Who is Kyle Kirkwood? Meet the beach-loving, Nirvana-listening INDYCAR star

Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

Kyle Kirkwood hails from Jupiter. 

Not the planet, but a town on the east coast of Florida, north of Palm Beach. 

The 26-year-old Andretti driver currently sits second in the INDYCAR standings, and with three victories is the only driver besides Alex Palou (six) to win a race this season.

So is Kyle Kirkwood a ride-the-wave surfer dude or an intense, ultra-talented competitor? Is it possible to be both? 

Find out in this exclusive Q&A:

Who is Kyle Kirkwood?

South Florida kid. Grew up in Jupiter, Fla. I started karting when I was 4 and moved up the ladder. Don’t come from any racing background whatsoever. In my spare time, I’m surfing, fishing — anything on the water. Nothing really motorsports related in my off time, if I’m being honest. 

How would your girlfriend describe you? 

You don’t want to hear that. I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask her.

I used to work in Daytona, and Florida kids were sometimes more interested in surfing than school. So are you somebody who just loved the beach? 

Yeah. I was always in the water. Of course, I did school. I did that whole process. Most of my time was consumed by racing. But any free time I’d get, it was either surfing or fishing. I’d say that waves are a bit better in Daytona than they are in South Florida. We get blocked by the Bahamas, but that means that the fishing is better in South Florida. So more fishing than surfing.

Fishing is among Kyle Kirkwood’s favorite hobbies.

Fishing and surfing are laid-back activities. That’s not necessarily the mentality of a race car driver. How do you balance having the mentality for both?

I think that they balance each other out. That’s the way I look at it. By fishing and surfing, it’s a way for me to kind of just shut off the motorsports world. Everybody knows motorsports is high stress, high anxiety and can wear you down quite a bit. So having those things to bounce back to and find enjoyment in is crucial for my longevity in this sport.

Have you always been competitive?

No. Only in racing. I’d say my family is more competitive than I am. My oldest brother is the most competitive person I’ve ever met. So there’s competition that’s kind of within my blood, but not in anything else other than racing, I would say.

So when you go fishing, you don’t have to catch the biggest fish?

No, I just enjoy doing it. Of course, if somebody else is out there catching a lot more fish than I am, I’m going to be pretty ticked off. But that doesn’t usually happen.

We talked the other day and you said you yell at the TV a little bit when you watch other sports? Does watching other sports give you more anxiety than racing does? 

Other sports give me more anxiety than racing does. I’ve spent time as a driver coach, too. And when I was coaching some kids in karting and some car stuff, I would lose it way more than I do when I’m actually driving. There’s that sensation of being in control that kind of puts you at ease. So watching sports, like watching the Indiana Pacers for the past few weeks, drives me insane. I love it and I hate it at the same time.

Kyle Kirkwood (right) cheers on the Pacers during their playoff run this season.

So you’re going to be one of those parents?

Oh my gosh, I am. I am not looking forward to that. I already know that’s coming. I see my parents, compared to how they react to everything else to how I’ve been in racing, and I already know I’m going to be a mental wreck when I have kids.

Your bio says you like training?

I enjoy training. I like the energy that it gives you. I think it is very important to train. Especially for driving these INDYCARs and especially when it’s 95 degrees out. It definitely comes in handy. I can’t say that every day that I wake up in the morning like, “Yeah, let’s go train.” I’d rather be out in the boat sitting, getting some sun, if I’m being honest. 

Is there any specific thing about training, like a specific workout or something that you enjoy most?

High cardio. I find that more enjoyable than endurance or weightlifting.

Do you listen to podcasts or anything when you’re training?

No. I listen to music just to block out everything else that’s around me so I can just focus on myself. 

Is there a certain type of music you listen to?

It’s either alternative rock, maybe some EDM when I’m training. It’s not really something I listen to on an everyday basis. So it’s more just to give me a little bit more hype for the training session.

Like current alternative rock?

More like ’90s or early 2000s. Stuff like Nirvana.

Where are you putting all these trophies you’re winning?

Not in my house yet because I don’t have a big enough house. My house is tiny in South Florida, and my girlfriend wants to kill me for stacking up the house in the living room with trophies. So they’re currently sitting in the shop. But at some point, I’ve got to figure out what to do with them. Which will come by the end of the season.

Will you be somebody who puts trophies all around the house? Will I see it when I walk in? 

I would love to put them everywhere, but I’m not going to be allowed to do that. So I’m going to have to get my own little corner of the garage or something that Vicky is going to allow me to put them in somewhere. It would probably be in a room, or hopefully in the future, in an office or something like that against the wall.

But you would if you had your druthers. You’d like to just kind of walk by and see one and then walk to another room and see another?

I won’t be allowed. I can’t even have that. It’s going to be, “Kyle, here’s your racing stuff, here’s your trophies, here’s your surfing and fishing stuff. And they stay here.”

A championship or Indy 500 trophy. Is that going to get an exception?

Probably. I’ll get it in a little glass case. Hopefully, she’ll allow me to put it inside the living room or something. That’d be cool.

Pre-race festivities ahead of the Indy 500 included a trip around town.

You’ve won a few races this year already. What is the best thing about winning?

Momentum. That’s the best thing about winning. It brings a team around you. It allows people to work harder without acknowledging the effort that they put in. It just builds and compounds interest on top of winning. You go on to the next weekend, you have confidence. You want to win. You want to keep progressing. And it’s starting to show a little bit. We’re consistently at the front now. Like we’re winning a couple races and there is that momentum that’s behind it. So that’s the best thing about winning. I wouldn’t say it’s a celebration afterward or anything else that’s intangible. It’s more what it brings for the future and how it progresses your season. That’s the way I look at it, at least.

What was the worst part about winning so much until this level and then not winning as much?

I was used to being in the front a lot. I never got the opportunity to race people for fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth or anything like that because a lot of the races, I was just at the front. And that’s not me trying to be cocky. That is just the honest truth. And for me, coming into the series, especially when I was at Foyt and all of a sudden you’re racing for 18th and a top 20 would be a pretty good day. That’s impossible to accept. So I always ended up over-pushing, trying to overextend to get something back, which would have worked in lower categories where the talent level wasn’t as deep. But now, that’s just not sustainable. You have to be absolutely perfect to win races here in INDYCAR, and you’ve got to be absolutely perfect to stay at the front, especially through practice sessions, qualifying, everything. It was tough. First year was hard. Second year was good. We had two wins, but the rest of the races — it was like fighting for 12th or something, which is something that I didn’t cope with very well.

Now let’s say you’re fighting for 12th, or maybe have a 12th-place car, and you get a top 10. Do you feel good?

I would say I felt better last year with it. But this year, now that we actually have an opportunity to do something bigger than we did last year, I wouldn’t be as happy with it. It’s always good when you have a car that’s meant to be somewhere, and you exceed what the car was capable of doing. But at the same time, you know you need points, you know you’re one of the title contenders, and you hate to see somebody just continue to walk away with it. Especially when people are like, “Oh, you’re our last hope of having a good season or a good championship at the end of the season.” 

The pressure is on you!

I don’t mind it, if I’m being honest. We’re going to do everything in our power. We’ve had pace, we’ve had everything to get it done here in the middle part of the season. And if anything, it just gives me confidence in my team, in my car and our ability to go out and do cool things. So I don’t see it as a negative in the sense of there’s too much pressure on me. 

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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