Born in Jupiter, Kirkwood began karting at a young age, often competing alongside fellow Jupiter native Oliver Askew. Throughout his karting career, he amassed multiple titles, including the AM Engines Formula Tag Junior championship in 2012, the SKUSA SuperNationals XVII - S5 Junior championship in 2013 and back-to-back wins at the Florida Winter Tour in 2015 and 2016.
Lower formulae
In 2015, Kirkwood made his single-seater debut in the F1600 Championship with Chastain Motorsports. There he took victory in the season opener at Road Atlanta and contested a further six rounds to finish sixteenth. Following his performance in Formula 4United States, Kirkwood returned to the Formula Ford scene in 2016 to represent Team USA in the Formula Ford Festival and Walter Hayes Trophy event, finishing seventh and fourth overall in both respective events. In 2016, Kirkwood joined the inaugural Formula 4 United States Championship with Primus Racing, which saw him claim a win at Mid-Ohio and finish third in the standings overall. In September 2016, Kirkwood was awarded with the Team USA scholarship. After competing with them in pre-season testing at NOLA, Kirkwood returned to the championship the following year, switching to newcomers Cape Motorsports. He achieved nine victories, including back-to-back hat-tricks at Indianapolis and Motorsport Park, wrapping up the title in the Formula One supporting season finale at the Circuit of the Americas. During the season, Kirkwood was once again selected as a candidate for the Team USA scholarship.
In August2018, Kirkwood joined Abel Motorsports to contest the inaugural season of F3 Americas. The season saw Kirkwood claim fifteen of the seventeen race victories on offer and seal his third consecutive championship at NOLA with a round to spare. The following year, Kirkwood made a one-off appearance with RP Motorsport in the season finale of the Euroformula Open Championship at Monza, which saw him take a best-placed finish of sixth in race two.
In December 2016, Kirkwood partook in the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout, but lost out on the scholarship to Askew.
USF2000
In 2017, Kirkwood partook in the Chris Griffis Memorial Test with Swan-RJB Motorsports. In February 2018, he reunited with Cape Motorsports to contest the 2018 championship. In only his rookie season, Kirkwood dominated proceedings, taking twelve of the fourteen victories on offer and sealing his second title in a year at Mid-Ohio and equalling J.R. Hildebrand's record of wins across a season.
Kirkwood graduated to the championship in 2019, selecting RP Motorsport Racing as his team. After faltering in earlier rounds, Kirkwood took his maiden victories in both races at Road America. From the second race at Toronto onwards, Kirkwood dominated the season and won his fourth consecutive title at the season finale in Laguna Seca despite being taken out by Danial Frost.
Indy Lights
In December 2019, Kirkwood partook in the post-season test at Sebring with reigning champions Andretti Autosport. The following month, Andretti confirmed Kirkwood would race with them for the 2020 season.
Racing record
Career summary
† As Kirkwood was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.
