Here's the thing about climbing the ladder in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES: when you finally reach second in the standings, the gap to the top suddenly looks massive. Kyle Kirkwood has put together a steady march forward since his rookie year in 2022 when he placed 24th with AJ Foyt Racing. Since moving to Andretti Global, he climbed to 11th, seventh, and fourth, before breaking through this season as the runner-up behind five-time series champion Alex Palou, who claimed his record-tying fourth straight title.
"It’s big," Kirkwood said. "I hope people consider us as the second-best team. We have a lot to build off of, right? We made a huge jump year over year. Now second in the championship."
Getting better every season. It’s just little things now that will make the difference in the championship. We have a lot of momentum going into the offseason. We have a direction.
Still, closing the 86-point deficit to Palou is no small task. No one has managed to pass the dominant champion in the standings since 2022, and the math tells a brutal story. Palou has stacked up 25 career victories, split across 17 on permanent road courses, five on street circuits, and three on ovals. Kirkwood sits on seven career wins, with six coming on street tracks. Even more striking is his record on permanent road courses, where he is winless in 32 series starts, alongside a single victory in 26 oval starts.
Palou even chipped away at Kirkwood’s usual street-circuit domain this season, taking three of his five career street wins in 2026 at St. Petersburg, Long Beach, and Detroit. Yet permanent road courses remain the most obvious hunting ground for improvement. Kirkwood dominated those tracks in junior formulas with 32 wins out of 41 victories, and his 2026 campaign showed tangible progress with top-10 finishes at all six permanent road-course events: Barber Motorsports Park, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, Road America, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Portland International Raceway, and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Andretti Global as a whole has work to do there too, having secured just four permanent road-course victories since 2020, with Alexander Rossi delivering the most recent one in July 2022 at IMS.
Then there is the Indianapolis 500, which remains a glaring headache for the entire organization. Kirkwood pointed to IMS as the venue where Andretti Global suffers its worst average finish on the schedule. Since 2020, the team has managed only one top-five finish at the Brickyard—a fifth in 2022—alongside just three top-10 finishes in the "500" since 2021, seven results of 30th or worse, and a paltry 69 laps led in that span. Kirkwood’s own Indy 500 results with Andretti Global read 28th, seventh, 32nd, and 16th.
Despite those hurdles, the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda driver delivered a masterclass in consistency during his 18 starts in 2026. He bagged 15 top-10 finishes, improving on his 10 top-10s in 2025 and 13 in 2024. More importantly, the quality skyrocketed: 10 top-five finishes compared to just five in each of the previous two years. His six podiums matched his combined total from his first 68 series starts. He traded raw race wins—dropping from three victories in 2025 to two this season—for ruthless consistency, avoiding the mistakes that ruin championship fights.
With teammates Will Power and Marcus Ericsson providing consistent support during a stronger second half of the season for the team, Andretti Global is closer than it has been since Ryan Hunter-Reay took the title in 2012. But the final step requires hunting down Palou where he is strongest.
"Yeah, across the board we’re solid," Kirkwood said. "Getting better every season. It’s just little things now that will make the difference in the championship. We have a lot of momentum going into the offseason. We have a direction."
