IndyCar News: Kirkwood Wins the Inaugural Java House GP of Arlington

In a dramatic showdown on Lap 55, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood executed a bold pass on Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou to seize the lead of the Java House GP of Arlington IndyCar race. The race had run caution-free through 68 laps, but there was no stopping Kirkwood, who held the lead to the finish.

In front of a big crowd for the inaugural event, the first full-course caution of the event came on Lap 68, triggered by Christian Rasmussen, which bunched up the field and set the stage for a tense restart. The green flag waved on Lap 69, but the action was short-lived as Nolan Siegel and Romain Grosjean made contact, bringing out the second caution. This allowed Kirkwood in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda to cruise to victory under yellow-flag conditions.

” I passed Palou, which is a very rare thing to say in a race. Yeah, it was kind of all or nothing. He was so good in the four, five, six, seven, eight, nine section, the tight, twisty bit. It was hard to get to his gearbox to make a pass on the straight. It put me in a position where we’re good on the straight, right now, trimmed more than him, good under braking, and I knew that he was going to brake a little bit later there because his car was bottoming more than ours.”

“I just had to do a bit of a late lunge and surprise him a little bit because if he started defending, there was probably no chance of us getting by him, ’cause that was probably the only place we were going to be able to pass him.”

“I always love racing against him because we’re both very aware of our surroundings and race very, very cleanly together.”

No. 10 defending champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing settled for second place after leading 16 laps in a strong but ultimately runner-up performance.

Alex Palou commented on Kirkwood passing him for the lead.

” Kirkwood was really fast. I could see already on the second and third stints that I was pushing as much as I could, using OT to try to get gaps. He was closing 3, 4/10ths on me. I was like, Oh, man, it’s going to be tough.”

“He just passed me incredibly. It was a very awesome overtake. Should have obviously defended a little bit better. It’s very easy to say now. But I honestly didn’t really have much for him. I think I’m really happy getting on the podium and trying to steal a little bit of Andretti’s party this weekend.    Will Power was incredible on those alternates as well, making them last. They told me he had to do 12 laps more. I was like, in two laps he’s just going to die, but he carried on.”

Kirkwood’s teammate, Will Power, rounded out the podium in third, also having led 16 laps during the race.

“I am very happy with the new team.” Power commented. ” Very, very strong.  Still improving a lot, too. I think this will be the team to beat this year actually. I was saying three years it would take us to get everything, but I’m going to say this year (smiling). It’s good stuff.”

” I couldn’t have kept these guys behind me with the fuel that I had to save. We kind of committed to the two-stopper. That was a big fuel save.”

“First two stints were big tire saves. But the pace was not bad. It just wasn’t the quickest strategy today. But it showed that we can really look after tires if we have to, and we can get big fuel.”

“Looking forward to Barber. I think we can have some good stuff there. Yeah, the thing is with this team, we’ve got so much room to improve.”

Polesitter Marcus Ericsson finished fourth despite a pair of sluggish pit stops that hampered his charge.  The Swede led 15 laps of the race.

Pato O’Ward claimed fifth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, standing out as the lone Chevrolet-powered car in the top five.

Pit strategies added layers of intrigue this weekend, thanks to the new requirement of using two sets of alternate tires. Many teams favored the more durable primary black tires, leading to unconventional stops—some as early as Lap 4—to optimize their runs.

Dan Towriss

Autoracing1 spoke with Dan Towriss, principal owner of Andretti Global about the changes since hiring Will Power as one of there drivers this season.

“Will’s experience has been so valuable to the team.  And with him coming over, I think his feedback has really helped Marcus. We’ve seen an uptick in performance. Marcus was on pole this weekend and had a strong race. . And  I think Will’s added a lot in addition to the way he pilots the 26 car.  And so I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Will Power on this team.”

“Will’s been a real asset to the team, both from a leadership standpoint, as well as an experienced driver.” 

2026 Java House GP of Arlington Race Results