Kyle Kirkwood maintained his second place in the 2026 IndyCar standings with a second place at the Detroit GP. It was a sterling race for the Andretti Autosport driver from P6 at the start. He would lead five laps and challenge for the lead late. After the race Kirkwood plainly said of the afternoon: “it was a good race.”
“I wish we had another opportunity or two to be able to try and pass Palou there. I think the yellows kind of hindered that. Yeah, overall good day. You can’t be very upset with starting sixth and finishing second. We did all the right things. Pit stops were great, strategy was great. I kind of made the decision to run primes when we did, which I think was probably the right call in hindsight. I don’t know what we could have done better.”
Lap 67 yellow flag a turning point in Detroit GP
Those primary tyres were used on Kirkwood’s middle stint, pitting on lap 34 and allowing him to stay out a few extra laps as Palou came in for his final stop five laps before Kirkwood’s. The final stops were shaped by a caution on lap 67 after contact between Santino Ferrucci and Rinus VeeKay. Palou had pitted on lap 64, while Kirkwood came in during the full course yellow, on lap 69.
It was a stop that would have likely been made just before the safety car came out under the just-changed caution procedure. When the race went green, Kirkwood quickly moved back up the order, helped along a few laps later when Mick Schumacher and David Malukas got together to bring out a fourth yellow on lap 73, catching Palou before the final caution came after Ferrucci’s car was stopped at turn 4 on lap 80.
Kirkwood defends previous full-course yellow procedure
After the Detroit GP Kirkwood was critical of Indycar’s push to change the caution procedure for the rest of 2026. After Alexander Rossi was left stranded on the main straight during the Indy GP, IndyCar announced that pit windows would not be taken into account when bringing out the safety car.
“Two yellows out caught me out fighting for the lead, where we almost overcut Palou and then went to make a pass on him. Yellow comes out right when I have a run on him, so I was pretty disappointed with it. But I understand their position. You guys all called for yellows, so they’re going to throw yellows.”
“There’s a reason we had the rule in place–not the rule but the procedure in place. If a car is stopped and he’s in safe position you leave it green. We can’t just race thinking there might be a caution. That’s not the smart way to race. You’ve got to race your race as if it’s going to be green, which we’ve had a lot of green races in recent years. It would be ridiculous to handcuff yourself to a strategy because you’re hoping on a caution. That’s what guys from mid-pack back do, not the leaders.”
Looking to defend 2025 Bommarito win, Kirkwood optimistic going forward
Fortunately for Kirkwood, there are no changes to the oval caution procedures as they head to World Wide Technology Raceway this weekend. 62 points out of first place, he is the defending race winner and will have his sights set on bridging the gap to Palou.
“Think about how much he’s closed in on me or how fast he closed in on me in a few races. If we have the run that he’s had in the middle part of the year here, it would be very possible for us to catch up. If we have a good weekend next weekend–that was a track like Ganassi struggled at in recent years. Maybe they get better, I don’t know. But there’s a lot of good races on our schedule that I still think we can catch up. It’s not done and lost by any means. He was about 50 points behind us I think at one point. It’s very possible still. What are we, eight through, 10 to go? There’s a crazy amount of races left.”
