IndyCar
Kirkwood Earns First Career Oval Victory in WWTR Thriller
INDYCAR Communications
MADISON, Il. (June 15, 2025) – Nobody can call Kyle Kirkwood just a street-circuit specialist anymore.
Kirkwood used pace found with help from his teammates and masterful strategy in a chaotic, exciting race to win the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Sunday night at World Wide Technology Raceway.
It was the fifth career victory for Kirkwood and career-best third win this season. But most importantly to Kirkwood, it was his first career oval victory after four wins on street circuits.
“My first oval win; I’m over the moon right now,” Kirkwood said. “Ovals have eluded me for a very long time, so it’s nice to get that first one and break that ice.
“An oval win and a road course win is what I wanted. I didn’t want people just to think of me as a street course guy or else they’ll just have me going to street courses. A little bit of job security there. This is a big one, a big one for the guys. This is huge, massive.”
The podium was filled with three INDY NXT by Firestone champions. Kirkwood drove his No. 27 Siemens Honda fielded by Andretti Global to victory by .5398 of a second over Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Christian Rasmussen finished a career-best third in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet after starting 25th, making 62 on-track passes.
Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon finished fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, his best result since he placed second in the season opener in March at St. Petersburg.
Santino Ferrucci continued the recent upswing of A.J. Foyt Enterprises as he produced his third straight top-five finish this season in the No. 14 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet.
The 260-lap race, in which 14 of the 27 drivers led, came down to an intriguing gambit between two fuel strategies and navigating thickets of traffic over the last 50 laps. There were 254 passes for position, tying the series record for WWTR set last year.
Dixon, a master of saving fuel, was the last car not to stop during the second-to-last pit cycle and took the lead on Lap 194. Then David Malukas brushed the Turn 4 wall on Lap 196 in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, triggering the fourth and final caution of the race. Dixon cruised behind the pace car in the lead, which allowed him to save more fuel in a possible attempt to need to make just one more pit stop.
Then Dixon stopped when the pits opened on Lap 200 and stayed in the lead due to his one-lap gap before the stop. On the restart on Lap 207, Dixon led O’Ward, Kirkwood and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet.
Kirkwood passed O’Ward and stalked Dixon, pressing him to use more fuel, but couldn’t pass. Andretti Global then called Kirkwood to the pits for his last stop on Lap 233.
Dixon and strategist Mike Hull knew “The Iceman” couldn’t stretch one tank of fuel for 60 laps without significantly more caution laps, so Dixon pitted on Lap 236 and handed the lead to O’Ward.
O’Ward made his final stop on Lap 238, with Ferrucci taking the top spot. When Dixon, Kirkwood and O’Ward cycled through their final stops, Kirkwood ended up the leader among that trio due to speedy work by his Andretti Global pit crew.
Ferrucci led a group of four cars that still had to make their final stop, all running ahead of Kirkwood, O’Ward and Dixon. But Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Fresh Connect Central Honda of Andretti Global, Callum Ilott in the No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet and Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian all pitted from the lead by Lap 256, handing the lead back to Kirkwood. He never trailed thereafter despite pressure from O’Ward.
“The starts and the restarts were big,” Kirkwood said. “We were not too happy with the car yesterday, and we got some help from the teammates and made the car really good. In the beginning, I really didn’t think we had it, but as it got dark and it cooled down, this No. 27 Andretti Global Honda just came alive.”
NTT P1 Award winner Will Power crashed in Turn 4 on just the fourth lap due to a tire puncture on his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. That was the portent of a tough night for Team Penske, which has a record nine wins in this event.
Five-time WWTR winner Josef Newgarden crashed out of the race while leading on Lap 130 in a frightening collision with rookie Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Foster brushed the wall in Turn 4, damaging his steering, and careened into the path of the onrushing Newgarden, who hit and then climbed Foster’s No. 45 Droplight/Desnuda Tequila Honda before landing upside-down on its roll hoop and aeroscreen, showering sparks. Both drivers were unhurt.
Two-time WWTR pole winner Scott McLaughlin, who led 51 laps, was eliminated on Lap 216 after a mechanical problem in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet.
While Kirkwood joked in victory lane about this win providing him with job security, that’s the least of his concerns so far in his breakout season. Kirkwood and points leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing (five victories) remain the only drivers to win in the eight races so far this season. Honda also stayed unbeaten as an engine manufacturer in the series this season.
Palou’s championship lead over O’Ward was trimmed from 90 to 73 points after Palou finished eighth in the No. 10 Ridgeline Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Kirkwood is third, two points behind O’Ward and 75 behind Palou.
The next race is the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America on Sunday, June 22. Live race coverage from the 4.014-mile road course starts at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network.
MONTEREY, CA (September 6, 2026) – Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi Racing are celebrating their 2026 NTT IndyCar Series Championship following the season finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Palou started eighth and finished second in Sunday’s race after clinching the title following last week’s 10th place finish in the second race at The Milwaukee Mile.
“One for the thumb,” said Team Owner Chip Ganassi, referring to Palou’s fifth championship ring in an obvious homage to a familiar football refrain around Pittsburgh.
“Incredible,” Palou said. “I owe everything to this team. So proud of this team. It is great to have another championship and ready for the next one.”
Palou’s title is his fourth straight, matching a feat for the team from 1996-1999.
“I’ve been saying it for years now, I cannot still believe the position I am,” said Palou. “The opportunity to start every single year with the chances and the best team around me and best partners to fight for wins and championships.”
Palou finished the season with 6-wins, 8-poles, 7-podiums, 12-Top 5’s, 15-Top 10’s and 631 laps led.
