Andretti Global showed their street course dominance during INDYCAR’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on the 1.645-mile, 9-turn temporary street course. Colton Herta captured the pole, while teammate Kyle Kirkwood won the race by a 3.6-second margin over second-place Santino Ferrucci; Herta finished third.
“We had awesome strategy and pit stops,” exclaimed Kirkwood, who is the only driver besides Alex Palou to win a race this season (also won Long Beach Grand Prix). “We had to work for this one. My hats off to Andretti. The car just came alive on restarts. My front wing was damaged but it wasn’t causing an issue (from contact in trying to pass Kyffin Simpson for second place on Lap 77).
“I was never more disappointed by qualifying third,” continued Kirkwood. “I was on a lap that was about four-tenths quicker than what ended up being the pole, but I hit the wall.
“We’ve always had good race cars here, and Honda continues to give us the power we need, especially at tracks like this where getting off the corner matters. The car was phenomenal. There were some challenges out there. We had to pass our way back through a handful of times. Had to make some low percentage moves but any move on a street course is low percentage. It was definitely not a walk in the park.”
the track, from Turn 9 (at the Kaiser structure) to Turn 1. CREDIT: Penske Entertainment/Joe Skibinski
Drivers could have used a two-pit stop strategy for the 100-lap race but were required to run at least two laps on a new set of the softer, alternate green tires, which degraded much sooner than the primary tires. Twelve drivers started on those alternate tires, planning to pit early, expecting a caution, to switch to primaries (black tires). Most pitted by Lap 13, requiring a three-stop strategy, only to have the first caution come out on Lap 14. Those on primaries pitted around Lap 32 to 36.
There were five caution periods for 19 laps total. The biggest accident occurred when Louis Foster had a right-front suspension failure under braking at the fastest section of the track, 180 mph on the long Jefferson Ave. straight, and ran into the back of Felix Rosenqvist entering Turn 3. Both escaped injury but the incident brought out the red flag so that the walls and tire barriers could be restored.
“The stand was amazing,” said Ferrucci of his strategists and engineers, who had him pit under caution on Lap 15. “Perfect strategy. Obviously got lucky with that yellow (on Lap 67, when he stayed out and moved from 16th to 3rd as most of the field pitted). I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see a red flag. I was really struggling. I couldn’t get the tires to come back to life. Kyle was so fast today. Congratulations to him and his team on this win.”
Herta (L) celebrate in an elevated victory circle. CREDIT: Penske Entertainment/Paul Hurley
Kirkwood’s teammate also joined him on the podium in the Motor City.
“I’m happy to finally get a good result this season,” said Herta. “It’s a weight off my shoulders but I’m disappointed not getting a win, having started on the pole. This is such a crazy race, I’m glad to just survive it.”
Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco started and finished 23rd on the rough and narrow course due to a long pit stop for a rear wheel hub issue. He struggled in qualifying in the colder conditions on Saturday, when it took many laps to get heat in the tires.
“It was a very interesting day,” stated DeFrancesco, who’s from Toronto. “We had a right-rear wheel issue and, overall, it was a difficult day. It’s just a big bummer. I didn’t transfer in qualifying (from the first group). We clearly were not very good, not able to be as good on power down and getting off the corners as Graham (Rahal, teammate who qualified 5th).”
Lundgaard (R) lunges for the lead, passing polesitter Colton Herta (middle right)
entering Turn 3, at the start of the Detroit GP. CREDIT: Penske Entertainment/Chris Owens
Although similar in track length to the Long Beach Grand Prix, which has less than ten manhole covers, Detroit has 264, all of which had to be sealed down. There were the usual elbows out, with 181 passes for position on the very low grip and extremely bumpy surface, making for one of the most exciting races of the season.
David Malukas, driving for AJ Foyt Racing, ran into the back of Alex Palou (in seventh-place) on the Lap 72 restart, entering Turn 1, which took the 109th Indianapolis 500 winner out of contention. Palou finished 25th, earning only five points.
“I was hit from behind and there was not much I could do differently,” explained Palou. “I didn’t have the best car this weekend (qualified 5th). We didn’t have much pace at the beginning (on Friday). But the team made an amazing recovery. I was looking for a podium here.”
Kirkwood is the only driver to challenge Palou, now earning two victories to the Spaniard’s five wins so far in the 17-race NTT INDYCAR season. Palou has 311 points, Pato O’Ward 221, Kirkwood 209, Christian Lundgaard 205, and Will Power 175. Honda (630 points) has now won all seven events to date, leading Chevy (509 points) in the Manufacturer’s title race.
Next up is the World Wide Technology Raceway oval on June 15th, a Sunday evening, in St. Louis, MO.
