Kyle Kirkwood was frustrated to miss out on earning pole position in Detroit, but he more than made up for Saturday’s disappointment with another masterful street course drive to take his second win of the year, first since Long Beach, and seventh straight for Honda in 2025, the latest produced on enemy soil at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
The Floridian’s fourth career victory – all on street circuits – propelled the No. 27 Andretti Global driver forward in the standings, capitalizing on the adversity-stricken Alex Palou’s forgettable day in Motown. Palou, taken out in a rearward hit by David Malukas, placed 25th in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
“We had to pass our way back through a handful of times, and it was definitely not a walk in the park, but especially with that front wing damage at the end, we did lose a little bit of performance, but the car actually felt fine,” Kirkwood said, referencing an error where he hit the back of Kyffin Simpson while executing a pass.
“I mean, hats off to the Andretti boys – the epic pit stops, epic strategy, the car was flawless. We were definitely the fastest and on restarts, man, the car just came alive. I was actually super comfortable after that red flag came out. I was like, ‘You know what? This is actually going to work out in our favor here, especially with the damage.’ It’s great.”
Behind Kirkwood, who stormed from fourth to first after the race returned from a late red flag, was AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci who motored from 21st to a career-best second in the No. 14 Chevy. Team Penske’s Will Power was on pace for the final podium spot with the No. 12 Chevy, but polesitter Colton Herta snatched third in the final moments with the No. 27 Honda, his best output of the season.
In fact, the day of bests continued with Kyffin Simpson in fifth, a career highlight for the Ganassi sophomore in the No. 8 Honda, and Marcus Armstrong in sixth, his best of the season with the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. Simpson also set the race’s fastest lap, the second time he’s done it in 2025 and the third of his young career.
The 2024 edition of the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit was a messy affair as eight cautions for constant contact consumed 47 of the 100 laps, but the field of 27 drivers were embracing their better angels on Sunday as only five cautions for 19 laps were required to clean up wrecks and retrieve a multitude of missing wheels that fell off from the cars of Devlin DeFrancesco and Callum Ilott.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was abused by the cartoon anvil at Detroit as DeFrancesco retired his three-wheel car, Graham Rahal lost multiple laps with a loose wheel, and Louis Foster caused the lone red flag when the right-front suspension folded inward and caused him to crash into Meyer Shank’s Felix Rosenqvist at unabated speed, which left the Swede with a self-described leg injury that saw him leave sitting on a gurney in an ambulance.
Teams have their first weekend off in a month and return to action June 14-15 at World Wide Technology Raceway.
As it happened
The 100-lap race on the 1.6-mile course fired off with Herta on pole and he had teammate Kirkwood making a move to briefly claim second from Malukas, but Malukas was shuffled back to fifth and Palou took third from Kirkwood as Christian Lundgaard shot to second.
Lap 2 and Kirkwood dives down the inside to take third from Palou as Herta but 0.8s on Lundgaard.
Lap 3 and Kirkwood takes second off Lundgaard as he starts to pursue Herta. Scott McLaughlin was sixth behind Malukas and Rinus VeeKay was in seventh.
Lap 5 and Herta has 1.0s on Kirkwood, 1.8s on Lundgaard, 2.4s on Palou and 2.9s on Malukas.