“Last year was magical,” reflected Palou. “I thought it could not be repeated. We did not repeat it, unfortunately, but we were close. We were like really, really close. Obviously last year we were able to win the 500 and the championship. If I didn’t compare it to last year, this year was just insane. Was so fun.”
CGR Team Manager Barry Wanser, who has been with the team for over 25-years, talked about what makes Palou a special talent.
“I just think his ability to constantly learn and take advantage of the resources that we have at Chip Ganassi Racing,” said Wanser, who credited the men and women behind the scenes at CGR. “Alex can’t perform as well as he does without such a great team behind him. The engineering department certainly has knocked it out of the park again with some great cars. Certainly in the pits has been amazing this year. Alex is just impressive. Very awesome.”
Ganassi, whose team ran off four straight title with Jimmy Vasser (1996), the late Alex Zanardi (’97 & ’98) and Juan Montoya (’99), refuses to take credit for the team’s success, which starts with the team mantra, ‘One team, One goal’.
“When I started the team, I wanted to have a team that I would want to drive for,” explained Ganassi. “That’s kind of always the way I looked at it. It takes a lot of people to make this stuff happen. It’s one team. We all work together. We’re all trying to win. It’s open book with us all the time across the board with all the drivers, all the teams.”
Palou’s four titles in a row by a driver match the only other driver to do it, Sebastien Bourdais.
“We’re in the midst of a generational thing here, a generational driver,” said Ganassi. “Four in a row has been done before, but five out of six hasn’t been done before. That’s something that’s kind of unprecedented. We’re in the midst of that right now. It’s not over!”
MONTEREY, CA (September 6, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin and the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet are back in Victory Lane following a dominating performance at the Mission Foods Monterey Grand Prix at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
McLaughlin, who started on the pole position, ended a 2-year win drought leading 87 of 90-laps en route to his 8th-career NTT IndyCar Series victory.
“Really proud to get our first win together on a road course where the last couple years we probably struggled at the most,” said McLaughlin of his new engineer Raul Prados. “What a great way to end the season. We have a lot of hard work to do over the off-season to come back stronger, combat against the 10 (Alex Palou).”
Palou started second in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda that paid tribute to CGR Champion and Alum, the late Alex Zanardi, who passed away earlier this year. Palou settled in behind McLaughlin but couldn’t match the pace or tire wear of the No. 3.
“We started on used alternates and we kind of survived, but then we went on an another used alternates,” said Palou, who finished eighth. “We, like, killed ourselves there.”
Despite the eighth place finish Palou, who clinched his fifth Series Championship in six years last week at Milwaukee, says he is as lucky as they come.
“Obviously last year we were able to win the 500 and the championship,” explained Palou. “If I didn’t compare it to last year, this year was just insane.”
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood finished second in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda to clinch second place in the Series Championship.
“We played it a little bit safer than I might have hoped for the last race of the season, but we had to for the championship,” explained Kirkwood. “We made all the decisions based on that. Probably could have had a go at Scottie at the end on the first few laps on reds. The number one goal was to make the tires last. That’s what we did. Came home with a second, which is something to be proud of.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi came home third in the No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet. The podium finish ended a drought as well for Rossi and was his first in two years at ECR.
“It’s no secret that this has been a pretty terrible year for myself and the whole ECR team with the litany of issue, some out of our control, some in our control,” said Rossi. “Really ever since the Indy GP, there’s been a huge amount of emphasis and effort behind the scenes to kind of dig out of that hole. This is a great result to kind of reward that effort, just rebuild the confidence in everyone that we’re capable of doing this.”
Despite finishing last in the 25-car field due to the incident with Robb, Hauger hung on to win series Rookie of the Year honors. He finished with 228 points, 15 ahead of Mick Schumacher of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in the rookie race.
The 2027 NTT IndyCar Series season opens Sunday, March 7 with the Firestone Grand Prix on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida.
MONTEREY, CA (September 5, 2026) – Scott McLaughlin is on the pole position for Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series Mission Foods Grand Prix of Monterey after blasting to a quick lap of 1-minute, 9.1363-seconds in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevy in Firestone Fast Six qualifying at the picturesque permanent road course.
“I felt like from the jump this weekend, we’ve come with a philosophy we’ve been working on the last, I don’t know, four months or something like that, basically since our Mid-Ohio test,” explained McLaughlin. “Been feeling better and better. Put it all together today.”
McLaughlin edged Alex Palou, whose lap of 1-minute, 9.1540-seconds in the No. 10 DHL Lightning Bolt Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, was a mere o.o177-seconds off the top spot.
“It’s so tough to put a lap together, especially at this place,” said Palou. “I think it’s so great to see that we’re all so close. I’m sure that Scott feels like he could have got another 10th if he puts like a perfect lap. I feel the same way.”
Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist clocked in third fastest at 1:09.1931 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Nickelback Honda.
“Good qualifying for us,” said Rosenqvist. “We’ve been in the top three in every session, so I think we would have been disappointed if we didn’t end up in the top three. Always tough to get through with all of the sand and traffic. I missed it a bit in the corkscrew, so maybe there was a pole in there. I’m not sure.”
Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi lines up fourth after a fast lap of 1:09:3247 in the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet.
“The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet has been through a lot this season so it’s nice to get a decent qualifying on the books before the year comes to a close,” said Rossi. ““Road courses have been a big struggle for us, really all season. At a test we had a couple of months ago, we really understood something we hadn’t prior to that and have just been building off of it.”
Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard will start fifth and Team Penske’s David Malukas will start sixth as Chevrolet took four of the Fast Six qualifying spots en route to it’s 250-career IndyCar Series pole.
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyffin Simpson will start 9th in the No. 8 Sunoco and Scott Dixon will start 17th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. The race will be the last for Dixon at CGR after 25-years with the team.
Live coverage of the 95-lap race starts at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls.
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