4 Winners and Losers from IndyCar's eventful Detroit GP
Kyle Kirkwood took victory at the Detroit GP and ended Alex Palou's streak of race wins. The 2025 Detroit GP was an eventful race full of overtakes, crashes, cautions, and a strategic masterclass.
The drivers and teams reverted to the street spec IndyCars after driving around the oval spec for May in the run-up to the Indy 500. Let's have a look at the winners and losers from the 2025 Detroit GP.
Winners from the 2025 Detroit GP
#1: Kyle Kirkwood
Kyle Kirkwood had not finished inside the Top 5 since his win at the 2025 Long Beach Grand Prix. The Andretti Global driver retired at last weekend's Indy 500 and came back with a spectacular win in Detroit. Kirkwood was one of the favourites coming into the street race.
Kyle Kirkwood topped the first practice session and finished in the Top 3 in the second practice. The Andretti Global driver was on course to take the pole position when a small mistake on the final lap forced him to start P3. Nonetheless, the team and the driver executed the strategy perfectly to take the race lead after the first pitstop, and ran in the effective race to dominate and win.
#2 Santino Ferrucci
The AJ Foyt Racing driver had a poor qualifying session and ended up in P21. However, a good straight call to start the hard primary tires, luck with the strategy, and pitstop timings put Ferrucci in the lead pack. Santino Ferrucci then made the all decisive move on Will Power in the final laps to finish his career best P2.
#3 Kyffin Simpson
Kyffin Simpson had a poor start to the season, finishing outside the Top 10 in the first two races. However, he finished just inside the Top 10 at Long Beach, but that result was followed up by three finishes outside the Top 20 (including the DNF at Sonsio GP and Indy 500).
Simpson made an amazing comeback drive at the Detroit GP. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver started P19, but by virtue of the strategy and cautions, was able to finish inside the Top 5 for the first time this season.
#4 AJ Foyt Racing
The technical partnership with Team Penske is showing the true colours for AJ Foyt Racing, as the team has been impressive in the last couple of races. David Malukas finished P2 at the Indy 500 and followed it up with a P2 start at Detroit GP. While Malukas was not able to convert the Top 3 start into a podium, his teammate Santino Ferrucci made it through the IndyCar grid to finish P2.
Losers from the 2025 Detroit GP
#1: Alex Palou
Alex Palou began his title defence with a couple of wins, followed by a P2 finish at Long Beach. The Spaniard then went on a three-race winning streak, which included the Indy 500 win. Unfortunately, Palou was not able to continue his streak of finishing on the podium and crashed out of the race.
#2 Rinus VeeKay
Rinus VeeKay started in P6 and showed great pace in the Dale Coyne Racing. IndyCar's technical mastermind, Michael Cannon, joined DCR ahead of the race as VeeKay's engineer. However, the Dutchman was not able to convert his good starting position into a top result and was the first driver to crash out of the race.
#3 David Malukas
The AJ Foyt Racing driver showed great pace during the qualifying and started P2. However, the race didn't turn out his way, and the alternate strategy in combination with the timing of cautions put him out of contention for the podium. Malukas finished outside the Top 10.
#4 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Graham Rahal qualified for the Fast Six but started in P11 after the penalty. Unfortunately, an issue with fitting the rear tire put the RLL driver multiple laps down on the leader as he finished P20. Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster crashed out of the race. Foster's suspension broke under heavy braking as he also took Felix Rosenqvist out of the race.