• Making his fourth INDYCAR start at Laguna Seca today from 18th, Kyle Kirkwood narrowly avoided a Lap 1 incident, losing a few positions in the JM Bullion Honda on the start.
• By Lap 23, Kirkwood had broken into the top 10 and was running in the top four by Lap 26 as the first pit cycle began. On that same lap, Kirkwood and the No. 18 made contact to bring out the third yellow of the race, and the JM Bullion Honda was issued a stop-and-go penalty for the incident.
• Following the penalty, Kirkwood worked to move up the field as the race continued, but he was unfortunately issued another penalty on Lap 80 for failure to pack up under yellow, forcing the JM Bullion Honda to yield two positions.
• With traffic limiting his ability to advance, the Florida native ultimately took the checkered in 16th.
• Despite a challenging race, the JM Bullion crew was quickest on pit lane, beating out the race winner’s pit crew by two-tenths of a second in today’s race.

“What could have gone wrong today did. It was extremely hard to pass, but we knew we had to go forward somehow. I was stuck in a situation where I had to make risky maneuvers, so I made a few of them, but one of them didn’t stick. So, that was unfortunate there. We just sat there fighting for our lives for the rest of the race. I was able to claw back from quite literally last, almost a lap down, to 16th, so good effort there and good strategy called by the No. 27 team. But we tried to get the most that we could today and just fell a little bit short.”

RACE REPORT: Java House Grand Prix of Monterey