Kyle Kirkwood flies to a first IndyCar oval win in St. Louis

In one sense, Sunday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 continued a trend for the NTT IndyCar Series field. For the eighth time to open the season, one of two familiar faces ended up in victory lane. 

But this one came as a pleasant surprise for Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood. 

Kirkwood took over the lead with an undercut on the final set of pit stops and kept Pato O’Ward at bay over the final stint to claim his third win of the season at World Wide Technology Raceway. The result was Kirkwood’s fifth-career win and third of 2025, but was his first on an oval and any track outside of a street circuit. 

“We were not too happy with the car yesterday. We had (gotten) some help from the teammates, made the car really good and went on-track with an amazing car. In the beginning, I really didn’t think we had it. But as it got dark and it cooled down, this Andretti Global Siemens (No.) 27 just came alive.

“Hats off to (my pit crew). These guys killed it (on) pit lane. Awesome, awesome job. … Third win on the year, man. That’s incredible. My first oval win. I’m over the moon right now. Ovals have eluded me for a very long time, so it’s nice to get that first one off and break that ice.” 

The moment of truth came on lap 234, when Kirkwood’s Andretti Global team brought him to pit road. It was the earliest stop of the frontrunners, allowing Kirkwood to leap past Scott Dixon, who had inherited the lead as the only one not to have pitted when the prior caution flew.

Pyrotechnics are ignited on the parade lap

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

That gave Santino Ferrucci Kirkwood the edge, but the race was shrouded in uncertainty until the final laps. The same late caution that gave Dixon the lead had brought Callum Ilott and Felix Rosenqvist to pit road on lap 204 of 260, hoping to stretch fuel to the end. But neither driver could make the fuel stretch. Ilott was last to pit with five to go, surrendering the lead to Kirkwood. 

O’Ward ran in the Floridian’s tire tracks from there, having risen to second through the pit sequence. But he was unable to make a charge to the lead, coming home .5398s short of Chevrolet’s first win in second.

Christian Rasmussen overcame a fire during his first pit stop to snag the final podium spot in third, gambling and pitting early on lap 225 to leapfrog some of the other frontrunners. Dixon faded to fourth, with Santino Ferrucci mounting another fierce oval charge to take fifth. 

Conor Daly, Rinus VeeKay, Alex Palou, Marcus Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman capped off the top-10. Rosenqvist was relegated to 16th after his fuel strategy play came up short, with Ilott following in 18th. 

How the race unfolded

Will Power, Team Penske, Scott McLaughlin, Team Penske

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

It was an eventful evening for the IndyCar field, one befitting the primetime spotlight FOX’s schedule shift allotted to the short oval showdown. The opening caution came just four laps into the race, when Devlin DeFrancesco lost control of his No. 30 and back into the turn 1 wall. Pole-sitter Will Power’s day was undone by a tire failure on lap 47, sending him into the turn 3 wall and out of the race.

The moment of the night followed on lap 131, when Louis Foster got up into the marbles in the same stretch of track while running in the dirty air behind Santino Ferrucci and slid into the outside wall. The damage caused Foster to spin into the inside wall on the front stretch, where then-leader Josef Newgarden collided with his stricken machine and was sent airborne before sliding to a stop by the start-finish line. Both drivers emerged from the incident unhurt. 

The final caution came on lap 195, when David Malukas made the same mistake and slid into the turn 4 wall. That set the field up for the memorable run to the finish.

“This is a big one. …This is huge. Massive.”

While he didn’t suffer an accident, front row starter Scott McLaughlin pulled off with a mechanical issue on lap 216, leaving all Team Penske contenders out of the race early on a night when they expected to contend for the win. McLaughlin ended the nigh 24th, with Newgarden 25th and Power last in 27th. 

It was a disappointing result for Penske and Chevrolet as a whole. The Bowtie brand entered with the top-five drivers on the starting grid and high hopes for a breakthrough win.

Instead it was Honda’s Kirkwood prevailing again, with a result the 26-year-old hopes will change the narrative around his young IndyCar career. 

“I didn’t want people to think of me as just a street course guy, right? Or else they’ll just have me only going to street courses,” Kirkwood said. “A little job security there. This is a big one. … This is huge. Massive.”

Next up for the IndyCar field is a trip north to Wisconsin. The series will venture to scenic Road America on June 22.