Kirkwood ponders gravity of upside-down Indy moment

Kyle Kirkwood has a thought on how to handle the next time he finds himself hanging upside down and firing backwards at more than 100mph in his Indy car: Leave his visor down.

If being hit by the crashing and spinning Felix Rosenqvist while in sight of a top-six finish with 16 laps to go in the Indy 500 wasn’t wholly unexpected, the decision by the driver of the No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda to reach up — while inverted and amid a shower of sparks — to open his visor while in the midst of his own crash was another unforeseen aspect of the Floridian’s race-ending journey.

“I wouldn’t say that was my brightest moment,” Kirkwood said. “I’m not gonna lie. A lot of people asked me if gravity pulled the visor open and honestly, I didn’t know what to answer until I watched the video. You know, I just completely lost vision of where I was because I was upside down and it was completely dark. I’ve never had that situation before in a race car, so natural

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