IndyCar | Race | Gateway | Kirkwood takes third win of 2025 as all Team Penske cars retire - Motorsport

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Round 8 of the 2025 IndyCar season is in the books as the race at St. Louis in Gateway has been completed, view the full report and results below. Will Power started on pole as Team Penske flexed their muscles at Gateway once again.

After Will Power led away, David Malukas went big early, quickly passing the Aussie, McLaughlin and O’Ward on the first lap to take the lead. Conor Daly made up eight spots in the opening four laps as he stormed through to P7.

A caution had to be thrown seconds later as Devlin DeFrancesco lost the rear in turn 1 and crashed out. Siegel, Rahal, Simpson, Abel and Robb boxed for fuel.

On the restart Daly overtook Armstrong for 6th, before clearing Kirkwood and O’Ward to move all the way up to P4.

Ferrucci cleared Ericsson, Palou and Ilott to vault up to P11 from 19th on the grid.

As Daly and O’Ward got checked up by backmarkers, Josef Newgarden pounced and quickly swept past both to get into P4.

It was Malukas, Power, McLaughlin, Newgarden, Daly and O’Ward in the top 6 on lap 40. Alex Palou was a lowly 13th, struggling with understeer.

A second caution was thrown on lap 47 as Will Power ended up with a broken toe link as he hit the wall from 2nd place. The right front tyre gave up and a tyre failure occurred as a replay of the incident was shown.

As the leaders pitted under yellows, Scott McLaughlin jumped David Malukas and took the lead. Newgarden, O’Ward, Daly, Herta, Kirkwood, Armstrong, Ericsson and Rosenqvist completed the top 10. Championship leader Palou was down in 18th.

Christian Lundgaard missed his pit box, reversed and got a drive through penalty for doing that. Rosenqvist got a penalty for an unsafe release. It was upgraded to a stop-go penalty for the Swede as he failed to serve it in time.

Team Penske went 1-2 as Josef Newgarden swept by David Malukas on lap 74 as he got a far better run off turn 2.

Christian Rasmussen went on a tear and ended up in P9 after a fuel fire in the pits for his stop. Unfortunately for the team, his car did not get the full fuel he should have and came in early after making up those eight spots.

As Nolan Siegel delivered some brutal defence against Scott McLaughlin to avoid going a lap down that would ultimately result in a penalty, Josef Newgarden headed for pit road to execute an undercut. It worked perfectly, with David Malukas also gaining a spot on the Kiwi.

Newgarden led Malukas, McLaughlin, O’Ward, Rasmussen (out of sequence), Daly, Kirkwood, Herta, Ferrucci and Armstrong on lap 110. Title leader Alex Palou ran in 13th at this point of the IndyCar Gateway race.

There was a huge accident on lap 130 as Josef Newgarden had a very lucky escape. Louis Foster got high into the marbles. With the Brit’s car broken, he slid down the track. The Team Penske driver had nowhere to go and clouted the RLL car, hitting the inside wall and going upside down. Newgarden was also extraordinarily lucky not to end up on pit road such was the dangerous nature of the accident in the IndyCar Gateway race.

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Christian Rasmussen was put to the back of the drivers on the lead lap as he had to box under caution for fuel. David Malukas and Scott McLaughlin, who were 1-2, both had to drop three places behind the yellows after unsafe rejoins from their pit boxes into the fast lane.

It meant O’Ward led Daly, Kirkwood, Malukas and McLaughlin on the restart. Side-by-side action went on for P1 for four laps before Daly finally cleared the Mexican into turn 1 on lap 154. Malukas passed Kirkwood to move into 3rd.

In a battle for P6, Ferrucci and Herta made contact for a few seconds as they took rubbing is racing to a new level. Eventually the Andretti driver came out on top. As Ferrucci came back through, Rasmussen was on the rampage once again. He passed both to go from 18th to 6th, with very little of it getting shown on the feed.

On lap 190, the Danish rocket continued his stunning show by passing McLaughlin into turn 3 for P5.

Daly came in from the lead but quickly paid the price as the overcut was king. O’Ward jumped to the lead, with Kirkwood getting ahead of Malukas and Daly. In turn 3, Malukas looked to go around the outside but got high in the marbles and nudged the wall. A caution was instantly thrown.

With Scott Dixon having stayed out, he had to wait until pit road opened under caution to come in. As he was a lap clear of the field, it meant he led on the restart.

Dixon held the led as it went green, with Kirkwood managing to clear O’Ward for P2. There was big contact between VeeKay and Malukas and somehow there was no crash as the AJ Foyt driver fell to 11th.

Dixon, Kirkwood, O’Ward, Daly, Rasmussen, McLaughlin, Ferrucci, Rossi, VeeKay and Armstrong was the top 10 with 45 laps to go. Championship leader Alex Palou was a miserable 16th.

On a shocking day for Team Penske, Scott McLaughlin headed for pit road on lap 217 with an issue as something broke on his car. He retired there and then.

In the pit cycle for the top 3, Kyle Kirkwood undercut Scott Dixon, with O’Ward going a lap longer to get the Kiwi.

However, there was almost a big twist. Callum Ilott and Felix Rosenqvist topped up on lap 204 and could try and go to the end.

The Swede took the lead with 11 laps to go as he passed into turn 1. Kyle Kirkwood in 3rd was coming like a steam train after his much later stop.

Unfortunately for Rosenqvist, he has to pit with 8 laps remaining, giving the PREMA driver the lead again. Ilott stretched it three further laps but had to pit for fuel.

Despite lapped traffic at the end, Kyle Kirkwood did a perfect job to win, his third victory of the season. Pato O’Ward and a truly magnificent Christian Rasmussen completed the podium from 25th on the grid.

Dixon, Ferrucci, Daly, VeeKay, Palou, Shwartzman and Armstrong completed the top 10 in a truly remarkable and exciting 260-lap showdown.