By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
In a race weekend poised for a Team Penske rout, Kyle Kirkwood comes through for the win in the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. This gives Kirkwood his third win of the season and first career win on an oval.
Kirkwood is still the only driver not named Alex Palou to win a race in the IndyCar Series this season and Honda continues their winning streak, dating back to last season. Kirkwood won from the 10th starting position and led eight laps, out of 260, to his fifth career IndyCar victory.
The race was won on the final pit stop, which occured on Lap 234 when Kirkwood performed the undercut on contenders Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward. By executing the strategy and having a good out-lap, Kirkwood and the No.27 Siemens Honda for Andretti Global crew put a gap of 1.7 seconds to O’Ward and cruise to the victory.
“Everything worked to plan accordingly. If I’m being honest, we didn’t start with an amazing race car; we finished with one,” Kirkwood said after his first oval win. “That was just due to the work that the crew did and due to the work that Honda did. I think as the conditions cooled, we picked up some power, and then as the conditions cooled for our car we got a little better, but we also tuned on it, too. We were making changes at almost every single stop to get ourselves into a good window, and that played a huge factor in today’s win because in the beginning stages it felt like we had nothing. So we kept our heads down and stayed calm, cool, and collected, took opportunities where they came, and fortunately came away with that win.”
Following O’Ward in second was Christian Rasmussen. The second-year driver for Ed Carpenter Racing scored his first career IndyCar podium on Sunday night, making 62 passes in the race, the most of any driver. Rasmussen and the No.21 Splenda Chevrolet crew were able to turn misfortune into fortune.
During the first major pit stops on Lap 50, the crew did not get the car full of fuel, resulting in a fire from the spilt fuel. Rasmussen would take advantage of the lighter fuel load and pass drivers to get up to 13th on Lap 75. On Lap 86, the Danish driver would pit and get a full load of fuel in the car.
When the caution flag flew on Lap 132 for a scary incident between Louis Foster and Josef Newgarden, which saw Newgarden go upside down, almost vaulting the pit wall. Newgarden and Foster were seen and released from the infield care center.
That caution brought Rasmussen in line with the leaders on strategy. The race was green for 56 laps and Rasmussen was as high as fifth on Lap 190.
During the last stint starting at Lap 207, Rasmussen was the first to pit out of the leaders and would put himself in a position with a big undercut, pitting with 35 laps to go. As the leaders in Kirkwood, O’Ward and Dixon made their stops, Rasmussen was able to jump Dixon and moved into third when Callum Ilott made his pit stop.
“I think we really, really struggled in Practice One as well as qualifying, but knew what we needed out of the car, and obviously hit some good changes for the race. As soon as I kind of found out how well my car worked on the high side, it was just game on. I was able to pass cars — we even got hosed one time with having to take emergency service because we were out of fuel, so I had to restart at the tail end, and that was kind of right at the point where I had kind of driven through most of the field and was up front but had to go to the back, drove through again, and man, we were just coming. It was awesome.”
Rasmussen was not the only driver to have notable results as the finishing order was jumbled, seeing nine different teams finishing inside the top 10 and 20 lead changes. Nine of the 11 IndyCar teams were represented in the top 10 at the end of the night, except for Team Penske.
All three cars failed to finish the race, on a night where the team was poised to get their season back on track.
On Lap 47, pole sitter Will Power hit the wall after a right front tire failure. Newgarden’s day would end during the Lap 132 caution and the No.2 PPG Chevrolet would go upside down. The last Penske car to retire, the No.3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet of Scott McLaughlin, would retire on Lap 121 after a right rear issue in the car.
Dixon would end the day in fourth, leading 43 laps after putting the No.9 PNC Bank Honda in position after staying out before the Lap 196 caution when David Malukas careened into the wall, looking to make a pass on Kirkwood. Dixon was able to put a whole lap on the field, pit during the caution and keep that lap.
Closing out the top five was Santino Ferrucci, who salvaged a good day for the A.J. Foyt Racing crew. Malukas led the first 50 laps in the No.4 Clarience Chevrolet and would run inside the top five all night long. The race would come to a halt for Malukas after bringing out the Lap 196 caution. Malukas would end the night in 12th.
Ferrucci made up ground after starting 19th and guid the No.14 Bommarito Chevrolet to the top 10 for most of the night, moving up 10 positions by Lap 60. Taking advantage of the three Penske’s retiring and his passing skills, Ferrucci put himself in position at the end of the race to get another good result. The American pit with 15 laps to go, a part of a four car group that managed to stretch their fuel.
Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Fresh Connect Central Honda for Andretti Global, Callum Ilott in the No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet and Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda for Meyer Shank Racing were the group that looked to play spoiler but none of the drivers would make it to the end, with Ilott running the longest and pitting at Lap 256. Ferrucci would be the earliest to pit from that group, at Lap 245 and would cycle out behind Dixon and cruised to his third consecutive top five finish.
SEE: Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Results
Kirkwood’s second win in a row sees the championship picture grow closer as Alex Palou had an anonymous weekend, finishing in eighth. Palou’s lead of almost two full races shrinks to a race-and-a-half as O’Ward is now 73 points back, Kirkwood is in third, 75 points back.
“Triple digits are never a good sign in a championship. We’re moving closer. It’s still a long way to go,” Kirkwood said regarding the championship battle. “He’s good at a lot of races that we’re coming up to, so those are the ones that are going to really count. This has been a track that we haven’t been amazing at, so it’s great to claw back some points here. Everybody knows we’re going to go to Road America next week and he’s going to put on a show there and we’ll have to do everything in our power to keep him from looking shiny once again on road courses.”