Karl Zemlin/IMS Photo
Kirkwood nails strategy game at WWTR for first oval victory
Short-track IndyCar racing, at night, in the Midwest. It doesn’t get much better than what took place under the lights at World Wide Technology Raceway as Kyle Kirkwood won a 260-lap what-just-happened thriller around the 1.25-mile oval with the IndyCar Series’ first prime time Sunday night race on FOX.
Kirkwood withstood intense pressure in the No. 27 Honda after the final restart on the 208th lap as Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward came up 0.5s shy in the No. 5 Chevy and was 0.8s clear of the charging Christian Rasmussen who fired from 25th on the grid to a career-best third in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy.
“The starts and the restarts were big, right?” Kirkwood said. “That was absolutely huge. But we were not too happy with the car yesterday, and we had got some help from the teammates, made the car really good, and went on track with an amazing car. And in the beginning, I really didn't think we had it. But as it got dark and it cooled down, this Honda and this Andretti Global No. 27 Honda just came alive, right? And hats off to these guys. These guys killed it in pit lane.”
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“Everyone at Andretti Global, they deserve this third win on the year,” he continued. “Man, that's incredible. My first oval win. I'm over the moon right now. The ovals have eluded me for a very long time, so it's nice to get that first one off and break that ice.”
O’Ward, who led eight laps, including lap 237, attributed his second-place finish to being slowed behind teammate Nolan Siegel on the last restart.
“I hope it was an amazing show for all you fans,” he said. “It's fantastic to be racing back under the lights here again, and I was really happy with my car just in that last little bit of restart. I think good old Nolan was sleeping a little bit. Gave Kirkwood an opportunity, and I was kind of stuck.”
Rasmussen was easily the most aggressive driver on the property on Sunday and used the second lane to complete 62 total passes – more than anyone – on the way to securing his first IndyCar podium.
“We started 25th in the race,” he said. “But way to turn it around for ECR here today.”
If you tuned into the end of the race and thought that’s how it went from the start, buckle in for a surprise.
Nobody would have predicted the finish-to-be over the first 200 laps as Team Chevy owned all aspects of the race, but then its most competitive runners from Team Penske and AJ Foyt Racing fell out of contention as misfortune or mistakes ruined their respective days. Polesitter Will Power was running second but had a tire failure that caused a crash and ended his race. Josef Newgarden was collateral damage in Louis Foster’s crash which shot the Penske driver into the air and upside down.
Penske’s Scott Mclaughlin was the last remaining hope but retired with a suspected rear suspension failure.
Foyt’s Malukas was immediately fast, led to open the race, and was in the mix for his first win until rocketing out of his pit box and straight into the fast lane – illegally bypassing the slow lane – and was penalized with a drive-through for the infraction, which eventually resulted in a 12th-place finish.
The possibility of a Penske 1-2-3 with Malukas in tow was very real until the cartoon anvils started falling, and that was only part of the story.
Hovering just inside the top 10 as Honda’s best driver for most of the day, Kirkwood made his penultimate pit stop on lap 193, came out ahead of Malukas who’d just stopped, and held his ground on cold tires as they got to Turns 3 and 4. Malukas slid up and lightly touched the wall, which brought out a caution. The timing of the caution meant many drivers would try to save fuel and skip their last stop, and the timing also helped Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon to take the lead.
Returning to green, Dixon held on but Kirkwood was on a mission and chased him down before being the first of the leaders to pit for a splash of fuel and new tires. Returning in sixth, Kirkwood’s undercut worked to perfection as the leaders pitted in succession and by lap 256, he was in the lead and holding O’Ward and Rasmussen behind.
Between Malukas (61), McLaughlin (51), Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly who featured again and led at WWTR before placing sixth (36), and Newgarden (25), the Bowtie led 179 out of the 260 laps, but in the end, Kirkwood and race strategist and stand-in race engineer Dave Syffert pulled off a most improbable victory and extended Honda’s unbroken streak to eight races in 2025 and nine dating back to the last race of 2024 at Nashville.
As it happened
Cars rolled away from pit lane with the exception of Scott McLaughlin who couldn’t get his car to fire. He was eventually successful and retook his position on the front row.
