Washington (AFP) – Kyle Kirkwood held off Santino Ferrucci over the final laps to win Sunday’s IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix with pole-sitter Colton Herta completing the first all-American podium since 2020. Kirkwood captured his fourth career IndyCar race and second of the year after an April victory at Long Beach and moved into second in the season points chase, 78 back of leader Alex Palou, the Indianapolis 500 winner.
Kirkwood, who started third, won after 100 laps over a 1.645-mile, nine-turn temporary street course in downtown Detroit. All of his IndyCar wins have come on temporary street circuits. The 26-year-old from Florida charged to the finish line despite a damaged left front wing. “It was damaged but it wasn’t causing that much of an issue,” said Kirkwood. “This (car) was unreal all weekend long. There were some challenges out there for sure. We had to pass our way back through a handful of times. It was definitely not a walk in the park especially with that front wing damage. We did lose a little performance but at the end it felt fine.”
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Runner-up Ferrucci enjoyed his career-best finish with Herta next, followed by Australian Will Power and Cayman Islander Kyffin Simpson. Spain’s Palou could not take his sixth win in seven races this season after crashing out, settling for 25th, but led with 311 season points. A crash by Britain’s Callum Ilott sent leader Kirkwood and those just behind him Herta, Power, Palou, and David Malukas — heading for the pit lane with 30 laps remaining. Ferrucci, Simpson, and New Zealand’s Marcus Armstrong — none of whom has won an IndyCar race — stayed out to hold the top spots with Kirkwood just behind after refueling.
Malukas nudged Palou into a tire barrier for a crash that ended his race moments after a lap-28 restart to force another restart with 24 laps remaining. “Somebody hit me from behind. It’s unfortunate,” Palou said. “We were looking good to get to the podium.” Not since 2000 has the Indy 500 winner captured the next IndyCar race as well. Despite left front wing damage, Kirkwood surged past the lead trio, going inside Ferrucci to grab the lead with 22 laps to go. “On restarts the car just came alive,” Kirkwood said.
Power grabbed second from Ferrucci with 17 laps remaining just before Sweden’s Felix Rosenqvist and British rookie Louis Foster crashed into tire barriers, red-flagging the race while the barriers were repaired. Kirkwood surged ahead of Power on a restart with 11 laps to go and Ferrucci overtook the Aussie on the next lap but couldn’t catch Kirkwood. The season’s next race will be in two weeks at Madison, Illinois.
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