the field and hopes he’ll be the guy that gets to hoist the trophy in the nation’s capital when the checkered flag flies.
“I think America wants an American to win, right? So of course that’s the goal,” said Kirkwood. “I think it’d be way more than other races would for us to win this one. But we’re just going to do as best as we can and hope that we have a good outcome here, if I’m being honest.”
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