By: Ashley McCubbin

TORONTO, Ontario — With the success that Kyle Kirkwood has been able to experience on the street courses, it only means one thing for him – expectations to perform have increased.

“I think it does because we’ve been so fast at each of the street courses now,” he told a group of reporters. “I think St. Pete and Detroit we didn’t get the finishes to match our pace, but we’ve been top-three every single session on street courses so I think expectations have gone up.”

Although he began the season placing 18th at St. Petersburg, he returned to the streets of Long Beach to win the pole and lead 53 of the 85 laps en route to his first career series victory. He had the same speed in Detroit but only finished sixth after having to drive back through the field due to damaging the wing after opening lap contact.

The mixed results match how the year has gone for the Andretti Autosport driver with just three top-10 finishes in nine races.

“To be honest, our race pace hasn’t been the best that it possibly could,” he explained. “Our qualifying pace has been phenomenal every time. But when it comes to the races, we’re missing it a bit. So I feel that’s something that we need to nail down. I feel we’ve got it nailed down on the street courses for some reason, but you’d almost expect it to be more at these places with the low grip but fortunately we’re good. So it’s something we need to figure out.”

Despite not getting the finishes he has wanted with a variety of issues plaguing him the past couple months, Kirkwood still believes momentum is on his side.

“We’re still fast. We still have really good racecars,” he stated. “We kind of just need to stop falling into these cracks of mistakes or misfortune. But it’s always something that you can do better so that way misfortune doesn’t come your way.”

He will take the green flag for the Honda Indy Toronto in sixth after qualifying there in the wet, despite pacing opening practice in the dry on Friday. There is a 70% of rain returning for the 85-lap race.

“You can’t simulate anything when it comes to rain,” he commented. “This place has been hectic in the past when it comes to the wet – there’s no doubt about that. There is rain in the forecast. It looks like it’s really just during the qualifying session for everyone. Fingers crossed as that just throws curveballs at everyone. I think we’ll capitalize on it if it does rain, but this place I know will be hectic because of the puddles and the gaps that we have between some of the asphalt and that.”