Inside The Garage: Kyle Kirkwood Clings To Title Hopes After Washington Win

Kyle Kirkwood doesn’t need to look at the standings to know what he needs to do to challenge for the 2026 INDYCAR title. He cut 42 points off of Alex Palou’s lead, thanks to winning the Freedom 250 and Palou’s 20th-place finish. But he still left Washington a distant 91 points behind. Palou would need a total collapse over the final three races to not win his fifth title. There’s a doubleheader at Milwaukee this weekend and then the season finale the following week at Laguna Seca. “I’m just going to go out there and try and win every single race and see where it goes from there,” Kirkwood said in his post-race news conference. “It’s starting to pan out. “I can’t control what Palou does. Maybe, in very small circumstances, you can. In the sense of where he finished today or where he was going to finish today, there is no controlling that because you’re in the lead. We just had a very fortunate day in the points championship.” Eying his fourth consecutive title, Palou just needs to finish eighth in each of the final three races to win the title (and that would require Kirkwood to win each of the last three races plus the pole plus lead the most laps). He has three finishes of worse than eighth in the first 15 races this season. “Never super comfortable until it’s done, right?” Palou told me and another reporter after the race. “Obviously, today sucks more for this race than the championship. The good amount of points that we had [allowed] us to have days like today so we can focus on Milwaukee and try to win it.”Washington fit into the Kirkwood wheelhouse because it was a new street course. He also won the most recent new street race at Arlington. Palou’s day in Washington got off poorly from the start when the Chip Ganassi Racing driver lost the lead to Kirkwood at the start of the race. Then on his first pit stop, Palou accidentally hit the tire that was set out for a Mick Schumacher stop. He later tapped the wall, bending a toe link. The link eventually broke about 20 laps later and he hit the wall, needing repairs to finish the race. “When I smacked Mick’s tire, it obviously was not on purpose, and that put us on the back foot,” Palou said. At the beginning of the year, Kirkwood and Andretti Global were in transition with new leadership and with the addition of veteran driver Will Power. The impact of Power and new team principal Ron Ruzewski (one of the Penske executives released last year amid the qualifying attenuator controversy) is evident, as Andretti has looked like one of the stronger teams late in the season. “Ron, from every aspect, has helped this team,” Kirkwood told me after the race. “It’s proven. And quite honestly, he showed us it’s the little things that count. Whether it’s pit stops, it’s development, it’s us as drivers. … There is no big-ticket item. There never is. “And he’ll tell you that. It’s the little things that matter and that’s what we’ve been doing a lot better this season.” They most likely won’t catch Palou right now, but they can set the stage for championships in the future. “If we were sitting here 40 points out or something like that, it would be a different conversation,” Ruzewski said in the winner’s news conference. “It’s still 90 points out. I think to echo what Kyle said, we just have to go out there at this point and try to put numbers up on the board. “That being said, the best thing we can do is put all three of our cars in front of Palou. That’s really what we’re trying to do, is not just have Kyle win races but have Marcus [Ericsson] and Will on the podium or in front of Palou. That’s the only way we have a chance. If we can get all three on the podium every week, that’s what we’re going to try and do every week.” Moving Up Arguably one of the most impressive improvements on the INDYCAR side this year has been Kyffin Simpson, who finished 21st in the standings as a rookie in 2024 and then 17th last year. Despite a wreck in qualifying Saturday, he finished fifth at Washington and sits 13th in the standings, just one spot behind teammate Scott Dixon. “This track just kind of grew on me more and more,” Simpson told FOX Sports after the race. “I kept having more and more fun with it and had an exciting race.” The same could probably be said for his season. Zilisch’s Double Trouble? Rick Hendrick said “never say never,” but he has no plans to partner with an INDYCAR team for new hire (as of 2028) Connor Zilisch to compete in the Indianapolis 500. Hendrick had partnered with Arrow McLaren for Kyle Larson’s two attempts at the Indy-Charlotte double. “I’m done with that,” Hendrick said during a virtual news conference. “I’ve learned to never say never, but it would take a lot of convincing for me to do that again.” Zilisch has indicated his willingness to do it. There’s always the possibility Trackhouse could try to partner with someone next year, but Zilisch indicated he’s focused on Cup. “It’s something down the road that I’ve always dreamed of,” Zilisch said. “But at the end of the day, I need to focus on what I’m doing on Sundays here before I really focus on stepping outside my comfort zone.” In The News — NASCAR will not have an event on the streets of Chicago in 2027. After racing there from 2023-2025, NASCAR has not landed on the funding it wants for the event. It will race again at its Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet. —The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will have a points race at Bowman Gray Stadium next year, with the event slated for Aug. 20. The series also will make a return two weeks later to Canadian Tire Motorpsorts Park (Mosport).— Regan Smith will drive the Kaulig Racing No. 25 RAM truck at Bristol. He will also race it at Charlotte.— Shell will introduce an updated 100 percent renewable fuel mix for INDYCAR in 2027. It is a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the renewable fuel standard average gasoline baseline. It will be sourced in Indiana and produced in Illinois. Clinched In the truck season finale and the Cup’s next-to-last regular-season race at New Hampshire, several drivers clinched spots in the Chase. Cup: Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Carson Hocevar, William Byron and Daniel Suarez clinched to join Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott. Truck: Grant Enfinger, Daniel Hemric, Ben Rhodes and Tyler Ankrum clinched spots in the Chase, joining the six who already had clinched. Those six are Layne Riggs, Kayden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Christian Eckes, Ty Majeski and Gio Ruggiero. Picture This Social Spotlight They Said It “Maybe it will get in the Toowoomba Chronicle. They might put it in, a picture of me shaking President Trump’s hand. It’s pretty crazy.”— Will Power