IndyCar News: Kirkwood holds off Ferrucci to win Detroit GP

He won on the streets of Long Beach, and today, Andretti Global Honda driver Kyle Kirkwood did it again on the streets of the Motor City, winning the 2025 Chevrolet Detroit GP presented by Lear.  The American kept the the number of race winners this season to just two, him and Alex Palou.

Kirkwood was super pleased with his win today and commented on the accomplishment.

“A huge day in general for Andretti Global and the 27 car. We’ve had a hell of a couple of 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 great 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, and 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, so 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.”

AJ Foyt’s Santino Ferrucci passed Penske Racing’s Will Power after the restart with 10 laps to go to take 2nd. Ferrucci had immense pressure from Colton Herta but held on to finish 4 seconds behind Kirkwood.

Polesitter Colton Herta had a fierce battle with Power and took the final podium position, 5 seconds behind Kirkwood.

Will Power settled for 4th, 5.4s behind Kirkwood.

Kyffin Simpson rounded out the top 5 for Chip Ganassi Racing, 6.2s behind Kirkwood.

Championship points leader Alex Palou had a slight nudge from David Malukas after a restart on Lap 72 and the No 10 DHL Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing went into the tires in Turn 1, ending his day and giving him his first DNF of the season.   The aggresive AJ Foyt Enterpises driver was given a stop and go penalty for Avoidable Contact.

On Lap 83, Louis Foster’s suspension collapsed, possibly because the track is so bumpy that it could break a race car. Foster was just a passenger at high speed, and he went straight on at the end of the long back straight at Turn 3 , taking Felix Rosenqvist with him.

 Foster was seen by the IndyCar Medical Director, Dr. Julia Vaizer, at the track  and released after the incident.  Rosenqvist was taken to a local hospital for a complete evaluation and was later released.

 On Lap 87, the Series declared a Red Flag and all cars entered pit lane for a 18 minute stoppage as volunteer track workers repaired the concrete barriers in Turn 3 and debris was cleaned off the track.

The race was restarted on Lap 89 and Kirkwood led the field to the checkered flag.

There were other penalties in a race marred with pit stop and wheel nut issues.  Four teams were issued post race monetary fines for having violated rule  7.11.1.13, Equipment out of the Box.  Prema Racing for car 83, Juncos Hollinger Racing for car 76, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing for car 30 and Andretti Global for car 28.

Colton Herta

Herta was the pole sitter today and was asked his thoughts on the first clean lap of the race.

“The idea was to pack everybody up as much as I could. I’d like to say it was for the fans, but it was to try to stop that from happening and have to deal with restarts as the leader.
I figured if everybody is packed up, everyone would be moving slower into Turn 1 and it would be harder to create chaos, and it seemed like it worked.”

“Yes, I would have loved to win. It does feel bad when you start first and you lose positions. But with how our season has gone, I think we’re happy with the podium, and we just need to keep it rolling.”

Detroit GP Race Start

Indy NXT: Hauger Runs Away from Chaos To Win

Dennis Hauger quickly figured out the best way to avoid potential and absolute chaos Sunday in the INDY NXT by Firestone Detroit Grand Prix – stay out front.

Pole sitter Hauger, from Norway, led all 45 laps of the race on the streets of downtown Detroit in the No. 28 Rental Group car for his fourth victory in five races this season in the INDYCAR development series. He held off the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car of 2024 series Rookie of the Year Caio Collet by 1.0460 seconds in a one-lap dash for the checkered flag after a restart at the end of Lap 44.

SEE: Race Results

“The tires, they cool down really quickly, so that last lap was sketchy,” Hauger said. “I think I heated up the tires nicely, and we got a good gap after the back straight.

“Super happy with that. We kept it clean, and we got a good win today.”

Hauger expanded his series lead to 38 points over fellow rookie teammate Lochie Hughes, who is the only other driver to win a race this season.

