Kyle Kirkwood wins another IndyCar street race, this one to become first winner in Arlington

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Kyle Kirkwood keeps taking it to the streets in IndyCar, and this time he won a new race to take over the series lead.

Kirkwood made an aggressive pass below four-time series champion Alex Palou with 15 laps to go, stayed in front the rest of the way and took the checkered flag for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington under caution Sunday. It was his sixth career win, the fifth in a street race.

“I mean, it's a statement of how good we are on street courses, right?” Kirkwood said.

On a day when Andretti Global had some pit issues, including a long stop for Kirkwood midway through the race, all three of team's Hondas still finished in the top four and combined to lead 47 of the race's 70 laps. Will Power was third for a podium finish while Marcus Ericsson, who started on the pole for the first time in his 171 series starts, led 15 laps and was fourth.

The winning pass by Kirkwood, a 27-year-old from Jupiter, Florida, came on the last of 14 turns on the temporary 2.73-mile circuit that ran between the home stadiums of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers.

“He just launched, and it was a clean pass, amazing pass,” Palou said.

“It was kind of all or nothing,” Kirkwood said. “I just had to do a bit of a late lunge to kind of surprise him a little bit because I think if he started defending, there was probably no chance of us getting by him. That was probably the only place that we were going to be able to pass him.”

Palou, who finished second in his Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing, knew Kirkwood had been gaining on him.

“Should have obviously defended a little bit better, but it’s very easy to say now. But yeah, honestly, I didn’t really have much for him,” Palou said. “I’m really happy getting on the podium and trying to steal a little bit of Andretti’s party this weekend."

Kirkwood has won twice at Long Beach; he also took the checkered flag at street courses in Nashville and Detroit. He began this season finishing fourth at St. Pete before a runner-up finish on the short oval in Phoenix a week ago. His only non-street win came at the paved 1.25-mile Gateway track outside of St. Louis last June, which was his third and final win last season.

While matching Kirkwood and Power for a race-high 16 laps led, Palou wasn't able to regain the series points lead. The three-time defending champion had been on top of the IndyCar standings since June 2024 before not finishing in Phoenix last weekend after early contact. But he did move up from fifth to second behind new leader Kirkwood.

After making up a more than five-second deficit to take the lead, Kirkwood was in front by more than five seconds until two late cautions tightened up the field.

A final sprint for the checkered flag never materialized because of a collision in the back of the field on the restart as Kirkwood and Palou were beginning the final lap. That crash in the tight 14th turn brought out a full-course caution, and safety crews were still on the track when they got back around nearly two minutes later to cross the finish line.

Race officials said the nine temporary grandstands that held nearly 22,000 people were sold out. That number doesn't count the numerous hospitality suites for folks like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who was in attendance, or the crowded general admission areas throughout the Arlington entertainment district where fans watched cars racing on the city streets.

“Every stand was full. ... The track looked amazing, It just looked like a big event. This is setting a new standard of what our events should look like,” Power said.

“It's been an incredible event. This event was done right,” Kirkwood said. “I can see this being one of our marquee events outside of the (Indianapolis) 500 in a very short period of time if we continue coming back here.”

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Diver Alex Palou takes a turn during practice for the IndyCar Grand Prix of Arlington auto race, Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

A race official watches as IndyCars drive the track at the Grand Prix of Arlington auto race, Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Driver Kyle Kirkwood takes a turn during practice for IndyCar Grand Prix of Arlington auto race, Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

JERUSALEM (AP) — The brother of a man who attacked a Michigan synagogue last week, who was killed earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike, was a Hezbollah commander, Israel’s military claimed Sunday.

Ibrahim Ghazali was killed in Lebanon along with three other of the attacker’s relatives on March 5 — a week before authorities allege Ayman Mohamad Ghazali drove his car into a major synagogue outside Detroit and killed himself after security fired at him.

The FBI's Detroit office, which is investigating the synagogue attack, declined to comment on the claims by Israel's military about Ibrahim Ghazali.

“Out of respect for the ongoing investigation, we will continue to refrain from commenting on its substance,” FBI spokesman Jordan Hall said in an email Sunday.

The Israeli military alleges Ibrahim Ghazali was a Hezbollah commander who managed weapons for a unit that fired rockets at Israel.

A Lebanese official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, has confirmed Ibrahim Ghazali’s death. The official told The Associated Press that Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima, and brother, Kassim, were also killed in the strike that struck their home just after sunset.

In a statement sent to The AP in Beirut, Hezbollah said that the brothers, Ibrahim and Kassim, were a referee in a local soccer league and a scout member, and they were targeted at home along with their children, but didn't explicitly deny that Ibrahim was in the group.

Authorities have said that Ayman Ghazali, 41, carried out the synagogue attack after learning that four of his family members were killed in the Israeli strike.

Israel has stepped up attacks on the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon as the war with Iran has spread violence across the Middle East.

On Thursday, Ayman Ghazali waited in his car outside Temple Israel, near Detroit, for about two hours with a rifle, commercial grade fireworks and jugs of liquid believed to be gasoline, before crashing into the building full of dozens of children, according to authorities.

He started firing his gun through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard. Ghazali fatally shot himself after he got stuck in his vehicle and the engine caught fire, said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office. No staffers or children inside the synagogue were hurt, likely due to beefed up security in recent months.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, described the attack on one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community. But the agency said it didn’t have enough evidence yet to call it an act of terror.

Ghazali came to the U.S. in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

He lived in a single-story brick home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of the synagogue.

The attack on the Michigan synagogue took place on the same day as a former Army National Guard member who served years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State opened fire on a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia, killing one person and wounding two others.

Mroue reported from Beirut.

Law enforcement escort families away from the Temple Israel synagogue Thursday, March 12, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

A police vehicle sits outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Police tape hangs outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)