Last time out, we saw Alex Palou take not only his first Oval win, but his first Indy 500 victory. Last weekend’s IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix saw the Spaniard struggle however as a myriad of drivers rose to the occasion to try and beat him. In the end, the victor was a familiar face – the only man to beat Palou so far this season: Kyle Kirkwood. Here’s how it happened and the other key takeaways from the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix.
Kirkwood Wins Again!
Kyle Kirkwood is having his best ever start to an IndyCar Season. With his victory in Detroit last weekend, he’s already equalled the most number of wins that he’s achieved in a previous season – two.
His win comes off the back of a terrible weekend last time out at the Indianapolis 500. He finished down in thirty second on that occasion and desperately needed a strong result in Detroit to keep his Championship hopes alive. While he may still be 102 points behind Championship leader Alex Palou, the Andretti Global driver remains the only driver to beat him in 2025.
With ten rounds left of the 2025 season, including the venue for one of those previous wins, Nashville, the Floridian looks like a great contender for the Championship.
Having started from third on the grid, Kirkwood instantly looked like a man with a point to prove when the racing got underway on Sunday. He wasted no time making his way up to first place and once there, never really relinquished it. At the end of the race, while others behind him were using every ounce of their push to pass, Kirkwood out front still had a whopping 52 seconds at his disposal should he have needed it. The end results speaks for itself.
Ferrugi’s Career Best Result
While it was great to see someone other than Alex Palou winning an IndyCar Grand Prix in 2025, it was perhaps even better to see Santino Ferrugi claim second place in Detroit.
The American driver qualified down in twenty first place on Saturday. But by keeping a cool head, avoiding all of the on track drama and his team utilising strategy to perfection, Ferrugi was able to come home with his best career result to date. He’s now less than ten points away from Josef Newgarden in the Driver’s Championship.
Post race, this dream result appeared to come under threat however. During post race inspections, Ferrugi’s car was found to have failed to meet the required driver ballast weight. The car was also found to be 10 pounds over the minimum weight for road and street circuits of 1,785 pounds and competed over the minimum weight requirement on-track. For this breach of the rules, Ferrugi was able to retain his second place finish. But he was fined $25,000 and had to forfeit twenty-five championship points.
Herta Back on the Podium!
Colton Herta finally had a good weekend in 2025. That in itself is cause for celebration. From the start of practice, Herta looked like this might finally be the weekend where everything came together for him. In a lot of ways, it did. On Saturday, he claimed Pole Position and became just the fourth driver to do so in 2025.
During the Grand Prix itself, Herta had to fight hard with a plethora of drivers to retain a place on the podium. While the win alluded him, his last win coming at the season finale in Nashville last year, Herta’s third place finish is his best result of the season. That fact alone showcases what bad luck the Andretti Global driver has been having this year.
His usual pit stop drama was nowhere to be seen as the pit crew managed to perform a consistently wonderful job. His defence manoeuvres on track were spot on too as he managed to keep a very determined Will Power behind him in the closing stages of the race.
Will this be the weekend that acted as a turning point for Herta’s? Let’s hope so.
Palou’s DNF
Alex Palou has been in a whole other stratosphere in 2025. Up until this weekend, his worst finish of the season was second place at Long Beach. But that all changed at the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix.
Qualifying for Sunday’s race in sixth place didn’t spark much hope in his rivals. Everyone is used to the Chip Ganassi driver biding his time throughout a race and pouncing at the most opportune of moments to work his way up the order. But the Spaniard didn’t get the chance to do that this time out. Part way through the race, the narrow nature of the Detroit Street Course came into play when A.J. Foyt driver David Malukas came crashing inadvertently into the back of Palou. With nowhere to go but the wall ahead of him, Palou found himself crashing out of the race.
This DNF continues an occasional tradition of the winner of the Indy 500 not winning the following race. Things will continue to be potentially difficult for Palou next time out too. St. Louis is an Oval Course and until this year’s Indy 500, Palou had never won on such a circuit. Might the fightback for the Championship have just begun?
Nasty Crash for Rosenqvist & Foster
There was plenty of on track drama at the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix. But one incident in particular took the biscuit for the most stand out moment of drama. That was of course the brutal collision between Louis Foster and Felix Rosenqvist.
The former’s car’s suspension broke suddenly, sending Foster hurtling down the track with no way of stopping it. The RLLR driver unfortunately collected the Meyer Shank Racing car of Rosenqvist in the process sending the Swede crashing side on into the barriers.
Foster continued down the escape road all the way to the end where his car crashed into the protective barriers. The race was red flagged as medical staff swarmed onto the scene to ensure that the drivers were OK. Rosenqvist had to be taken away on a stretcher after noting severe pain in his leg after the crash. Aside from this though, both drivers were able to emerge from the crash relatively unharmed.
The crash highlights the vast improvements of the safety equipment in place both on the cars and the circuits themselves. We’re used to some calamitous crashes in IndyCar. But it’s good to see that the measures that have been put in place to eliminate as much risk as possible, are working. That’s a key takeaway from the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix that everyone can be happy about.
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Indy NXT returns June 15th for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500.
Feature Image: Paul Hurley, IndyCar Media Centre
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