DETROIT — A well-timed pit stop and a little bit of chaos were all Kyffin Simpson needed as the sophomore driver finished fifth in Sunday’s (June 1) Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix for his first NTT IndyCar Series top-five finish.
Simpson was running 14th before making his final pit stop on lap 65 of the 100-lap race around the nine-turn, 1.645-mile street circuit. The timing for the No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing crew couldn’t have been better as Callum Ilott‘s No. 90 PREMA Chevrolet had a wheel failure, nosing the car into the turn 1 barrier and bringing out the full course yellow on the very next lap.
IndyCar closes the pits under a full-course yellow until the entire field has packed up behind the pace car, and this yellow came out at the start of the final scheduled pit sequence.
The rest of the field pitted under the yellow, moving Simpson up to second place behind Santino Ferrucci and ahead of Marcus Armstrong, who also pitted before the yellow.
“As soon as I saw the yellow was out, I was like, ‘OK, that’s got to be good for us,'” Simpson said on pit road after the race. “So I figured it was good for us, but I didn’t realize how good it was for us. Super happy about that and great call by Taylor (Kiel, race strategist) and the whole crew.”
Simpson ran second on the restart but fell to third as eventual race winner Kyle Kirkwood gradually made his way to the lead after restarting in fourth position.
Third became fourth place after Will Power passed the Cayman Islands native on lap 81 and Colton Herta dropped Simpson to his final finishing position one lap later.
Simpson remained in fifth for the rest of the race and, despite his best efforts, could not get by Power, who finished just under a second ahead of Simpson, who also set the race’s fastest lap on lap 54.
Because Simpson started 19th, he had a few extra fresh sets of Firestone tires to use for the race. He remained on track longer than all other competitors for his opening stint except for teammate Scott Dixon and that allowed Simpson to climb to second place.
After running a lengthy opening stint on the black sidewall primary compound tires, Simpson ran two short stints with the green sidewall alternate compound tires that provide more grip at the cost of a reduced operating window and INDYCAR mandates that each driver runs at least two laps on each tire compound during a road course or street circuit race.
The end of Simpson’s second stint on the alternate compound tires was when he pitted for the final time before the caution that elevated Simpson to the front of the field.
2025 has been a year of progressive improvement for Simpson after a very challenging 2024. After a season where Simpson took his lumps against a very competitive field, 2025 has yielded more positive results against a mostly similar field.
“It’s been just a lot of work through the offseason,” Simpson said of his improvement. “But I think it’s also just a huge help to have a season under your belt. You know, coming back to all these tracks for the second time in an Indy car. The first time in an Indy car at any track, even if you’ve been there before, it’s always just a bit different, so having a year under my belt’s been just a huge help for me.”
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.