Andretti driver Kyle Kirkwood took home his second win of the season at the IndyCar Detroit GP. He finished ahead of AJ Foyt driver Santino Ferrucci and teammate Colton Herta, who has started from pole position. This marked the first all-American podium since 2020.
Kirkwood discussed his win at a press conference attended by Pit Debrief.
Kirkwood on celebrating IndyCar Detroit GP win
Kirkwood has become known as the “King of the Streets,” having an affinity for driving on street circuits such as Detroit. The Andretti driver expressed his excitement over finally taking home a win in Detroit.
“Huge day in general for Andretti Global and the 27 car. We’ve had a hell of a couple weeks, I’m not going to lie, and this is an exclamation point on everything that we’ve done. Andretti is phenomenal at street courses and it’s so good to capitalize on it.
“I felt pretty robbed of a couple wins here the past couple years where I felt like we definitely should have won and we had pace on everyone. Finally this year we were able to get it done — not from lack of challenge, either. I had to pass some cars out there. I found myself in the fourth, fifth position, I think, a couple times and had to claw my way back.
“Fortunately we had pace to do so, and fortunately I made it stick. It was some low-percentage moves, I’m not going to lie, that I made. But you have to at street courses. Any move you make is low percentage, so fortunately they stuck, and we were able to come home with the win.”
Managing race restarts
The Detroit GP was once again a chaotic race. There were five caution periods and seven DNFs. Kirkwood commented on his strong restarts throughout the race. At the start of the race, Kirkwood lost positions, dropping to P5. But he rapidly climbed his way back to leading the primary strategy group.
“We were really good on restarts for some reason. I couldn’t tell you why. But our pace on restarts was phenomenal. I knew that because of that I had to get by everyone that was in front of me within the first five laps, which I did on the initial start after I got passed by a guy or two, and once again on that restart, and yeah, fortunately it paid off.
“The thought process around it was just take these guys off when opportunities arise, but opportunities came much quicker than I anticipated, and we were able to get them pretty quickly and then get ourselves back into the lead. It worked out really well.”
Palou’s crash and Kirkwood’s championship contentions
Championship leader Alex Palou’s nearly perfect season came to an end at the Detroit GP. AJ Foyt driver David Malukas hit Palou during the third restart, causing him to crash into the barriers and retire. Kirkwood discussed the potential implications of Palou’s crash on his chances at the title.
“This race sometimes brings out the best and worst in some people, and unfortunately he [Palou] — I don’t know exactly what happened to him, but unfortunately for him he ended up in the wall — but it actually helps us a lot in the championship.
“We’re not really still in the hunt, I wouldn’t say. I could imagine. I don’t know what the points actually are, but it at least gives you a taste of, ‘oh, maybe we can claw back at this,’ which is pretty cool.
“I don’t know where we end up in the championship now. I know we were, I think, fifth coming into this weekend and now we’re second.”
Kirkwood now sits third in championship, 102 points behind Palou. Pato O’Ward keeps hold of second position after putting in a strong performance to finish P7 from starting P18.
Kirkwood wins IndyCar Detroit GP with front wing damage
Kirkwood damaged his front wing while trying to overtake Chip Ganassi driver Kyffin Simpson for P2. He remained confident that the damage did not affect the car’s performance.
“I clipped the back of Kyffin [Simpson]. I don’t know if it was the bumps that made him slightly move over. I was too close to him, though, to be honest. I was just popping a little bit too tight to him, and either the bumps pushed me into him or him into me.
“I’m not sure exactly what happened. It wasn’t his fault at all. But yeah, broke the front main plane or the left front main plane. It really didn’t affect the car at all, though. I think our performance was still really good. I might have picked up a little bit of understeer from it and probably lost some downforce, but it wasn’t really enough to affect the car.”
