Kyle Kirkwood believes Andretti Global will close the gap on Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR) heading into the 2026 IndyCar season.
“I think we’re pretty close,” said Kirkwood, 27. “We’re not that far away and we’re obviously trying to get to 10/10.”
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“That’s something I’ve talked to some guys here about, some of our short oval paces being executed on some of our road courses. If we can nail those things down – that’s not far off for us. It’s like a few tenths of a second (a second) here and there. If we can exploit some of those areas, we’ll be in the mix.”
The Florida native came on strong last season, posting a career-high three wins and finishing second in the IndyCar Series behind CGR’s Alex Palou, who had eight wins and finished fourth in the standings.
“It turns out we were right on the mix on some of the tracks, but not all of them,” Kirkwood said. “Honestly, Ganassi isn’t 10/10 at every track. Their performance on the road courses is more important than anywhere else. If we can take advantage of the places where they might not be as strong, then we’ll have a better outlook for our season.”
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While there were many positives last season for Kirkwood and the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda, there were also some drawbacks. In the second half of the season, five of the last seven races have finished 12th or worse.
“No, the execution wasn’t perfect, and that’s partly due to me, or maybe mostly due to me,” Kirkwood said. “Yeah, we didn’t do well in some of the short oval races and the second half of the season was full of road races and we really struggled.
“Colton (Hertha) didn’t struggle as much as I did in some of the road races. Like Laguna, he was on the podium; we were at the back after taking some penalties. But just doing a little better in certain places, some of that is my responsibility. It’s not just ‘Oh, we need to be faster in certain places.’ “I need to execute a little better, too. It’s a combination of factors. “
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Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing
Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing
Andretti made some key changes in the offseason. Will Power joins after 17 years at Team Penske, replacing Colton Herta in Formula 2, alongside Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson. Andretti also named another former Team Penske veteran, Ron Ruzewski, as team leader, thereby bringing in Rob Edwards to serve as the team’s chief performance officer.
Kirkwood has spent the offseason trying to pick the brains of Ball, a two-time IndyCar champion and 45-time race winner, including the 2018 Indianapolis 500. Don’t expect him to tell you what he learned, though.
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“I can’t really give away any secrets,” Kirkwood said. “I would say there were some fun moments, like, ‘Oh, wow, something has a completely different look. There’s something new almost every day. If you like the setup philosophy, you can go down these rabbit holes in IndyCar where each team is a little different, like a little twist that separates, and then you end up on two different islands.
“It seems like other teams do this, right, and they move on at some point and end up on another island. But they all have the same thought process, just how you start the process and where it takes you from there.
“It’s interesting how other teams, other drivers and engineers focus on certain things.”
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