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Motorsport

Winners and losers from IndyCar’s unique, chaotic Detroit GP street circuit race

Kyle Kirkwood IndyCar Alex Palou Felix Rosenqvist Detroit Penske Entertainment David Malukas Devlin DeFrancesco Louis Foster Colton Herta

With the Month of May complete, the NTT IndyCar Series ventured north to kick off June on the streets of Detroit.

If anyone thought that meant a return to caution-free, procedural races, then they were in for a surprise. Sunday’s race was hit with multiple yellow flags, causing strategies that ultimately shook up the final running order.

General view, overlooking the circuit’s unique ‘split’ pit lane (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

In the end, the same street course dominator from Long Beach rolled to victory lane. However, the path from Colton Herta’s well-deserved pole position to Kyle Kirkwood taking the checkered flag was much more eventful, leaving a host of different storylines to touch on leaving Motown.

Here are the winners and losers from the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

Winner: Kyle Kirkwood controls another street circuit showdown

Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

What more can you say about Kyle Kirkwood and the No. 27 Andretti Global team when it comes to street circuits? The Floridian bounced back from a disappointing third-place qualifying effort and marched to his fourth street circuit win and second of 2025, following a dominant drive in Long Beach.

Kirkwood was rapid on the streets of Detroit, particularly on restarts. A varied race, broken front wing and strategies that forced him to overtake couldn’t keep Kirkwood from securing yet another big victory.

If Alex Palou’s the dominator everywhere else, then Kirkwood is establishing himself as the driver to beat when street circuits come around.

Winners (and one Loser): Keeping the status quo… Sort of

David Malukas, A. J. Foyt Enterprises (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

Okay, so on paper, not much changed with the podium of Sunday’s race. Two Andretti Global stars were split by an A.J. Foyt Racing underdog in both qualifying and the race. But it took quite a bit to make that come true.

First off, let’s get the bad news out of the way. David Malukas’ promising weekend came unglued in the second-half of Sunday’s race. His No. 4 Chevrolet dropped from second to fifth on the opening lap, but he’d generally stayed in contention until the final set of pit stops under caution.

It was on the ensuing restart that Malukas made his race-changing error, slamming into Alex Palou from behind and nosing him into the tire barrier. That led to an avoidable contact penalty that ultimately relegated the Wisconsinite to a 14th-place result.

Luckily for the Foyt gang, the caution that preceded the error set up teammate Santino Ferrucci for a shock result. Having already pitted under green, Ferrucci stayed out and inherited the lead.

Neither he nor pole-sitting Andretti teammate Colton Herta had anything for the rapid Kyle Kirkwood in the end. But Ferrucci and Herta wrapped up the podium to give their organizations results they could be proud of.

Loser (but Winner for IndyCar): Alex Palou finally looks human

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

It was easy to picture Sunday’s race as a foregone conclusion based on the trends entering the weekend. Palou was obviously going to qualify well and surge to the lead when it counted, right?

Not this time.

The Indianapolis 500 winner qualified a respectable sixth and rose into the top-three through the opening corners, but ultimately lacked the pace to chase down the frontrunners in Detroit. It looked like the Spaniard was going to settle for a finish around the back-half of the top-five, but Palou’s day was undone when he was clambered into from behind by David Malukas on a mid-race restart.

Even with the awful result, Palou’s still sitting pretty. His points lead still sits a 78 points over Kirkwood, leaving the Chip Ganassi Racing ace as the dominant championship favorite if catastrophe doesn’t find his No. 10 Chevrolet continuously moving forward.

But for at least one week, IndyCar got the chance to highlight other stars and focus on different storylines. That’s good for a series trying to grow its driver into brand names with FOX.

Loser: Early chaos takes out contenders

Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank Racing, Marcus Armstrong, Meyer Shank Racing (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

If anyone was worried about the caution-free trends from before Indianapolis continuing in Detroit, they didn’t have to wait long to get their answer.

It took just 14 laps for the race to see its first full-course yellow, when Felix Rosenqvist went for a spin into the tire barrier while trying to chase down the frontrunners. Rosenqvist had closed up on the leaders after pitting to get rid of his alternate tires earlier than anyone else at the conclusion of lap 6, but the spin kept him out of contention.

The drama didn’t end there. Devlin DeFrancesco was caught up in the incident and fell to the back of the field. But minutes later his No. 30 Honda was seen slowed before it lost a tire to bring out another caution flag.

In-between those two unfortunate breaks for DeFrancesco, Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel made a strong impression as he surged past the just-pitted Colton Herta in a net-lead-changing moment that opened the door for Kyle Kirkwood to pass him as well. But on the first restart, Siegel was sent for a spin from the trailing Scott McLaughlin, who’d just pitted under the prior yellow.

Siegel and DeFrancesco lost laps as a result of their incidents and left Detroit with finishes of 19th and 23rd. McLaughlin continued on, but was issued a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact and knocked out of winning contention. He ended the day a disappointing 12th.

