RACE REPORT: Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Race Notes
- The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was the final stop on TWG Motorsports’ Coast to Coast journey this weekend that saw CEO Dan Towriss attend race events across the country as four teams within the TWG Motorsports portfolio raced in the U.S. on the same weekend including Spire Motorsports (Bristol Motor Speedway), Andretti Formula E (Homestead-Miami Speedway), Wayne Taylor Racing (Streets of Long Beach) and Andretti INDYCAR (Streets of Long Beach).
- Kyle Kirkwood led the Andretti INDYCAR team to victory today, securing his third INDYCAR career win and second on the Streets of Long Beach (2023).
- Kirkwood’s victory with the No. 27 PreFab Honda marks the team’s 16th win on the Streets of Long Beach and 75th INDYCAR victory.
- Today’s race had no yellow flags, the second INDYCAR race in a row this season with zero laps run under caution.
- Andretti INDYCAR will head to Barber Motorsports Park on May 2-4 for Round 5 of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
Race Results
Colton Herta
No. 26 Gainbridge Honda
P7
| Started | P2 |
| Standings | 7th (73 points) |
- Despite contact in the morning warm-up, the Gainbridge Honda was ready to go when the field went green as Colton Herta made his sixth start on the Streets of Long Beach next to teammate Kirkwood for an Andretti front-row lockout.
- Herta came in for an early pit stop on Lap 7, cycling the Gainbridge Honda down to 13th before moving his way back up the field to fourth.
- Herta ran consistently in the top five, but unfortunately, on-track traffic shuffled the Gainbridge Honda back into seventh, where he would take the checkered flag for his fourth top-10 finish on the Streets of Long Beach.
“It was a disappointing day from the Gainbridge team’s side. There’s really nothing too exciting to talk about, unfortunately. We’ll take the P7 result and move on from today. It’s not a terrible result, but we should do better.”
Kyle Kirkwood
No. 27 PreFab Honda
P1
| Started | P1 |
| Standings | 2nd (108 points) |
- Representing new primary partner PreFab, Kirkwood dominated the California street circuit once again, converting his pole position to a win for the second time (2023) in his three-year INDYCAR career.
- Kirkwood never finished a session lower than sixth, and today’s result is his fourth career podium appearance.
- Kirkwood led the most laps of the race with 46, and he recorded the fastest leader lap on Lap 61 with a lap time of 1:08.475.
“Hats off to the No. 27 PreFab Honda team today. We had a really good qualifying, an awesome race and an amazing strategy. Execution all across the board is what won us the race – we controlled the race the whole time. With this being our Coast to Coast weekend with Andretti and TWG Motorsports, it was so cool to finish it off with a win – props to the entire organization, they really deserve this one. Before this weekend, I said that this race is where we turn it around, so we’re super happy with this, but we’re also upset that Palou finished second. We need to start getting more of these [wins] – that’s the only way to beat him. We’re going to reflect on this one, soak in this win and go straight into Barber, where hopefully, we can do this all over again. This is a good one. It’s been a long time. I had a drought last year of no wins, so this is huge for my morale, huge for the No. 27 crew and huge for Honda. Winning at the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is just amazing.”
Marcus Ericsson
No. 28 Bryant Honda
P12
| Started | P5 |
| Standings | 12th (55 points) |
- Taking on the Streets of Long Beach in his 100th INDYCAR start, Marcus Ericsson started today’s race in his fifth.
- After an early pit stop on Lap 5, the No. 28 Bryant Honda rejoined the race and was running solidly in the top 10. Unfortunately, Ericsson could not avoid on-track traffic, and the Swede was unable to regain valuable track positions.
“First of all, congrats to Kyle and the No. 27 crew. Fantastic pole to win drive by him. For us on the No. 28 Bryant Honda, we had a disappointing day. The car was fast, but we felt out of sync the whole race. In every pit sequence, we got stuck behind the wrong car and just lost more spots, so it was a downward spiral. It was a very disappointing day, but we’ll bounce back in Barber.”
Rob Edwards
Chief Operating Officer
“Great day for the team – another W at Long Beach! This is just what we needed. We qualified well, but that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t convert it into a win, so we’re super happy for Kyle and all of the No. 27 team. I’m frustrated for the other two cars because they obviously qualified better than they ended up finishing the race. Pit strategy and getting shuffled back on some of those early stops made it a challenging race for them. Still, all the cars finished and got some points on the board, which is the important thing to focus on when it comes to the Championship at the end of the year.”
