Kyle Kirkwood won the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, the inaugural race of the IndyCar Series on the street circuit around the AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field, and with this victory took the lead in the 2026 championship for the first time in his career, holding a 26-point advantage over Alex Palou. Kirkwood had started seventh and passed Palou for the lead on lap 55 of 70, five laps after a pit stop where his team lost almost two seconds compared to Chip Ganassi Racing's.

Kirkwood passed Palou at turn 13, braking from very deep on the inside and holding the position on exit. Palou, who has won the championship for the last three seasons, acknowledged he had no answer. "It was a super clean pass and pretty impressive. We'll beat them in a couple of weeks," said Palou, who finished second 0.314 seconds behind in a race that ended under yellow due to Christian Rasmussen's crash into the tire barriers at pit exit on lap 68.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

"We had incredible pace," said Kirkwood. "This Andretti Honda, all the people on the team, they gave me the tools today. We won because of the car and because of the teamwork. One-three-four for Andretti, we are very strong."

The slow stop didn't stop Kirkwood

Kirkwood and Palou made their third and final stop on lap 49, both on the preferred three-stop strategy. Palou's team dispatched him in 7.7 seconds, but Kirkwood's required 9.5 due to a slow right-rear tire change. When both were back up to race pace, Palou had a 2.2-second advantage.

Kirkwood erased that difference in five laps and by lap 55 was already glued to Palou, using the long braking zone at turn 13 to pass him with a move Palou described as clean and impressive. From there, Kirkwood opened a five-second gap in eleven laps, an advantage that was frozen when Rasmussen caused the first yellow flag of the entire race on lap 68.

The restart with one lap remaining lasted just a few meters as Romain Grosjean and Nolan Siegel crashed further back in the pack, causing the second neutralization under which Kirkwood received the checkered flag.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

Andretti Global placed three cars in the top 4

Will Power finished third and scored his first top 3 with Andretti Global, the team he joined this season after 16 full years with Team Penske. Marcus Ericsson, who had started from pole, ended up fourth and led 15 of the 70 laps, giving Andretti first, third, and fourth in the final result. Kirkwood, Palou, and Power were tied with 16 laps led each, a statistic that speaks to how close the pace was among the three throughout the race.

Pato O'Ward was fifth for Arrow McLaren and the best Chevrolet-powered car, and after the race acknowledged Andretti's advantage on street circuits. "The Andretti Honda camp is very strong on this type of circuit," O'Ward said. "We have a lot of work to do if we want to start winning races with pure pace against them."

Photo By Carlos Castillo

Newgarden paid for Saturday's problems

Josef Newgarden had arrived at Arlington as championship leader with 78 points after winning at Phoenix, but the crash in Saturday's session that forced him to use the backup car weighed on him throughout the race. He started 11th and could never get into the fight among the leaders, finishing 15th and dropping to third place in the championship. Scott McLaughlin, who had started last due to his own qualifying crash, recovered to 11th place and at least limited the damage for Team Penske in a weekend where David Malukas was the team's best finisher in sixth.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

Scott Dixon recorded the fastest lap

Scott Dixon finished eighth with a 1:33.990, which was the fastest lap of the entire race, even faster than Kirkwood's best, confirming that Chip Ganassi Racing had enough pace to fight higher up, something Palou capitalized on from his second-place starting position to stay in the fight for victory until the end.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

Caio Collet was the best rookie with a 12th-place finish for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, and Rasmussen, who had shown strong moments in the first two races of the season, saw his weekend end against the tire barriers on lap 68 while running in the midfield. Kirkwood leads the championship with 123 points, Palou is second with 97, Newgarden third with 88, Power fourth with 82, and O'Ward fifth with 74. The IndyCar Series has a week off before the fourth round, the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix at Barber Motorsports Park, from March 27th to 29th.

Java House Grand Prix of Arlington - Race

Pos	#	Piloto	Equipo	Tiempo	Mejor Vuelta
1	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	115:43.064	1:34.013
2	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.314s	1:34.509
3	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+3.586s	1:34.633
4	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+4.913s	1:34.581
5	5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	+5.934s	1:34.799
6	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	+7.448s	1:34.650
7	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+8.750s	1:34.833
8	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+9.832s	1:33.990 FL
9	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+10.708s	1:35.866
10	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+12.489s	1:34.804
11	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+13.889s	1:35.232
12	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+14.743s	1:34.810
13	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+16.203s	1:34.740
14	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+16.868s	1:35.109
15	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	+18.754s	1:34.781
16	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+21.293s	1:35.798
17	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+22.289s	1:35.674
18	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+24.734s	1:35.577
19	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+27.629s	1:34.821
20	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+33.605s	1:34.962
21	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+25.321s	1:35.935
22	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+28.445s	1:34.274
23	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	-	1:35.364
24	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	-	1:35.384
25	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	-	1:35.624