Kyle Kirkwood Excited to Help Return AJ Foyt Racing Back to Winning Ways
By Michael Eubanks
Race fans, the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season is still more than a month away, but take our advice: get used to hearing the name of Kyle Kirkwood.
The 23-year-old Floridian, who makes his IndyCar debut on the home state streets of St. Petersburg next month, is already an open-wheel phenom.
Kirkwood is the only driver in IndyCar history to have won titles in all three divisions of the Road to Indy Ladder system. He won the USF2000 title in 2018, the Indy Pro 2000 title in 2019 and the Indy Lights title in 2021.
Now, as an IndyCar rookie, he will drive one of the most iconic rides in motorsport history: the No. 14 machine for A.J. Foyt Racing (AJFR).
I'm at a loss for words because I'm ecstatic,” Kirkwood said of the opportunity. “It's been my entire career building up to this moment, all the way from karting.”
But perhaps nobody is more ecstatic than team president Larry Foyt, who was able to sign one of IndyCar’s most desired young prospects in recent memory.
Kirkwood drove for Andretti Autosport during the 2021 Indy Lights season and appeared to be a natural replacement for Colton Herta, had team owner Michael Andretti bought an F1 team and for which Herta would presumably have driven for in 2022.
But Andretti’s F1 plans fell through, and on November 1, Kirkwood became a free agent. Suddenly, Andretti’s loss became Foyt’s gain.
Andretti ended up promoting Kirkwood’s former Indy Lights teammate Devlin DeFrancesco to the IndyCar seat vacated by James Hinchcliffe, leaving Kirkwood to find a new home at AJFR.
“I was surprised that Kyle didn't have a full-time deal,” Larry Foyt said. “It was just one of those things everyone kind of assumed he was locked up where he was. When I found out that he was available, it was kind of a no-brainer for us.”
The arrival of the skilled young driver could have not come at a better time for the team. AJFR has not won an IndyCar race since Long Beach in 2013 with Takuma Sato. The team’s best result last season was a pair of fifth-place finishes from Sébastien Bourdais at Barber and Gateway. Bourdais’s contract was not renewed at the end of the season, opening the door for Kirkwood to join up.
“I know he [Kirkwood] knows that we haven't finished in the championship where we want to,” Larry Foyt said. “And this is really, I think, an opportunity for him to really just help our whole organization as well as us helping him.
“We just want to go out and prove the naysayers wrong and get him good experience, but also let him show what he can do in the car.”
However, Foyt is also aware that there is still plenty of work ahead for the team to become a contender. With IndyCar being the spec series that it is, driver-engineer communication is key to building a successful race setup.
Foyt said that Kirkwood has already given the team excellent feedback.
“I don't think you win the championships he's done without being a good setup driver,” Foyt said. ”I think just from … talking to him and talking about some of the testing he's already done, he's got a great feel for the car and the tire. I think his feedback is going to be great.
“I think our baselines where we'll be starting will be okay for him, and then from there he can hopefully lead us in the right direction.”
For Kirkwood, the opportunity to help such a historic team return to the front of the pack is something he is very proud to be a part of.
“It's exciting,” Kirkwood said. “I remember watching Foyt Racing when I was a kid, and man, it's such a historic and legendary team.
“They've obviously done really well in their past, maybe not in the past couple years, but we want to bring it back up to speed and contend for wins because we're all hungry, we're all racing drivers at the end of the day. Larry was, as well (as) AJ was.
“We're racers through and through, so we're going to do everything in our power to go back to the top.”
Michael Eubanks covers IndyCar and other racing series for Auto Racing Digest. Follow him on Twitter @MEubanks_Writer and follow Auto Racing Digest on Twitter @AutoRaceDigest