Kyle Kirkwood took victory in the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington on Sunday, beating defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou with a late pass on track.
Kirkwood was catching Palou at nearly half a second per lap with 20 laps remaining, visibly closing the gap with each turn.
As soon as he got within touching distance, the 27-year-old lunged deep into the final turn rather than taking time to set up a less risky approach.
He explained after the race that his surprise attack was intentional because he felt Palou was too good at defending to allow him past with a typical attempt.
“Palou is a smart person, smart driver,” said Kirkwood. “And if he knew that I got that close to him on that lap, and then I waited for the next lap to attack him, he would have defended.
“We were in a dire straits situation. This is probably the only place I can pass him. This is the only time I can surprise him.
“There was some urgency, but at the same time we were a lot quicker than him.
“He’s someone that is very trustworthy to race against. If you do some of those late lunges, you can trust he’s not going to drive you into the wall, like maybe some other drivers will.
“Just had to do a bit of a late lunge and surprise him a little bit because if he started defending there was probably no chance of us getting by him because that was probably the only place we were going to be able to pass him.”
Surprise was key
Palou admitted to being surprised, saying that Kirkwood was able to get past before he had a chance to prepare a defence.
He appreciated the skill of the move all the same, even though he was on the receiving end of the overtake.
“I could see already on second and third stint that I was pushing as much as I could, using OT to try to get gaps,” Palou explained.
“He was closing three to four tenths [of a second per lap] on me. I was like, ‘Oh, man, it’s going to be tough.’
“Yeah, he just passed me incredibly. It was a very awesome overtake. Should have obviously defended a little bit better. It’s very easy to say now.”
With the win, Kirkwood slotted into the points lead. Palou moved up into second place however, and is seemingly a constant threat for yet another championship.
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