BELLE ISLE, Mich — Kyle Kirkwood had a dream weekend. He swept both Indy Lights races around the 2.35-mile Belle Isle street circuit to close the gap even further in his pursuit of a series championship in 2021. Kirkwood, led every lap on Saturday and followed that up with leading 29 of the 30 laps on Sunday en route to the victory in his No. 28 Andretti Autosport entry. He’s now scored three wins on the season and four top twos in his last six starts.

Kirkwood, started third this tome around and passed David Malukas on the opening lap in Turn 1. He then chased down and passed pole sitter Linus Lundqvist a lap later and never looked back despite two restarts later.

He was slowed though on Lap 8 when Alex Peroni crashed in Turn 3. He tried to pass Robert Megennis on the outside and it didn’t work.

We went back green on Lap 12 and Kirkwood pulled away again until Danial Frost crashed on Lap 26. It set up a one lap shootout in which Kirkwood held off Lundqvist by 1.0547-seconds for the win.

Lundqvist, finished runner-up in both races this weekend and now takes over the points lead. He’s had three top twos in his last four races and five on the season thus far. He leads Malukas by one point as Malukas finished third on Sunday .4 seconds behind Lundqvist at the finish.

Malukas, has six podiums in his last seven starts, but Lundqvist and Kirkwood are keeping him honest. Kirkwood is only four points behind Lundqvist heading into Road America next weekend.