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Kyle Kirkwood's Honda Indy Car Sponsored By Honda At Mid-Ohio
Kyle Kirkwood's No. 27 Honda that will compete in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio NTT IndyCar Series ... More race.
This weekend's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will mark the one-year anniversary of the Hybrid Assist Unit that was designed to add a boost of electrification to the internal combustion engine used in the NTT IndyCar Series.
Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) pushed that initiative and collaborated with Ilmor (Chevrolet's engine partner) and IndyCar on the Hybrid Assist project.
To mark the one-year anniversary, Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood's No. 27 Honda will carry full Honda sponsorship in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio July 4-6 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Kirkwood will be attempting to win his fourth IndyCar Series race this season as Honda attempts to win its 10th straight IndyCar Series race to open the 2025 season.
The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is considered Honda's 'home track' because it has a large manufacturing facility in nearby Marysville, Ohio, located 60 miles away. Also, the East Liberty Auto Plants as well as Honda Research & Development are located near the permanent road course.
More than 400,000 Honda and Acura automobiles are made in Ohio each year, as well as research and design on components for Honda products from lawnmowers to the HondaJet.
"Honda has been a phenomenal partner, and their performance this season speaks for itself,' said Andretti Global President Jill Gregory. 'We are proud to have played a key role in their dominance so far.
'Mid-Ohio is a big weekend for both of us, and so we're honored to run a special livery that celebrates everything we've accomplished together. We're looking forward to delivering a result that reflects the strength of this partnership."
Kyle Kirkwood's No. 27 Honda
Andretti and Honda share more than 20 years of celebrated history, going back to 1997 when the team was known as Team Green. Together, Honda and Andretti Global have earned three NTT IndyCar Series championships, including Tony Kanaan (2004), Dan Wheldon (2005) and Dario Franchitti (2007), as well as five Indianapolis 500 victories with Dan Wheldon (2005), Dario Franchitti (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Alexander Rossi (2016), and Takuma Sato (2017).
Kirkwood enters the weekend second in the championship with three race wins—one of only two drivers to win a race this season. He hopes to add a victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to his previous wins this year at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Detroit Grand Prix and World Wide Technology Raceway.
Kirkwood Knows How To Win At Mid-Ohio
Kirkwood has an impressive history at Mid-Ohio, scoring nine straight victories at the circuit in junior formula between 2017 and 2021. Kirkwood hopes to add a win at Mid-Ohio to his five-career IndyCar victories and bring Honda's streak to 10 wins in 10 races in 2025.
"We are thrilled to have Honda represented on the No. 27 Andretti Global machine of Kyle Kirkwood this weekend,' said Chuck Schifsky, Manager, Honda & Acura Motorsports. 'We've had a long partnership with the Andretti organization, and when the chance came up to have Kyle run a Honda-branded car here at the Honda race at Mid-Ohio, we jumped at it.
'It's a great opportunity to bring awareness to all parts of the Honda brands, from planes, motorcycles and power products to road cars and our hybrid-powered Indy cars, especially on this one-year anniversary of IndyCar going hybrid.
'We have thousands of Honda associates from our five Ohio manufacturing plants and the North American R&D center coming to watch the race and seeing that Kyle is one of only two drivers to win so far this year, and all nine races have been won by Honda, we're hoping we can continue that streak and put on a great show for them.'
Honda has produced automobiles in Ohio for over 40 years, beginning in November 1982 with the start of automobile production at the Marysville Auto Plant.
Honda established U.S. manufacturing operations in Marysville in 1979 with the start of motorcycle production.
Today, over 12,000 associates support Honda manufacturing in Ohio, with five plants that represent a total capital investment of $13 billion and the capacity to produce 460,000 Honda and Acura automobiles, 1.18 million automobile engines, and over 1 million automobile transmissions and two-motor hybrid systems, using domestic and globally sourced parts.
The company's five Ohio manufacturing facilities include three auto plants, the Marysville Auto Plant, East Liberty Auto Plant and Performance Manufacturing Center, as well as the Anna Engine Plant and transmission plant in Russells Point.
The company has invested more than $1.4 billion in these facilities over the past six years, continually modernizing equipment and adopting new technologies to advance quality and efficiency for Honda and Acura customers here and around the world. Honda is establishing a new EV Hub for the start of EV production in the U.S. including an investment of over $1 billion to re-tool its existing auto and powertrain plants in Ohio for production of electric vehicles, as well as $3.5 billion with LG Energy Solution to establish a joint venture EV battery plant in Fayette County, Ohio.
North American Auto Development Center
The North American Auto Development Center (ADC), part of Honda Development & Manufacturing of America (HDMA), is responsible for complete product development including engineering and testing of Honda vehicles such as the current Honda Pilot, Passport, Odyssey and Ridgeline, and the Acura TLX, TLX Type S, RDX, MDX, and MDX Type S. The Automotive Safety Research Facility within ADC houses one of the world's most sophisticated high-resolution crash test barrier blocks, the world's first pitching crash test simulator, a scale wind tunnel, along with other advanced safety research and testing labs.
Honda Automotive Labs of Ohio (HALO)
Honda Automotive Labs of Ohio (HALO) is the world's most advanced wind tunnel, with three separate state-of-the art testing functions: aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, and racing — in one location. The wind tunnel facility is used to test Honda and Acura products, as well as the company's race vehicles. The $124 million HALO facility, located at the independent Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC) in Central Ohio, opened in March 2022.
A front view of Kyle Kirkwood's No. 27 Honda that will compete in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio NTT ... More IndyCar Series race July 4-6, 2025.
