Three races into the 2026 IndyCar season, and there have been three different points leaders: Alex Palou, Josef Newgarden, and now Kyle Kirkwood -- all three winners early in the new year.
Kirkwood passed Palou with 15 laps to go in the Grand Prix of Arlington and never looked back, earning his sixth career win. He now leads the four-time and defending IndyCar champion by 26 points in the standings, putting Andretti on top.
Newgarden, who entered this race with the lead, has fallen to third in the standings, 33 points back. He is tied with Pato O'Ward, who opened the year with a trio of top five finishes.
Palou, the reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion, took command of those on the preferred three-stop strategy after his initial pit stop on Lap 16 of 70. At one point, he built an advantage of over 7s over pole-sitter Marcus Ericsson and led 16 laps, but that changed when Kirkwood got around his Andretti Global teammate and began to chip away the gap to Palou’s #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
The complexity of the race took shape when Palou caught the #26 Andretti Global Honda of Will Power, who was the race leader running on a two-stop strategy, with roughly 27 laps to go. Once Power dove to pit lane on Lap 46, Palou and Kirkwood pitted three laps later and managed to best him with the overcut. It then became a head-to-head battle, with Kirkwood thrashing the quickest laps of the race to that point.
With 16 laps to go, Kirkwood’s #27 Honda was on Spaniard’s rear wing, and had a look down the long 0.950-mile backstretch going into Turn 10 before lunging for the lead with a late dive in Turn 14.
Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian, Will Power, Andretti Global
Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian, Will Power, Andretti Global
“I defended in Turn 10,” said Palou, who started second. “They (Kirkwood) were a little bit more trimmed than us. We knew that. They were catching us a lot on the straights. That was a decision we took. That's the best we knew.
“Then out of turn 12, I went on the OT (overtake button), on the hybrid as well. He was very close. I didn't know if I had to defend or not. He just lunged. It was a clean pass.”
Kirkwood established a gap of over 2s on Palou before the caution came out with four laps left, setting up a one-lap restart. In the end, though, he didn’t have enough pace to match Kirkwood before another caution ended the race and was left settling for second.
During the post-race press conference, Motorsport.com asked Palou if he ever felt in control of the race considering the advantage he held at one point.
“No, because I was fighting with Will on the other strategy,” Palou said. “It was getting tough. Like, normally when you have someone on a two-stopper and you're on a three-stopper, you catch him easily. He was matching the pace that I had. He obviously just had less fuel and had to pit a little bit earlier.
“Yeah, I thought at first I needed to fight with the #26. I saw that Kirkwood was just closing on us. I said, ‘All right, maybe on clean air we'll be able to match him or pull a gap.’ He was getting half a second closer, 6/10ths closer.
“I thought it was going to take him a little bit longer to get through us. I think also they were very trimmed, all the Andrettis. We were not. It was just making it a huge difference for them on the straights. It's a decision we took. I was better on all the corners, but I couldn't really use it as much as what they were gaining on me.
Andretti Global’s Max Taylor pulled off a dramatic late pass to claim his first-ever Indy NXT win at the Grand Prix of Arlington.
After starting fourth, Taylor snagged the race lead with less than two minutes remaining in the 30-minute timed race, crossing the finish line 1.8925s ahead of Enzo Fittipaldi in the #67 HMD Motorsports entry.
“Oh, I wanted it with every ounce of my body,” Taylor said. “I mean, I had to fight for it. That was some hard racing out there, but this track just creates such good racing.
“Absolutely incredible to drive around here and, yeah, to make some moves out there. It was a lot of fun. A lot of carnage happening, but we were able to show our pace. Missing qualifying yesterday, but we definitely didn't miss it today.”
Fittpaldi, who led the majority of what ended up being 15 laps, had mixed emotions finishing second.
“Yeah, it was hard racing,” Fittipaldi said. “I love to race hard and that's what I love about, you know, racing here in the States. It's raw racing and I really enjoy that. We had some good battles out there. Unfortunately, we came home second. I think we were leading most of the race there.
“I'm just a bit frustrated with the result, but super happy at the same time, you know, first podium of the season. And you know, we had a tough start at St. Pete with that mistake in qualifying, and I'm just happy to bounce back here and be able to be fighting at the front.”
Tymek Kucharczyk, driving the #71 HMD Motorsports machine, finished third on the 2.73-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit.
Juan Manuel Correa (Cusick Morgan Motorsport) and Lochie Hughes (Andretti Global) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
The Race
Chaos struck right out of the gate as Jack Beeton jumped the start from fifth as the field got stacked up at the alternate start line on the backstretch, which resulted in Colin Kaminsky being forced out and punted into the outside wall.
A delayed yellow then saw pole-sitter Alessandro de Tullio hit in the right-rear by Tymek Kucharczyk, sending de Tullio off course in Turn 10 and falling to 22nd.
The caution finally came out, and upon further review Race Control deemed Beeton was penalized for jumping the start and forced to drop to the back of the field. As a result, Fittipaldi assumed the race lead.
The race restarted with just over 16 minutes left, with Fittipaldi breaking away from Kucharczyk, who was under review for his earlier contact on de Tullio. Kucharczyk began to close on Fittipaldi, with third-place man Taylor holding serve 1s behind.
After an extended review, Race Control deemed no action was required on the earlier contact between Kucharczyk and de Tullio.
With 11 minutes to go, Kucharczyk began to hound Fittipalid for the race lead, popping out on the backstretch but unable to complete the pass. It became a three-horse race as Taylor joined in the battle. Kucharczyk passed Fittipaldi at the inside of Turn 9. Fittipaldi fought back and reclaimed the lead in the following corner as Taylor nearly took it three-wide.
Taylor pulled off a late dive on Kucharczyk in Turn 14 and took second. Kucharczyk then came under attack by Correa, but held serve.
Fittipaldi held a 1s lead on Taylor when the caution with six minutes remaining after Andretti Global’s Josh Pierson was stopped on course in Turn 2 after contact with HMD’s Salvador de Alba.
The restart came with roughly 3 minutes, 38 seconds left as Fittipaldi pulled away from Taylor, but there was contact in the back of the field that resulted in de Alba spinning. Fortunately, de Alba got back going and the race stayed green.
Taylor got under Fittipaldi on the exit of Turn 11 and took the lead with less than two minutes to go. Fittpaldi continued to stalk the leader, with Kucharczyk right in the thick of the fight and ready to pounce if the top two made a mistake.
With a clean race track ahead, Taylor was able to inch away from his rivals and secure the first win of this Indy NXT career, ahead of Fittipaldi and Kucharczyk.
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