Kirkwood Masters Strategy, Wins in Detroit

Kyle Kirkwood navigating the streets of Detroit en route to his second win of the season in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish).

Detroit, Mich. – It has been 19 years since two drivers have won the first seven races of a season. That drought has now been erased thanks to an impressive drive by Kyle Kirkwood in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear, claiming his second victory of the 2025 campaign.

Kirkwood is one of the few drivers who didn’t rely on multi-million-dollar sponsorship partners to work his way up through the open-wheel ranks. He had to perform, win races, and championships to make it to the top of the NTT IndyCar Series with his aggressive, precise, yet composed driving style.

Kirkwood led a race-high 48 laps in the No. 27 Siemens AWS Andretti Global Honda and had to navigate from third on a late restart to pass Santino Ferrucci in the No. 14 Sexton Properties A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet with 22 laps to go and cruise to a 3.593-second win. This marks Kirkwood’s second win of the season and fourth of his career, in which all of these victories came on road & street courses.

“This AWS Honda was on rails all weekend long,” Kirkwood said. “There were some challenges out there, that’s for sure. We had to pass our way back through a handful of times. It was not a walk in the park, especially with that front wing damage at the end.”

“Hats off to these Andretti (Global) boys. The epic pit stops, the epic strategy. The car was flawless, we were the fastest. On restarts, this car just came alive.”

Santino Ferrucci focused ahead on his way to his career best second-place finish in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear (Photo: Christopher Vargas | The Podium Finish).

Despite Kirkwood’s dominant performance, Ferrucci had the drive of the day coming from the 21st starting position to finish in a career-best second place and being the biggest mover of the race.

“First off, huge shoutout to this whole team,” Ferrucci said after the runner-up finish. “We were struggling in qualifying; I struggled. I made a lot of mistakes. I was hard on myself yesterday. Pit stops were phenomenal. The stand was amazing, perfect strategy.”

Kirkwood’s teammate and pole sitter, Colton Herta, was an early favorite after pacing the second practice session and winning the pole on Saturday. Herta had a solid day and led 11 laps to bring home the No. 26 Gainbridge Andretti Global Honda in the third position.

“Happy to finally get a result, for sure,” Herta said. “Big congrats to Kyle (Kirkwood) to the whole Andretti Global team. So much weight off my shoulders. It is disappointing to get the pole and not to follow it up with a win. But with how crazy this race is, just to survive it is a good thing.”

2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power moved up four spots to finish just outside the podium, in the fourth position. Second-year driver Kyffin Simpson navigated his way up from the 19th starting position to round out the top 5 and earn his career-best finish on the streets of Detroit in the No. 8 Ridgeline Lubricants Chip Ganassi Honda.

The tight nine-turn, 1.645-mile street circuit in downtown Detroit came down to varying tire strategies and dodging on-track incidents.

The field was split between two strategies with 12 cars starting the race on the high-grip, quick-wearing green alternate tires and the remaining of the field on the more durable and longer lasting primary black Firestone tires.

After making his initial pit stop on lap 11, Kirkwood took the lead for the first time on lap 39 when Scott Dixon pitted in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda for green alternate tires. Kirkwood maintained the lead until lap 50 when he next pitted on strategy “A”.

The turning point in the race was when a lap 68 caution came out when Callum Ilott’s tire fell off of his No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet, ultimately allowing Ferrucci to take over the lead when drivers on the varying strategy made their pit stops during that caution period, putting Ferrucci in solid position after pitting three-laps prior.

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was not talked about much during the 100-lap broadcast, but quietly worked his way up through the field from his 24th starting position to gain a second-best 14 positions on the day to bring home his No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet in the ninth position.

Despite Kirkwood’s performance, the biggest story of the day took place after a lap 72 restart when two-time defending champion and reigning Indianapolis 500 winner Alex Palou restarted from the seventh position and was run into entering turn one by Chicago-native David Malukas in the No. 4 Chevrolet, sending the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the tire barrier. Unable to get his car restarted, that incident ended the day for the points leader, resulting in a 25th-place finish and Palou’s first DNF since July 2024 at Iowa Speedway, and his worst finish since Road America in 2022.

Following Kirkwood’s dominant performance, the rest of the top five included Ferrucci scoring a career-best finish in second, Herta in third, Power in fourth, and Simpson in fifth.

The rest of the top 10 was followed by Marcus Armstrong, Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard, Newgarden, and Alexander Rossi.

Coming into Sunday’s grand prix, Palou held a 112-point lead over O’Ward and was on an unprecedented and historical run, averaging a 1.14 finishing position. Sunday’s lap 72 incident made a minuscule dent in Palou’s championship points lead, now leading second-place O’Ward by 90 points. With the win, Kirkwood moves up two spots in the standings to third place, 102 points out of the lead.

The NTT IndyCar Series has a week off before its second oval race in three weeks at the World Wide Technology Raceway, for the running of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on  Sunday, June 15.

Unofficial Results: