Kirkwood Conquers Wild Race at WWT Raceway

Kyle Kirkwood celebrates in victory lane after winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

MADISON, Ill. – Coming into the second oval of 2025, Kyle Kirkwood was 0 for 17 on oval racetracks. On Sunday, the street course ace defied the odds and mastered his team’s strategy in a thrilling Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline.

Sunday night’s race marked Kirkwood’s fifth victory of his career and his third of the 2025 season, as he attempts to make a dent in Alex Palou’s demanding points lead.

“My first oval win; I’m over the moon right now,” Kirkwood told FOX Sports. “Ovals have eluded me for a very long time, so it’s nice to get that first one and break that ice.

“An oval win and a road course win is what I wanted. I didn’t want people just to think of me as a street course guy or else they’ll just have me going to street courses. A little bit of job security there. This is a big one, a big one for the guys. This is huge, massive.”

Kirkwood navigated his No. 27 Siemens Andretti Global Honda into the lead on Lap 256, passing Callum Ilott in the No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, and held off a charging Pato O’Ward to win by .5398 seconds. Second-year Danish driver Christian Rasmussen rounded out the podium with his career-best finish in the No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet by improving a race-best 22 positions from his 25^th starting position.

“I hope it was an amazing show for all you fans,” O’Ward told FOX Sports. “It’s fantastic to be racing back under the lights here again. I was really happy with my car. In that last little bit restart I think good ole Nolan (Siegel) was sleeping a little bit and gave Kirkwood an opportunity and I was kind of stuck.”

“Oh, it’s huge, especially how this weekend has gone for us,” Rasmussen told FOX Sports. “Really slow practice one, didn’t get it done in qualy (qualifying), we started 25^th in the race. Just a way to turn it around for ECR here today, this is awesome. Definitely the best race of my life so far. As soon as I found out that the high line was so affective, my car was so good up there. I just started running high and I could just pass people.”

Pato O’Ward battling Kyle Kirkwood and Conor Daly on his way to a second-place finish in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

The remaining drivers in the top five included six-time series champion Scott Dixon in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and Santino Ferrucci, who continued his recent hot streak with his third straight top five finish.

The tone was set during the first quarter of the race in which we saw Conor Daly in the No. 76 MannKind Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet make big moves to advance 11 positions in the first 24 laps, as well as two early yellows for Devlin DeFrancesco losing control of his No. 30 Mi-Jack Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda on Lap 4 and Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet in the Turn 4 wall due to a rare tire failure on Lap 47.

The turning point of the race came on Lap 130 with a terrifying crash when Louis Foster tagged the Turn 4 wall and spun down across the track in front of then race leader Josef Newgarden. Foster and Newgarden collided simultaneously into the inside retaining wall, sending Newgarden’s No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet flying upside down and sliding to a stop on its top. Both drivers were evaluated and released from the infield medical center. Newgarden declined comments after the incident.

With Newgarden and Power out of the race, Scott McLaughlin was the lone Team Penske car remaining to continue their oval dominance at WWT Raceway. That was short-lived when McLaughlin was forced to retire the No. 3 Dex Imaging Chevrolet on Lap 216 due to a mechanical failure, after leading 51 laps.

The race came down to a duel of two fuel strategies and congested lap traffic playing a factor. Dixon pitted on Lap 200 after staying out during green-flag stops and caught a timely yellow flag when A.J. Foyt Enterprises driver David Malukas tagged the wall on Lap 195, after leading a race-high 67 laps.

During the restart, Kirkwood was able to pass O’Ward and set his sights on the lead. With Dixon in fuel-save mode through the remainder of the race, Kirkwood used the undercut and pitted on Lap 233, knowing that Dixon and O’Ward still had to pit.

Dixon was forced to pit on Lap 236 for fuel and fresh Firestone Firehawk tires, and O’Ward soon followed on Lap 238 for his final stop, handing the lead to Ferrucci. But Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson, Felix Rosenqvist and Ilott all made their final stops by Lap 256, handing the lead back to Kirkwood for the final time.

“The starts and the restarts were big,” Kirkwood said. “We were not too happy with the car yesterday, and we got some help from the teammates and made the car really good. In the beginning, I really didn’t think we had it, but as it got dark and it cooled down, this No. 27 Andretti Global Honda just came alive.”

The 260-lap race saw 14 different leaders and 254 passes for position, tying last year’s WWT Raceway record. By virtue of Palou’s eighth-place finish, his points championship lead was cut from 90 to 73 points over O’Ward, with Kirkwood now 75 points out of the lead in third place.

The next event for the NTT IndyCar Series takes place at the 4.014-mile Road America road course for the XPEL Grand Prix on Sunday, June 22. Race coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX, the IndyCar Radio Network and IndyCar Nation SiriusXM radio channel 218.

Race Results: