Kyle Kirkwood is quickly becoming the king of street course racing in the NTT IndyCar Series after winning the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Sunday (June 1).
The Andretti Global driver took home his fourth win — all on street circuits — after battling competing tire strategies and his teammate Colton Herta to secure a well-deserved victory. He took the lead from Santino Ferrucci with 22 laps to go, managing some front wing damage he suffered but not letting that slow him down.
“This AWS Honda was unreal 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 definitely wasn’t a walk in the park, especially with that front wing damage at the end. We did lose a little bit of performance but the car felt fine. Hats off to these Andretti boys, epic pit stops, epic strategy, the car was flawless we definitely were the fastest, and on restarts the car just came alive.”
AJ Foyt Racing’s Ferrucci had a surprising second place, using pit strategy to gain his team’s best result on a street course since 2015 at Detroit with Takuma Sato. It also gave the team back-to-back top two finishes since Sato won at Long Beach in 2013 and followed up with a second at Sao Paolo, Brazil.
“First off shout out to this whole team, we were struggling in qualifying,” Ferrucci said. “I struggled, I made a lot of mistakes, I was really hard on myself yesterday because I thought it was all on me. The pit stops were phenomenal. The stand was amazing, perfect strategy, I just got lucky with that yellow.”
Andretti teammate and polesitter Herta finished third after holding off a fierce charge by Team Penske’s Will Power. Kyffin Simpson grabbed the best finish for Chip Ganassi Racing with his first top five due to similar strategy as Ferrucci.
“Happy to get a result,” Herta said. “Big congrats to Kyle, to the whole Andretti Global team, but it is so much weight off my shoulders. It is disappointing to get the pole but not follow up with a win, but with how crazy this race is, just to survive it is a good thing.”
Kirkwood’s big day was counter to the outcome for championship points leader and last weekend’s Indy 500 winner Alex Palou. On a lap 72 restart, Palou was tapped by David Malukas and sent into the tire barriers, ending his day. However, those seeking to cut into his lead weren’t able to maximize fully the damage, as those heading into the race behind him in the standings — Pato O’Ward, Christian Lundgaard, and Felix Rosenqvist — finished no better than seventh. His 112-point lead will shrink further heading to Gateway in two weeks.
The race was stopped with 13 laps to go due to a massive crash involving Louis Foster and Rosenqvist. A right front part failure on the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car sent Foster into the wall, and with no braking capability, into the back of Rosenqvist. Both ended in the tire barriers, and while they were awake and alert, Rosenqvist was put on a stretcher to go to the medical center after complaining of leg pain.
Later, Rosenqvist’s Meyer Shank Racing team confirmed he was released from the medical center.
As for the competitors, neither Kirkwood or Ferrucci were phased by the race stoppage.
“Man, I don’t think I’ve ever been more happy to see a red flag, because i was really struggling,” Ferrucci said. “I don’t know what I did with the tires but I couldn’t get the tires to come back to life.”
Kirkwood’s confidence in his car on restarts put him in a great place on the last restart.
“So I was super comfortable after that red flag,” Kirkwood said. “You know what this is actually going to work out in our favor especially with the damage, it was great.”
When racing resumed, Kirkwood stretched his lead comfortably while the battle was on for second through fourth behind him.
With the win, it was a great points day for the Andretti driver after a terrible finish at Indianapolis a week before, when his sixth-place result was stripped away when the car failed post-race inspection. Currently he is the only driver to win this year besides Palou.
Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Results
Unlike the previous two running’s of the new Detroit layout since being moved off Belle Isle, this year’s race had less chaos with five yellows compared to eight in 2024. With more opportunities for the strategies to play out, the racing product was top notch, perhaps one of the better events on a road and street course this year. There were 10 different leaders, 11 lead changes, and an on-track pass for the win.
IndyCar has a week off before returning to action June 15 at Worldwide Technology Raceway at Gateway, the series first primetime race of the year.
Tom is an IndyCar writer at Frontstretch, joining in March 2023. Besides writing the IndyCar Previews and frequent editions of Inside IndyCar, he will hop on as a fill-in guest on the Open Wheel podcast The Pit Straight. A native Hoosier, he calls Fort Wayne home. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomBlackburn42.