Kyle Kirkwood likes to travel light. Give him a percussion gun to stay loose during the week and a single pair of sunglasses he may or may not lose by the post-race press conference, and the IndyCar driver says pretty much good to go.
On the track, though, when he climbs into his No. 27 Andretti Global Honda for this Sunday’s Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix in Birmingham, AL, he’ll bring the same calculating, ice‑cold composure that helped him to his first victory of the 2026 season two weeks ago. His win at the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington also put him in new territory: For the first time in the 27‑year‑old’s career, he sits atop the IndyCar standings—and he isn’t ready to hand that back to three‑time defending champion Alex Palou just yet.
“Man, what an incredible day,” Kirkwood said following the win. “We need a lot more like this. We’re only in race No. 3, so I’m not looking at the championship, but it is nice to say it’s the first time I’ve ever led the championship in the IndyCar Series.”
It was how he got there that stood out. A bold move past Palou with 15 laps remaining sealed his win. After five top‑five finishes in 2025, he’s opened this year with three more, including his win in Texas and a second‑place finish at the Good Ranchers 250—early proof that consistency may be his biggest weapon.
Maintaining that momentum means staying cool when the cockpit hits triple‑digit temps, the G‑forces try to rip your head off, and a split‑second opening like the one he found in Arlington can either work in your favor or send you backward.
For the 5’8″, 154‑pound driver, staying light is one of the keys to staying in control. While the weightroom and conditioning workouts force him to train like a hybrid athlete, his focus isn’t on pushing huge numbers. Controlling a 2,000‑pound car doesn’t require controlling heavy weights in the gym or even logging in lots of running miles. “There’s a point that you end up converting too much energy with your arms, endurance, and your size,” he says. “You have to stay somewhat small. I’d say the median weight is between, like, 155 and 170 for a racing driver, and I’m on the low end of that.”
Nutrition and hydration also matter—especially on raceday, but Kirkwood has learned to regulate his in‑car composure by keeping his heart rate low through a more unconventional skill set. The Jupiter, FL, native has developed an uncanny ability to hold his breath underwater, a strength first cultivated as a kid spearfishing and diving in the Atlantic. That subtle practice taught him to stay calm at depth, control his breathing for long stretches, and keep his heart rate down when his body wants to panic.
“I guess in some ways it’s similar,” says Kirkwood, whose victory in Texas was his sixth career IndyCar win. “You’re trying to keep your heart rate low in one of these cars with all the G forces, the physicality of it, the heat—you’re trying to keep your heart rate as low as possible for those two hours that you’re inside the car. So there is some correlation there.”
How Kyle Kirkwood Trains to Stay Calm at 5Gs
In IndyCar, the difference between winning and fading to the back of the pack isn’t always who’s fastest—it’s who stays the calmest when everything is trying to rip them apart. At more than 200 mph, with up to 5 Gs pulling a driver’s head away from the car’s direction, the ones who can relax, control their breathing, and keep their heart rate low are the ones who can spot a split-second opening and take it without it backfiring.
Mid-race meditation is obviously not an option behind the wheel. But an unassuming tactic Kirkwood and other drivers use to manage that stress is breath control. During nearly every lap, he holds his breath for stretches, then resets and regains a normal rhythm. “Breath holds around a track like this for about 22 seconds,” he says. “And I would say, give or take, 10 to 15 seconds of the track, you’re in a corner pulling three or four G’s, and everybody knows when you’re at that sort of G level, it’s pretty hard to breathe, so you do have to hold your breath for a period of the lap here.”
As a lifelong diver, that kind of breath control now feels like second nature. His ability today, though, was boosted by early adventures in the Atlantic—long before he knew the benefits would translate to racing. It’s become one of the unsung strengths behind his rise on the IndyCar circuit. “You go out on the water, you go spearfishing, you go diving, you go surfing,” he says. “I was in the water snorkeling when I was like, 3 or 4 years old—it’s just been a way of life.”
Learning how to relax when his initial instinct was to react has become an invaluable tool. The longer he stayed below the surface, the more he had to stretch each inhale, stay calm as his lungs burned, and trust that he could outlast the urge to rush back up. “When you’re spearfishing, you’ve got to keep your heart rate low,” he says. “The cadence of your breath and how you’re setting up for your dive is very important.”
While he lives in Indianapolis during the season and doesn’t get to dive as often as he once did, Kirkwood still leans on those calming advantages during a race’s key moments. He admits he can’t hold his breath like he did in his fishing prime, but the same relaxation and heart rate lowering habits he built underweater now help him manage the heat and G‑forces in the cockpit. ““I used to be able to hold my breath for over three minutes,” he says. ”I used to be able to do about 100 feet, maybe a little bit more when I was in my late teens. Now I could probably do 60 or 70 feet.”
Fishing Has Also Become Kyle Kirkwood’s Performance Fuel
There’s more to South Florida deep diving than just building a bigger breath. Kirkwood says that on top of being one of his favorite off-track activities, landing a giant fish during any one of his spearfishing expeditions also helps when it comes to refining his nutrition. “Catching a 40‑ or 50‑pound grouper is probably my number one fish,” he says.
Kirkwood isn’t a hardcore macro counter, but he stays mindful of keeping meals as healthy as possible, especially when he’s maintaining his in-season weight of under 160 pounds. “Usually I’ll poach it, grill it, or even sauté it,” he says. “That’s usually the go‑to, and then I eat it with rice or a vegetable. That’s a typical fish meal for me.” Still, there are times when a celebration calls for a little indulgence. “The best way is probably fried,” he admits. “That’s the best tasting, but I try not to do that very often.”
Whatever’s not being prepared immediately, Kirkwood wraps and freezes—sometimes even bringing it on the road when healthy options aren’t guaranteed. “Everything that I do spear, I obviously take home. I clean it, I either package it, freeze it, bring it up with me to Indiana, or cook it fresh,” he explains.
One time fish is off the menu, though, is right before a race. Sitting in a car for 500 miles, any digestive surprises can be catastrophic.
Prior to each race, hydration becomes a top priority. Kirkwood sticks to a pre‑race electrolyte routine and alternates water with a hydration mix in the cockpit. “I just do a mixture of water and either—like, I’d say, four or five hours before we’re actually on track,” he says. “I use The Right Stuff, which is mostly a salt mixture, and then within two hours, it’s either Liquid I.V. or something equivalent.”
His pre‑race food is just as consistent: plain chicken, rice, and vegetables. The one challenge he doesn’t need during a race is testing his stomach. “We obviously meal prep for the events, for Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” he says. “Everything that I eat is very restricted, because the last thing you want is something heavy, something that’s probably not good for you, in a car when you’re pulling four or five Gs around a racetrack like this.”
Inside Kyle Kirkwood’s All-Around IndyCar Training Routine
Being nicknamed “King of the Streets” can be a short-lived title that’s only as good as your last race—especially when consistent success across IndyCar’s full range of tracks is what ultimately secures the top spot at the end of the season. While his win at Arlington continues to elevate Kirkwood’s reputation as a street‑circuit savant—five of his six career wins have come on them—championships are earned by making your mark as a top all‑around contender on other layouts, from high‑G short ovals like Phoenix (where he finished second) to 220‑plus mph superspeedways like Indianapolis, where he hopes to earn his first victory over Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s one of the most diverse series in the world,” he says. “So having a different discipline and being ready for each one of those events is very important.”
It takes a certain strength to control the different speeds and G‑loads each course presents, but during the season Kirkwood doesn’t rely on heavy lifting so much as the race‑specific strength he’s built for the car. “I’m not a huge [fan of] weightlifting,” he admits. “I think there’s a point in a race car that you can’t be too big. It’s just like any endurance athlete. You don’t want to be too big and you don’t want to make massive [demands] on the body.”
Instead, his functional foundation comes from two main methods: an offseason neck‑training focus and in‑season cognitive work that keeps his reactions sharp in heart‑rate‑spiking moments like his finish at Arlington. “Those are the two things that are very specific, I think, to racing,” he says. “Especially cognitive ability—to be able to get your heart rate up, something similar to what you’ll be like in the car, then we use a synaptic screen to try and help your peripheral [vision] and your reaction timing.”
Kirkwood’s weeks follow a simple formula of resetting his body, training, and driving. Each workout often begins or ends with him using his Theragun percussion gun to work out the tightness and knots 500 miles of driving can add to the body. “I always travel with a Theragun,” he says. “That’s one thing that gets me loosened up.”
During the season, Monday becomes an automatic reset day for Kirkwood to focus on rehydration and refueling, adding back some of the up to eight pounds of water weight he may lose during a race. “Staying hydrated, using that drink bottle is important,” he says. “Once you get to the point that you feel fatigued and you’re kind of getting some mental fog, you’re already past the limit that you should be.” Tuesdays and Wednesdays are for cardio and moderate lifting, plus coordination and cognitive drills to keep his reaction time sharp at elevated heart rates.
The regimen repeats until the season concludes Sept. 6 in Monterey, CA. It’s a schedule designed to keep him sharp without burning him out—and so far this season, everything seems to be going right. It’s the type of conditioning that separates racecar drivers from the casual motorist. “I think for the average human, they’d get in one of these cars and do 15–20 laps and be like, I can’t do anymore, like my neck is done. My arms are tired. But for us, we know how to adapt to the conditions pretty well. We do a lot of training for it.”
With each win and podium finish, the closer Kirkwood gets to a shot a potential championship. After mastering the ability to hold tight to the steering wheel, simply hanging onto his shades after a press conference may be the next challenge. He’ll take that trade-off if he’s still at the top of the IndyCar standings at the end of the season. “I burn through sunglasses because I always end up leaving them somewhere,” he says. “You take them off in the media center, you leave them, and next thing you know, you got to go buy another pair.”
