Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood, the best driver of the next wave of young IndyCar newcomers, has finally found an empty seat and will drive for AJ Foyt Racing next season.
Kirkwood will drive Foyt’s flagship #14 Chevrolet, the team said Wednesday. Sebastien Bourdais drove the car last season but is moving into full-time motorsport. Kirkwood will take home $1.3 million in scholarships for winning the Indy Lights title for the team.
The 23-year-old driver from Florida is the only driver to win the championship in all three categories 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 championship this year. The 2020 Indy Lights season has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kirkwood this year has usurped Greg Moore’s 1995 record of 10 Lights championships, but despite winning half of the starts and receiving an IndyCar scholarship, he’s not an auto-promotion. . Andretti Autosport has kept his contract, but Kirkwood was able to find another place to work starting November 1 when Michael Andretti was unable to pick an option.
Andretti has hired former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean for next season from Dale Coyne Racing, and 21-year-old Devlin DeFranceco was last week promoted to IndyCar by Andretti after a winless season in the Lights.
Andretti defended the promotion of DeFranceco as sticking to a plan laid out years earlier. But he also revealed that if Andretti bought an F1 team, he would take Colton Herta from IndyCar and give the Herta seat to Kirkwood.
“Unfortunately when it all came to an end, there was no room for him, but I can assure you that he is a star of the future and we will definitely be watching him,” Andretti said last week. before of Kirkwood.
Kirkwood was also overtaken at Rahal Letterman Lanigan, which last month designated 20-year-old Formula 2 driver Christian Lundgaard as its new third driver. Meanwhile, Indy Lights rival David Malukas tried his hand at Dale Coyne Racing, and Kirkwood runner-up in the championship could end at IndyCar alongside two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato.
Last season’s IndyCar featured four race winners aged 24 and under, including Spain’s Alex Palou, who made his championship season debut 17 days after his 24th birthday.
Kirkwood is a highly regarded and endurance racer for sports car team Vasser-Sullivan Racing but lacks the sponsorship dollars many teams want drivers to bring in to get seats. Kirkwood only has his scholarship money, which is expected to cover two races and the Indy 500.
“The deal came together pretty quickly, but I’ve been impressed with the way Kyle thinks about racing and the maturity he seems to have for such a young driver,” said team president Larry Foyt. . “We feel Kyle will be a great asset as we accept those challenges and work to grow as a team.”
Kirkwood said Larry Foyt was one of the first IndyCar pitchers to take the time to teach him about the majors when they met in 2018 at Road America while Kirkwood was racing at USF2000.
“Since that time, I feel very comfortable with the atmosphere of the whole team, and now I will drive 14th gear,” said Kirkwood.
AJ Foyt Racing is owned by the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest racers of all time.
“It’s hard to put into words the excitement I feel when I’m driving for such an experienced and legendary team,” Kirkwood said. “It’s unbelievable how the completely unexpected path I took all these years ago has blossomed into something I always hoped for as a kid driving a kart.”
