Kirkwood’s Breakthrough Oval Win Lights Up The Bommarito 500

June 25, 2025

Kirkwood made it competitive when the green peg dropped but it was after the circuit cooled down and setup modifications took effects that the car made him to shine. Throughout the race, Kirkwood said, her team did not have the pace initially. However, my group provided me with an awesome car, more particularly after the night fell. It was not a very straight race by any means. A series of events have generated some cautionary stages that mixed up the order and a test of how every team approached its strategy.

The first victim of the evening was Devlin DeFrancesco who lost control during lap four and went off the wall. At a later point meanwhile, pole-sitter Will Power had to retire due to a tire problem that saw him hit the barrier. The most spectacular was lap 131, when Josef Newgarden hit Louis Foster who had turned around. The collision saw Newgarden land on top of the car, after which both cars stopped. Fortunately, none of the drivers was injured.

The fuel strategy also worked out to be a big storyline as the race went on. Callum Ilott and Felix Rosenqvist only attempted to extend their fuel to reach the finish but they were forced to pit on the last lap, which opened room to Kirkwood victory. Pato O Ward went in pursuit but could only finish as the second whose timing was only half a second after Kirkwood. Christian Rasmussen took the final podium position, getting his first top-three result on a clever initial pit that took him up the field.

This was a disappointing night to Team Penske as Scott McLaughlin retired with mechanical issues and Newgarden and Power crashed out of the race. Kirkwood, on the other hand, was happy to show that he is capable of winning at ovals. He did not want to be considered as a street-course guy, he explained. This one is a big one to me. It is an enormous uplift of confidence.”

After the win, Kirkwood builds up his position in the IndyCar rankings as the series set their eyes on the Road America. There is no way yet that the championship fight is over, and the performance that Kirkwood did tonight shows that he will be a contender no matter where the fights go next.

Pos	Driver	Team	Car #	Laps	Pits	Points
1	K. Kirkwood	Andretti Global	27	260	5	51
2	P. O’Ward	Arrow McLaren	5	260	5	41
3	C. Rasmussen	Ed Carpenter Racing	21	260	6	36
4	S. Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	9	260	5	33
5	S. Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	260	5	31
6	C. Daly	Juncos Hollinger Racing	76	260	5	29
7	R. van Kalmthout	Dale Coyne Racing	18	260	5	27
8	A. Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	10	260	5	24
9	M. Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing	66	260	5	22
10	R. Shwartzman	Prema Racing	83	260	5	20
11	A. Rossi	Ed Carpenter Racing	20	260	5	20
12	D. Malukas	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	4	260	5	21
13	M. Ericsson	Andretti Global	28	260	5	18
14	C. Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	7	260	5	16
15	K. Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	8	259	6	15
16	F. Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing	60	259	7	15
17	C. Herta	Andretti Global	26	259	5	13
18	C. Ilott	Prema Racing	90	259	6	13
19	N. Siegel	Arrow McLaren	6	259	7	11
20	R. Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	259	6	10
21	J. Abel	Dale Coyne Racing	51	258	7	9
22	G. Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	253	8	8
23	D. DeFrancesco	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	217	4	7
24	S. McLaughlin	Team Penske	3	216	4	7
25	J. Newgarden	Team Penske	2	129	2	6
26	L. Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	128	2	5
27	W. Power	Team Penske	12	47	—	—