Kirkwood, star of the American youth series, lands IndyCar ride · RaceFans

The hugely successful young American racing driver Kyle Kirkwood will make his IndyCar debut with Foyt next year.

The 23-year-old, who has won five championships in the past five years, is taking over the number 14 car driven by Sebastien Bourdais this season.

Kirkwood beat David Malukas by 13 points for the Indy Lights title last month in Mid-Ohio, winning half of the season’s 20 races. This crowned an amazing ascent through the lower leagues, including four titles in three years from 2017 to 2019 in US Formula 4, Formula 3 Americas, USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000. Only the cancellation of last year’s Indy Lights series due to Covid – 19 pandemic interrupted its streak of title wins.

“He was very successful on his way up through the Road to Indy Championships and his record speaks for itself,” said Foyt team president Larry Foyt.

“This deal came about pretty quickly, but I was impressed with how Kyle thinks about racing and what maturity he seems to have for such a young driver.”

Kirkwood’s move to Foyt comes after missing a potential opportunity to graduate to IndyCar with the Andretti team he drove for at Indy Lights.

Andretti planned to promote Kirkwood to IndyCar if it needed a replacement for Colton Herta. However, this was dependent on the talks with Sauber to take over it and the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team it ran, where it wanted to place Herta in 2022 despite the lack of a super license.

When that failed, Kirkwood’s hopes of moving to IndyCar with Andretti came along with it. The team’s other two vacancies have already gone to its Indy Lights rivals Devlin DeFrancesco and Romain Grosjean.

However, Kirkwood’s first connection with IndyCar came through Foyt, he explained. “I first met Larry at Road America in 2018 when I drove with Cape Motorsports in the USF2000. He was the first in the IndyCar paddock to show me the car and explain the dynamics of an IndyCar team and driver to me.

“From that moment on I felt very comfortable in the atmosphere of the team and now it has turned out that I am driving number 14. It’s hard to put into words what excitement I have for such an experienced and legendary team. I know I’ll be in some very big footsteps, but I think it’s the perfect timing and group to do so. “

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