Kyle Kirkwood has delivered an honest assessment of his qualifying performance at Long Beach.
Kirkwood put in a strong performance on Saturday at Long Beach, his pace consistently shining through as he chased a Fast Six appearance. Progressing with ease, he found himself locked in a duel with Andretti team-mate Colton Herta for pole position. In a Titanic battle, Kirkwood emerged the victor, beatingHerta to the coveted top spot on the grid by two tenths of a second.
Speaking after qualifying to Jack Harvey, Kirkwood spoke of his delight at locking out the front row at Long Beach with his team-mate.
“When you’re in an Andretti Global car at Long Beach you know you’re gonna be quick and [I’m] so happy to capitalise on that here today. Front row lockout with Colton.
I thought it was going to be him or I after that first quali run. He was super quick. I was super quick and I knew it was going to be a dogfight between him and I.
You’ve gotta be so happy with that right? A front row lockout for Andretti Global here at Long Beach. I’m shaken that was great, that was such a good lap, such a good qualifying. Fortunately I didn’t put any wheel wrong and hit anything.
That’s always a question here at street courses. You’ve got to send it to get that top spot. Super happy today.”
Can Kyle Kirkwood secure victory at Long Beach?
When asked about the strategy for tomorrow’s race, Kirkwood was cautious. He raised concerns over the performance of red tyres and stated he would hold off on celebrating his pole position.
“I don’t think the Reds are gonna be good but who knows?
“I thought the same thing at Thermal and I was completely wrong so we’ll get through this afternoon, celebrate a little bit but not too much because we’ve got to prep for the race tomorrow and we’ll get hopefully most of our running done in the morning to know exactly what the race tyre is going to be like.”
