Kyle Kirkwood wins another IndyCar street race, this one to become first winner in Arlington

By Canadian Press on March 15, 2026.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Kyle Kirkwood keeps taking it to the streets in IndyCar, and this time he won a new race to take over the series lead.

Kirkwood made an aggressive pass below four-time series champion Alex Palou with 15 laps to go, stayed in front the rest of the way and took the checkered flag for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington under caution Sunday. It was his sixth career win, the fifth in a street race.

“I mean, it’s a statement of how good we are on street courses, right?” Kirkwood said.

On a day when Andretti Global had some pit issues, including a long stop for Kirkwood midway through the race, all three of team’s Hondas still finished in the top four and combined to lead 47 of the race’s 70 laps. Will Power was third for a podium finish while Marcus Ericsson, who started on the pole for the first time in his 171 series starts, led 15 laps and was fourth.

The winning pass by Kirkwood, a 27-year-old from Jupiter, Florida, came on the last of 14 turns on the temporary 2.73-mile circuit that ran between the home stadiums of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.

“He just launched, and it was a clean pass, amazing pass,” Palou said.

“It was kind of all or nothing,” Kirkwood said. “I just had to do a bit of a late lunge to kind of surprise him a little bit because I think if he started defending, there was probably no chance of us getting by him. That was probably the only place that we were going to be able to pass him.”

Palou, who finished second in his Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, knew Kirkwood had been gaining on him.

“Should have obviously defended a little bit better, but it’s very easy to say now. But yeah, honestly, I didn’t really have much for him,” Palou said. “I’m really happy getting on the podium and trying to steal a little bit of Andretti’s party this weekend.”

Kirkwood has won twice at Long Beach; he also took the checkered flag at street courses in Nashville and Detroit. He began this season finishing fourth at St. Pete before a runner-up finish on the short oval in Phoenix a week ago. His only non-street win came at the paved 1.25-mile Gateway track outside of St. Louis last June, which was his third and final win last season.

Not back on top yet

While matching Kirkwood and Power for a race-high 16 laps led, Palou wasn’t able to regain the series points lead. The three-time defending champion had been on top of the IndyCar standings since June 2024 before not finishing in Phoenix last weekend after early contact. But he did move up from fifth to second behind new leader Kirkwood.

After making up a more than five-second deficit to take the lead, Kirkwood was in front by more than five seconds until two late cautions tightened up the field.

A final sprint for the checkered flag never materialized because of a collision in the back of the field on the restart as Kirkwood and Palou were beginning the final lap. That crash in the tight 14th turn brought out a full-course caution, and safety crews were still on the track when they got back around nearly two minutes later to cross the finish line.

Racing in Jerry Jones’ neighborhood

Race officials said the nine temporary grandstands that held nearly 22,000 people were sold out. That number doesn’t count the numerous hospitality suites for folks like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who was in attendance, or the crowded general admission areas throughout the Arlington entertainment district where fans watched cars racing on the city streets.

“Every stand was full. … The track looked amazing, It just looked like a big event. This is setting a new standard of what our events should look like,” Power said.

“It’s been an incredible event. This event was done right,” Kirkwood said. “I can see this being one of our marquee events outside of the (Indianapolis) 500 in a very short period of time if we continue coming back here.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press

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