Will Power led the field to green and David Malukas took it in Turn 4 to lead the opening lap.
Lap 3 and Conor Daly moves from P15 to P8.
Lap 4 and Daly takes P7 from Josef Newgarden.
Lap 5 Caution for Devlin DeFrancesco who crashed on his own in Turn 1.
Lap 7 and the running order is Malukas, Power, McLaughlin, Pato O’Ward, Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Armstrong, Daly, Newgarden, Colton Herta, and Felix Rosenqvist.
Lap 11 and championship leader Alex Palou fell from P9 at the start to P12.
Lap 12 restart and Daly takes P6 from Armstrong.
Lap 17 and Newgarden takes P7 from Armstrong.
Lap 18 and Malukas has 0.5s on Power and 1.3s on McLaughlin.
Lap 21 and the lead is up to 0.9s.
Lap 22 and Daly takes P6 from Kirkwood.
Lap 24 and Daly takes P4 from O’Ward.
Lap 25 and Malukas is up by 1.6s on Power.
Lap 30 and Malukas is leading by 2.2s. McLaughlin is 3.1s down in third. Daly is 3.7s back in fourth.
Lap 33 and Malukas has started to lap the field, passing Sting Ray Robb and Graham Rahal.
Lap 37 and Malukas is up 4.5s as Power is struggling to lap the same cars.
Lap 38 and Newgarden uses the slowed cars to fire by O’Ward and Daly to take P4.
Lap 47 and Power is into the wall. Caution. Right-front tire appeared to deflate.
Lap 50 and pit stops are happening. Christian Rasmussen’s car catches fire but extinguishes itself at speed. Christian Lundgaard gets stranded trying to enter his pit stall and sits in the slow lane. He gets into the box after other cars clear out. McLaughlin passes Malukas for P1 exiting the pits.
Lap 58 restart and McLaughlin takes off. Palou is down in P17.
Lap 61 and Lundgaard pits for missing his pit box. Rosenqvist also has a penalty for an unsafe release.
Lap 63 and McLaughlin leads Malukas by 1.0s and Newgarden by 2.2s.
Lap 66 and Rosenqvist has not reported to pit lane. His drive-through has been increased to a stop-and-go.
Lap 74 and Newgarden passes Malukas for P2.
Lap 78 and Rasmussen is up from a P25 start to P11. The kid is absolutely fearless.
Lap 86 and Rasmussen pits early. Short fill on the last stop.
Lap 90 and McLaughlin leads Newgarden by 1.0s.
Lap 100 and Newgarden pits as he and McLaughlin were about to hit heavy traffic.
Lap 101 and Malukas pits from third.
Lap 102 and McLaughlin pits. Slight delay in leaving, maybe one second sitting idle.
Lap 104 and Newgarden and Malukas sweep by. McLaughlin goes from P1 to P3.
Lap 105 and Palou pits. He and the other Ganassi cars are nowhere today. Nolan Siegel is given a drive-through for blocking McLaughlin while he was about to be lapped. Attempted payback for Detroit? If so, he ruined his own race by doing so.
Lap 108 and Newgarden leads Malukas by 2.3s and McLaughlin by 4.9s. O’Ward in fourth is 5.5s back and the off-schedule Rasmussen is P5, 10.0s back.
Lap 113 and Newgarden is lapping up to P14.
Lap 125 and Newgarden leads Malukas by 5.4s and McLaughlin by 8.3s. Kirkwood, the best Honda-powered driver, is P7 and 18.0s down as the Chevy dominance is on display.
Lap 130 and halfway. Newgarden is up 6.1s on Malukas. Massive crash for Newgarden who’s upside down at the start/finish line. Louis Foster is involved. Newgarden climbs out on his own. Foster climbs out slowly and sits on the sidepod. Foster got into the wall, slid down across the track and into the pass of an innocent Newgarden. Caution.
Lap 142 and the pits open. Malukas keeps the lead ahead of McLaughlin, O’Ward, Rasmussen, and Daly. The safety team is finished replacing the foam blocks on the inside SAFER Barrier section hit by Foster and Newgarden.
