Kyle Kirkwood has produced steady progress since he entered the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in 2022.

He finished 24th as a rookie with AJ Foyt Racing, then climbed to 11th, seventh and fourth in his first three seasons with Andretti Global. This year, he took another step and finished runner-up behind five-time series champion Alex Palou, who earned 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.”

Kirkwood and Andretti Global face the challenge of not only making up 86 points on Palou, the final margin this past season, but passing him in the standings. No one has done that since 2022.

“I’ll look at myself, figure out which tracks I need to be better at, whether it’s just driving, performance, but also mistakes,” Kirkwood said.

Palou has won five of the last six titles. His 25 career victories include 17 on permanent road courses, five on street circuits and three on ovals. Kirkwood has seven career wins, with six coming on street circuits. He is winless in 32 series starts on permanent road courses and has one victory in 26 oval starts. Those numbers point to where Kirkwood can make his biggest gains.

Kirkwood has been one of the series’ strongest street-course drivers, but Palou narrowed that advantage this season. Three of Palou’s five career street-course victories came in 2026, at St. Petersburg, Long Beach and Detroit.

Permanent road courses offer Kirkwood the biggest opportunity. He dominated those circuits before reaching INDYCAR SERIES competition. Of his 41 victories in the junior formulas, 32 came on permanent road courses. He has yet to win on one in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, although his results this season showed progress.

Kirkwood finished in the top 10 at all six permanent road-course races in 2026: 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 also has work to do on those tracks. Alexander Rossi gave the team its most recent permanent road-course victory in July 2022 at IMS. The team has four permanent road-course victories since 2020.

The Indianapolis 500 also remains a priority. Kirkwood identified IMS as the biggest area where Andretti Global can improve, noting that the organization’s average finish there is its worst at any track on the schedule lately.

Since 2020, Andretti has just one top-five finish at Indianapolis, with a best result of fifth in 2022. The team has recorded only three top-10 “500” finishes since 2021, along with seven results of 30th or worse and just 69 laps led in that span.

Kirkwood’s Indy 500 finishes with Andretti Global are 28th, seventh, 32nd and 16th, respectively. He also pointed to short ovals as areas where he can find additional performance.

“Maybe cleaning up some of the short oval stuff,” Kirkwood said. “Maybe even some of the road-course stuff we can get better at.”

Kyle Kirkwood

Kirkwood (photo, above) made significant progress in 2026. He recorded 15 top-10 finishes in 18 starts in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda. He had 10 top-10s in 17 starts in 2025 and 13 in 17 starts in 2024.

The biggest difference came in the quality of those finishes. Kirkwood recorded 10 top-fives this season after posting five in each of the previous two years. His six podium finishes also matched his combined total from his first 68 INDYCAR SERIES starts.

The consistency helped make 2026 Kirkwood’s strongest season, even though he won fewer races than he did in 2025.

Kirkwood won three times last season but finished outside the top five in 12 of his 17 starts. This year, he turned more of his opportunities into strong finishes, winning twice, and avoided the mistakes that can derail a championship run.

“I think things are just starting to click,” Kirkwood said.

Andretti Global also showed more strength as an organization during the second half of the season. Will Power and Marcus Ericsson produced consistent results alongside Kirkwood, giving the team multiple cars near the front of the field.

“You shine when you have all three cars up there,” Kirkwood said. “Our performance was starting to show as the second part of the season came around.”

Andretti Global has not won an NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship since Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2012. Kirkwood’s runner-up finish puts the organization closer to that goal, but the next step requires more performance at the tracks where Palou has been strongest.

Kirkwood knows where to look.

“Yeah, across the board we’re solid,” he 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.”