Rookie Juan Manuel Correa earned his career-best finish of third in the No. 39 HMD Motorsports car. His previous best result was 14th in the second race of the Indianapolis road course doubleheader last month.

Series veteran Josh Pierson completed a solid day for HMD Motorsports, which fielded the cars that finished second, third and fourth, with a fourth-place result in the team’s No. 16 machine. Hughes rallied from a late pit stop due to a damaged front wing to round out the top five in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car.

Just six of the 20 cars in the race finished on the lead lap, as the tight confines of the nine-turn, 1.645-mile temporary circuit on the streets of downtown Detroit induced chaos nearly from the green flag.

At the start, Hauger and Hughes raced side by side into the first turn, with Hauger clinging to the top spot. In Turn 4 on the same lap, the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy car of Myles Rowe was sent into a spin due to rear contact from the No. 17 car of teammate Callum Hedge.

That incident triggered a caution period due to a bottleneck that blocked the track, leading to an accordion effect of collisions involving nine cars and causing significant damage to many.

Hauger held steady on the restart on Lap 3 and gradually eased away from Hughes and Andretti Global teammate Salvador de Alba in the No. 27 Grupo Indi machine.

De Alba passed Hughes for second place on Lap 5 and stayed within four-tenths of a second of Hauger by Lap 10.

But Hauger expanded his lead to 1.5 seconds by Lap 19 as de Alba, Hughes, Collet, and Correa dueled – often side by side – for second through fifth. There was some contact, and the front wings of Hughes’s and de Alba’s cars were damaged.

The wing damage, which also included rubbing a deep groove into his right front Firestone Firehawk tire, forced de Alba to pit from second place on Lap 24. Hauger had all but checked out up front by then, ahead by 6.5 seconds.

Hughes’ front-wing damage compromised his car’s performance, and Collet passed him for second on Lap 38. Hughes was forced to pit for a front wing change on Lap 39 from third place.

It looked like Hauger was going to canter to the checkered flag, as his lead had reached double digits by Lap 40. But Jordan Missig spun exiting Turn 2 on Lap 41 in the No. 48 Abel Motorsports car, triggering the second and final caution of the race and erasing Hauger’s big lead.

The field lined up for a final restart and one-lap shootout at the end of Lap 44, but Hauger got a big jump at the green and never was threatened by Collet or Correa

2025 Chevrolet Detroit GP Results

Detroit GP Race Statistics
Detroit GP Winner’s average speed: 82.022 mph
Time of race: 02:00:20.0264
Margin of victory: 3.5931 seconds
Cautions: 5 for 19 laps
Detroit GP Lead changes: 12 among 10 drivers

Detroit GP Lap Leaders:
Herta, Colton 1 – 11
McLaughlin, Scott 12 – 14
Rasmussen, Christian 15 – 35
Foster, Louis 36
Dixon, Scott 37 – 38
Kirkwood, Kyle 39 – 49
O’Ward, Pato 50 – 52
Rosenqvist, Felix 53 – 54
Kirkwood, Kyle 55 – 69
Power, Will 70
Ferrucci, Santino 71 – 78
Kirkwood, Kyle 79 – 100

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Point Standings: Palou 311, O’Ward 221, Kirkwood 209, Lundgaard 205, Power 175, Rosenqvist 175, Dixon 173, McLaughlin 164, Herta 157, Ferrucci 144, Armstrong 131, Newgarden 126, Malukas 126, Rossi 124, Rahal 115, VeeKay 110, Rasmussen 102, Simpson 97, Ericsson 96, Daly 96, Siegel 93, Shwartzman 79, Robb 78, Foster 76, DeFrancesco 71, Ilott 50, Abel 40, Takuma Sato 36, Helio Castroneves 20, Ed Carpenter 16, Jack Harvey 12, Ryan Hunter-Reay 10, Kyle Larson 6, Marco Andretti 5.

Lucille Dust reporting live from Detroit