Kirkwood grabs Long Beach pole

Kyle Kirkwood put himself at the front again in Long Beach, taking the top starting spot for Sunday’s IndyCar race on the downtown street circuit. (indycar.com) Long Beach qualifying set the grid Saturday, and IndyCar’s official results show Kirkwood on pole for the 90-lap race. The event runs on a 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street course around the Long Beach Convention Center. (indycar.com; indycar.com) The green flag is scheduled for Sunday, April 19, at 5:57 p.m. Eastern, with television coverage on Fox. IndyCar lists the race window at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on its event page. (indystar.com; indycar.com) Starting first matters here because track position is hard to recover on a narrow street course with concrete walls and limited passing zones. IndyCar’s Long Beach guide points to Turn 1 and the hairpin before the frontstretch as two of the main overtaking spots. (indycar.com) Kirkwood’s recent record in Long Beach explains why pole drew attention. IndyCar says he has won two of the past three Long Beach races from pole, including the 2025 edition. (indycar.com; indycar.com) The race also lands in the middle of an early championship fight. IndyCar said before the weekend that Kirkwood arrived at Long Beach with a two-point lead over Alex Palou after four of 18 races. (indycar.com) Long Beach qualifying used IndyCar’s updated street-course format, which keeps the usual knockout rounds and then sends the final six drivers one at a time for a single timed lap. IndyCar introduced that single-car Firestone Fast Six format earlier this season and expanded it to the remaining street races starting this weekend. (indycar.com) That format change puts extra weight on one clean lap at the end, and Sunday puts even more weight on the first few corners. Kirkwood has been in this position before at Long Beach, and the next step is the same one that has worked for him here twice already. (indycar.com; indystar.com)