Kyle Kirkwood

I think...

You're going to see at least a little bit more of a fight from perhaps a Kyle Kirkwood.

I think if Lungard ends up at Chip Ganassi, that becomes really interesting.

In Penske... seemed like they've turned the page from their completely terrible season last year and the first half of this year being okay um it seems like they've figured it out they finally won on a road course with scott mclaughlin here at laguna seca so i would expect at least malukas and mclaughlin to be pretty damn competitive next year i'm not so sure about new garden but Yeah, that's kind of my hope for 27 is that, yes, it could very well end up being a lame duck year, like you say, but hopefully the championship is more competitive.

Scotty Mack, obviously, dominant win.

Kyle Kirkwood was second, and then Alexander Rossi.

Good to see him back on the podium in third.

Yep.

And I certainly wish I had more of those.

That was kind of one of the disadvantages, I guess, of making it to the Fast Six is you are down a set of Reds compared to Kyle Kirkwood, for example, who had the extra set.

But on that topic, I think we should talk about the absolute craziness that is the 10 car.

And seemingly they made a strategy error for the first

No, that is super true.

He's the champion.

But no, celebrating the 10 car, Ganassi, Dennis Hauger, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lungard.

Walk us through that kind of evening, please, James.

It was his first win since the second Milwaukee race in 2024, 36 races ago, his first win in Laguna Sega, eighth career win.

Kyle Kirkwood ends up second, which secures him second in the final point standings by just 10 points over Christian Lingard.

Alexander Rossi, third for his first podium since Laguna Sega in June of 2024.

Felix Rosenquist, fourth in his final race with Meyers Schenck Racing before moving to McLaren next year despite winning the Indy 500 this year.

A hundred percent.

And like, I look at Kyle Kirkwood, his rookie year, he was an AJ Ford equipment, which that was pre Penske Alliance.

That equipment was dog shit.

And he was just overdriving the thing almost every weekend just to try to get a top 10 Kyle Kirkwood was, and he had seven DNFs in 17 races.

I mean, that's insane.

And yeah, This year, he had one.

You got anything else this week? IndyCar's done.

Yeah, IndyCar.

Interesting one.

It says, one noteworthy aspect in the final standings for the 2026 season, that Kyle Kirkwood managed to do something Colton Hurta hasn't.

It says, with a fourth place finish in 2025, he earned 10 super license points.

And with his second place in 2026, it got him another 30.

That means our guy, Kirk, good old Kirk Kirkwood, he's now eligible for an F1 super license.

Given the abysmal results so far for Colton in an F2, he's not much closer to where he was than a year ago in terms of acquiring enough super license points.

Sam ends up closing by saying, do you think Colton and Kyle might switch places in 2027? With Colton coming back, go IndyCar, and good old Kirk maybe taking up his spot in the Cadillac F1 team.

It's not a statement against one or for the other.

And I think that's the highlight that we're talking about.

You know, a Kyle Kirkwood securing second place in the championship.

That was important.

A rookie of the year decided that's important.

But a telling radio transmission – You know, this was not a blowout race.

Alex Pillow didn't beat the field by 20 seconds.

But Kyle Kirkwood is 1.5 seconds back with 12 laps to go.

We aired the transmission with 11.