Lap 148 and McLaughlin is ordered to give up three positions to P5 for improper lane usage for going from his pit box straight out to the high lane, which caused O’Ward to brake and avoid behind hit by McLaughlin. Malukas is given an identical penalty and will drop from P1 to P4 for the restart. O’Ward is the new leader.
Lap 150 and it’s O’Ward being challenged by Daly. Kirkwood is P3.
Lap 152 and Daly isn’t giving up. Malukas takes P3 from Kirkwood.
Lap 154 and Daly take P1 from O’Ward.
Lap 168 and Daly has 0.8s over O’Ward and 3.6s on Malukas.
Lap 170 and the top 10 is Daly, O’Ward, Malukas, Kirkwood, McLaughlin, Herta, Santino Ferrucci, Armstrong, Palou, and Rinus VeeKay.
Lap 182 and O’Ward is on Daly’s gearbox.
Lap 190 and Rasmussen takes P5 from Mclauglin as Daly pits from the lead.
Lap 191 and O’Ward is in.
Lap 192 and Malukas pits.
Lap 193 and O’Ward and Malukas get ahead of Daly.
Lap 195 and Kirkwood pits and returns in front of Malukas, fights him hard in Turns 3 and 4, and Malukas slides into the wall, but barely makes contact. Caution.
Lap 206 and the field is being reordered after the leaders pitted ahead of Scott Dixon, who went a lap up, then pitted and took the lead.
Lap 208 restart and Dixon leads O’Ward and Kirkwood. VeeKay and Malukas make contact in Turn 2.
Lap 210 and Kirkwood takes P2 from O’Ward.
Lap 214 and Dixon’s lead over Kirkwood is down to 0.3s.
Lap 218 and McLaughlin’s in the pits and his crew are looking at the back of the car. The cartoon anvil has wiped out Team Penske and the Ganassi team that was nowhere is leading. But Palou is nowhere at the moment in P15, FWIW.
Lap 221 and McLaughlin climbs out of his car.
Lap 225 and Palou pits.
Lap 227 and Dixon is slowed by Rahal and Kirkwood nearly gets by.
Lap 229 and Daly pits.
Lap 233 and the top 10 is Dixon, Kirkwood, O’Ward, Ferrucci, VeeKay, Shwartzman, Ericsson, Ilott, Rosenqvist and Siegel.
Lap 234 and Kirkwood pits for fuel and new tires.
Lap 237 and Dixon leads O’Ward by 0.8s. Dixon pits for fuel and new tires.
Lap 238 and O’Ward pits for the same.
Lap 241 and Kirkwood takes the lead, O’Ward is P2 and Dixon is P3 when those ahead pit, provided they pit.
Lap 242 and the leaders are Ferrucci, Shwartzman, Ericsson, Ilott, Rosenqvist, Kirkwood, O’Ward, Rasmussen, and Dixon.
Lap 245 and Ferrucci, then Shwartzman pit.
Lap 246 and Ericsson leads Ilott, Rosenqvist, Kirkwood, and O’Ward.
Lap 247 and Ilott leads ahead of Rosenqvist, Kirkwood, O’Ward, Rasmussen, Ferrucci, Dixon, Ericsson, and Daly.
Lap 251 and Rosenqvist takes P1 from Ilott.
Lap 253 and Rosenqvist pits. Ilott leads and the gap to Kirkwood is down to 2.0s.
Lap 256 and Ilott pits from the lead. Kirkwood to P1.
Lap 257 and it’s Kirkwood, O’Ward, Rasmussen, Dixon, Ferrucci, and Daly.
Lap 260 and Kirkwood is a first-time oval winner in IndyCar. Two in a row for Kirk. What an absolutely wild race.
Marshall Pruett
The 2026 season marks Marshall Pruett's 40th year working in the sport. In his role today for RACER, Pruett covers open-wheel and sports car racing as a writer, reporter, photographer, and filmmaker. In his previous career, he served as a mechanic, engineer, and team manager in a variety of series, including IndyCar, IMSA, and World Challenge.
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