Winner: Early stops pay dividends for Simpson, Armstrong

Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

Ferrucci was the star of the drivers that were fortunate enough to pit before Ilott’s caution allowed them to cycle through to the front of the field. But the two drivers that joined him were nearly as fortunate.

Simpson and Armstrong couldn’t fend off the frontrunners in the run to the checkered flag, but the duo managed their fuel and tires well to take finishes of fifth and sixth, respectively. The top-five was a huge result for Simpson, salvaging a day where he’d rolled off 19th. Armstrong’s wasn’t as much of a comeback - he’d started ninth - but it served as the only highlight on a difficult day for Meyer Shank Racing.

Loser: Foster, Rosenqvist take a wild ride

A scary moment for Felix Rosenqvist and Louis Foster. #DetroitGP pic.twitter.com/GSc6c19kVB
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) June 1, 2025

Ouch.

Louis Foster and Felix Rosenqvist were each having decent - if unmemorable - races in Detroit heading into the closing stages. Foster had shown promise, but lacked the pace of the frontrunners. Rosenqvist was doing what he could to rally from an early shunt.

Neither driver was prepared for what happened next. Foster suffered a suspension failure with 17 laps to go, slammed into Rosenqvist from two spots back and send both drivers careening into turn 3.

Rosenqvist ultimately got the worst of the incident, slamming the turn 3 tire barrier and complaining of leg pain after the accident. Thankfully, the Swede appears to be okay. Meyer Shank Racing shared on social media that Rosenqvist was taken by stretcher to the infield care center, where he was seen and released before completing his IndyCar evaluation.

Loser: A wheelie bad day

Devlin Defrancesco, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

DeFrancesco wasn’t the only one to lose a wheel during Sunday’s festivities. With final stops getting ready to kick off on lap 67, Prema Racing’s Callum Ilott came off pit road and immediately lost a wheel, clattering into the tire barrier and causing a caution that took any strategy out of the closing stint.

No major safety issues came out of the two lost wheels in Detroit. But few on-track issues can cause a greater potential risk to spectators. This is an issue IndyCar’s going to need to review leaving the Motor City.

Graham Rahal nearly suffered the same fate, his pit crew having issues removing a wheel nut before struggling to put one on during his first stop. Thankfully, the Ohioan caught it and avoided catastrophe, but the issue left him three laps down in 20th at race’s end.

Loser: Rinus runs out of luck

Rinus Veekay, Dale Coyne Racing (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

With veteran engineer Michael Cannon back in the fold and a strong seventh-place qualifying effort, Rinus VeeKay and Dale Coyne Racing rolled into Sunday’s race with cause for optimism. But much like Detroit’s own Pistons basketball team, those vibes didn’t translate when it counted.

Veekay’s promising Detroit run was undone just six laps into the scheduled 100, when his No. 18 Honda lost power. That proved to be the end of his day, leaving the Netherlands native last in 27th when the checkered flag flew.

Winner: One lucky bird

🐦 Alex Palou just saved a bird. #DetroitGP #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/tqfuwHPSbi
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 31, 2025

Alex Palou is vicious to his competition on the race track, but the Spaniard proved Saturday that he’s no killer.

The dominant championship favorite was heading onto the racing surface during the final pre-qualifying practice on Saturday morning when he found a small bird dead ahead of his No. 10. Luckily for the bird (and any animal-loving viewers), Palou saw the creature ahead and managed to swerve around it.

Palou did technically commit a line infraction to make the dodge. But race control didn’t seem to mind - a trend of the early weekend, as it turned out. Because…

Loser: Power goes unpenalized for Detroit shove

Will Power, Team Penske, Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

On face value, Friday’s unique run-in between Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood was more cool than anything else.

Power was approaching Kirkwood in the weekend’s opening practice session when the pair came together, Kirkwood having checked up behind the slowed David Malukas ahead of him. Seemingly frustrated, Power locked onto Kirkwood’s tail and pushed the Long Beach winner past Malukas and into the ensuing corner, where he shot up the track and allowed Power through.

“I came around, and he slowed up in the middle and made contact,” Power said. “So, I thought, ‘Well, I may as well get a gap now,’ so I just pushed him past the car in front, just moved him out of the way and got a really nice gap.”

Will Power, Team Penske (Photo by: Penske Entertainment)

In the end, neither driver was too upset about the incident. Kirkwood admitted it was “the most absurd thing I’ve had happen to me at a racetrack,” but was largely unbothered after topping the charts in the session. The pair were seen laughing about the incident together on Saturday morning.

That said, there was arguably a miss from race control. Power somehow avoided any unavoidable contact penalty for some of the most avoidable contact imaginable. But as was reported on the official broadcast, he may have suffered a worse fate than an on-track penalty — he was given a new nickname by his fellow drivers:“Will Plower”.