Kyle Kirkwood is King on the Streets of Detroit

By Marlee Ressa | @marleeressa @motorsportmarlee

Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood takes the crown as he crossed the checkered flag first in today’s IndyCar race on the streets of Detroit. This is Krikwood’s second win of the season, and he remains the only other driver outside of current Championship leader Alex Palou to win this year.

The Florida native was the quickest all weekend, but a small mistake cost him the pole on Saturday. “I have never been more disappointed with a third in my life,” Kirkwood said on the Fox Broadcast, “I know I threw away a pole, without a doubt.”

After starting the race from third, the No. 27 Andretti team opted for an interesting tire strategy. When pitting for the harder, primary tires, the team put two scuffed tires onto the front of Krikwood’s car and two sticker tires onto the rear. The harder compound tire is more difficult to warm up than the softer, alternate tires. Using the two scuffed tires allowed Kirkwood to get them to temperature more quickly than someone on all fresh primaries.

Following a yellow brought on by a front left tire coming loose on the Prema of Callum Illot, several drivers who had been running towards the back of the pack found themselves in contention for the win. The cars running in the top three became those of Santino Ferruci, Kyffin Simpson, and Marcus Armstrong.

On the first lap of the restart, Alex Palou, who won the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 one weekend ago, found himself in the wall and out of the race. Palou told Fox Sports Journalist Bob Pockrass, “We had a great opportunity to win a race today… it just sucks when you get taken out early on.”

This restart allowed Kirkwood the chance to work his way back to the top. In his maneuver to overtake Simpson, Kirkwood tapped his front wing, causing slight damage to the right. Even with the front wing damaged, the No. 27 managed to overtake for the lead and stay out ahead of Ferruci.

An unexpected suspension failure on Louis Foster’s No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car caused a massive accident between him and Meyer Shank Racing driver Felix Rosenqvist. This led to a red flag procedure with 13 laps to go.

Unable to fix the front wing damage during the red flag, Kirkwood and the Andretti team anxiously awaited the restart.

As the flag went green, Kirkwood sped off, creating a nice gap between himself and those in his pursuit. This included his teammate, Colton Herta, running a few cars behind.

In a huge win for the Andretti Global team, Herta was able to finish the race in third place after he spent those last laps defending against two-time IndyCar Champion Will Power. After a somewhat tumultuous start to the season, Herta was glad to achieve a good result for the team. “I would’ve loved to have won [from pole position],” said the driver of the Gainbridge Honda, “...but with how the season’s gone, I think we are happy with the podium and just need to keep it rolling.”

It was also a massive win for A.J. Foyt Racing as Ferrucci ended the race in second place, which marked his career-best finish. This makes the team's best finish on a street course since Takuma Sato was their driver in 2015.

After hitting the streets of Detroit immediately following the Indy 500, the teams and personnel finally get a week off before regrouping at World Wide Technology Raceway for the Bommarito 500. “It's been a long month,” stated Kirkwood, “It's been a long month for everyone probably here in this room…now we've got an off week, and I hope everyone can go out there and enjoy it as much as possible. I know I will.”

Photo Credit: Penske Entertainment and taken by Joe Skibinski