Kyle Kirkwood Takes His Second Win On the Streets of Detroit; Alex Palou’s Historic Run Is Over
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- Jun 1
- 3 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - Staff Writer
Kyle Kirkwood goes back-to-back on the street circuits with a win in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday. He led 48 laps and drove a broken front wing across the line for his second victory of the season, ahead of Santino Ferrucci and Colton Herta for the first all-American podium since 2020.
“You think back to early IRL [Indy Racing League], if you told people then that more than half the series was going to be international drivers, I think people would gasp, Herta said. “It really just amps the competitiveness up.”
A.J. Foyt Racing claimed their second consecutive podium finish with Ferrucci’s second-place run around Detroit. For the 27-year-old American he led eight laps en route to his first career podium.
“All I did was push the pedals and turn the steering wheel,” Ferrucci said. “I’ve only had like twice like in my career.”
Herta’s third-place finish marked his best result of the year. Pit stops and mechanical errors sent Herta off the podium at the three races this season: the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and the Children's of Alabama Indy Grand Prix.
Countless cautions altered the strategy on several occasions. Two yellow flag periods under Lap 20 saw drivers stay out who attempted to stretch the black (primary) tires, to lessen their stint on the green (soft) tires.
Pato O’Ward, Josef Newgarden and Scott Dixon were prominent leaders of this strategy, as Dixon saved the soft tires for his second stint of ten laps, while Newgarden and O’Ward used them for their respective third stints. This strategy didn’t pay dividends for the win as the trio finished seventh, ninth and 11th.
O’Ward caught the luck of the Lap 68 caution, which was brought out for a crash by Callum Ilott into Turn 1, to reset his offset strategy to the rest of the field. It continued his rise from an 18th-place starting position to eighth after pit stops.
The incident allowed Ferrucci, Kyffin Simpson and Marcus Armstrong to stay out, as the trio pitted two to three laps before the caution came out. Simpson and Armstrong finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
The chaos didn’t stop there as INDYCAR championship leader Alex Palou got booted into Turn 1 by David Malukas on the following restart. Palou wrecked for a 25th-place finish while Malukas was sent to the back of the field for 14th.
Kirkwood, who led the majority of the race up to this point, was able to claim fourth past the top-three cars on the ensuing restart. The 26-year-old American was able to stretch an over two-second lead before a suspension failure from rookie Louis Foster, who slammed into Felix Rosenqvist in Turn 3, brought out the season's first red flag with 17 laps to go.
On the final restart of the race, Kirkwood got the jump on the field, pulling out a five-second lead. With the win out of the hands of the rest of the field, all eyes were turned to the final podium places.
Will Power, battling Ferrucci, lost two places from the restart to allow Ferrucci and Herta on the podium for their best results of the season. Power ended his late race fall in fourth.
With the win, Kirkwood closed his gap to championship leader Palou to 102 points. He remains the only driver to win a race other than the Spaniard this season. O’Ward (-90), Christian Santino Ferrucci (-106) and Power (-136) round out the top five in the points standings.
“It puts you back in a position where you feel like you might be able to get [the championship lead] back,” Kirkwood said. I’m sure going to go to road courses and Palou is going to do his thing, so we’ll see what happens.”
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Results:
Kyle Kirkwood #27- (LEADER)
Santino Ferrucci #14 -3.593s
Colton Herta #26 -4.943s
Will Power #12 -5.449s
Kyffin Simpson #8 -6.219s
Marcus Armstrong #66 -8.524s
Pato O’Ward #5 -9.168s
Christian Lundgaard #7 -9.782s
Josef Newgarden #2 -18.769s
Alexander Rossi #20 -19.449s
Scott Dixon #9 -19.943s
Scott McLaughlin #3 -20.417s
Marcus Ericsson #28 -20.799s
David Malukas #4 -21.517s
Sting Ray Robb #77 -22.171s
Robert Shwartzman #83 (R) -29.058s
Conor Daly #76 -33.664s
Jacob Abel #51(R) -48.918s
Nolan Siegel #6 -2 Laps Down
Graham Rahal #15 -3 Laps Down
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -17 Laps Down (Contact)
Louis Foster #45 (R) -17 Laps Down (Contact)
Delvin DeFranesco #30 -17 Laps Down (Mechanical)
Christian Rasmussen #21 - 20 Laps Down (Mechanical)
Alex Palou #10 -28 Laps Down (Contact)
Callum Ilott #90 - 34 Laps Down (Contact)
Rinus Veekay #18 - 94 Laps Down (Mechanical)
NTT INDYCAR SERIES action returns at the World Wide Technology Raceway for Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Sunday, June 15, on FOX.
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