2022 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

The Long Beach street circuit is one of the most prestigious tracks on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar, and played host to a fantastic race that saw Josef Newgarden hold off Romain Grosjean and Alex Palou for his second consecutive win of the season.

For five members of this rookie class, this was their first Grand Prix of Long Beach. It proved to be difficult for many, as half of the class did not finish the race while only one finished in the top fifteen. What issues plagued the young stars? Who managed to shine bright? We’re going to break it all down in this week’s IndyCar Series Rookie Report.

Kirkwood once again showed his talent this weekend, and was the only rookie to finish inside the top fifteen. This was the best finish of his young career so far, and his first career top-ten finish in the NTT IndyCar Series.

What’s most impressive about Kirkwood’s weekend is his consistency. In both practice sessions as well as the race, Kirkwood finished in tenth place. The only blemish being his twelfth-place qualifying performance, which wasn’t much of a blemish at all. Kirkwood became the first rookie to reach the second round of qualifying, beating out race-winning talent in Graham Rahal and Rinus Veekay in the first round of qualifying to advance.

The Florida native was elated after the race, and shared how proud he was of the team’s work despite difficulties overtaking.

“It’s a sweet ‘win’ for us because we’ve had a couple of finishes we didn’t want with the pace we had. Today we had the pace and we were able to show that,” Kirkwood said.

“The restarts here are just so tough because you come out of the last corner and it’s a massive accordion effect. You can’t make passes happen into Turn One. It’s so tight between the walls to make the passes anywhere else. It’s just so difficult.”

“We’re right there with the big dogs and we’re right there with the big teams. We were quick today and we showed that. All we did was go forward. It was solid points for the team. I’m super happy and everyone is smiling.”