Kirkwood takes third win of the season at the Gateway 500

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Matt Fraver

Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood took his second consecutive race win of the year, and his first IndyCar win on an oval track.

He came through from tenth on the grid to take victory at the World Wide Technology Raceway ahead of Pato O'Ward and Christian Rasmussen.

How it happened

The drama started after the command to fire engines, as Team Penske's Scott McLaughlin was unable to get his car going as everyone else rolled out of pit lane. Fortunately, he was able to get going and get back to second place where he was due to start from.

Will Power had a smooth start from pole position and retained his lead over McLaughlin at the start, while David Malukas jumped up from fourth to make up places. By the end of Lap 1 he had taken the lead from Power, who dropped back to second place.

It wasn't long before the first caution of the night came out, as Devlin DeFrancesco spun going into a corner on Lap 4, hitting the wall and ending his evening before it could truly begin.

In the first few laps, Conor Daly had made his way up from 15th to 7th. He gained another place immediately following the restart, jumping past Marcus Armstrong to sixth place.

By Lap 22 Daly made it ten places gained and got past Kirkwood to get into the top five, but he didn't stop there. Just a few moments later he was up to fourth.

On Lap 38 Josef Newgarden put an end to Daly's run, the Team Penske driver overtaking both Pato O'Ward and Daly on the same lap. Meanwhile, DeFrancesco rushed to get back into the race, coming in 33 laps down.

The next driver to find the wall was Power, bringing out the second caution of the evening as he managed to limp back to pit lane. McLaughlin and Newgarden inherited second and third as Power dropped down from behind Malukas.

The pit lane re-opened on Lap 50 during the caution and drivers peeled in to make their first stops.

There was trouble in the pits for drivers named Christian - as Christian Lundgaard missed his pit box and stopped on the road, and Christian Rasmussen's car caught fire as he was leaving his pit box. Rasmussen was able to keep his position, while Lundgaard dropped back to 24th in the order. Lundgaard also picked up a penalty for having to reverse back into his box.

It was McLaughlin who led after the restart, keeping ahead of Malukas and Newgarden while O'Ward and Daly sat behind in fourth and fifth. Newgarden made the overtake on Malukas on Lap 74, gaining second from the A.J. Foyt Racing driver.

Despite the issue in pit lane, Rasmussen was making up ground in his fight to recover from his 21st place start, and he passed Callum Ilott, Álex Palou and Louis Foster within a matter of laps to get up into the top 12 before having to pit again for more fuel.

The drivers in danger of getting lapped were anxious to stay on the lead lap, leading to Nolan Siegel touching McLaughlin as the Penske driver attempted to make the pass. They managed to avoid major incident and Siegel went a lap down and was given a drive-through penalty for blocking.

As the race leaders came into the pits again, the Andretti Global pair of Kyle Kirkwood and Colton Herta cycled into the lead, before they pit and handed the lead to Alex Rossi.

At the halfway point in the race a major incident ended the run of green flag racing as Foster hit the wall at Turn 4 and spun, catching Newgarden and sending the Penske driver upside down as his car slid over the start/finish line.

The pit lane re-opened on Lap 141, Malukas leading McLaughlin, O'Ward and Rasmussen after pit stops were completed. This lineup changed again before the restart however, as Malukas, McLaughlin and Rasmussen all received penalties for pit lane infractions had all had to drop down the order. O'Ward, Daly and Kirkwood took the restart from the top three spots.

Santino Ferrucci and Herta came together at the restart but managed to keep going without causing any issues, as Daly took the lead from O'Ward and Malukas got back up into third.

Despite having to drop all the way to the back of the order for the restart, Rasmussen kept his blazing pace from earlier in the race and quickly made his way back up to sixth by Lap 188. Two laps later he passed McLaughlin as well to get back into the top five.

Credit: Matt Fraver

On Lap 196, Malukas, further down the grid after a pit stop, had a big wiggle and hit the wall trying to get past Kirkwood but managed to stay in control and kept going. The yellow flags came out anyway, prompting another caution.

Dixon, O'Ward and Kirkwood led the restart ahead of Daly and Malukas. Not long after, McLaughlin was called into the pits and he retired from the race with an issue with his rear right tyre. Meanwhile Kirkwood had gotten past O'Ward and was fighting with Dixon for the lead. The leaders all pit with 22 to go and Dixon notably came out of the pits behind both Kirkwood and O'Ward in the middle of the pack.

Ferrucci, Robert Shwartzman and Marcus Ericsson took the lead on track before Ferrucci and Shwartzman pitted with 16 laps to go. Felix Rosenqvist and Ilott battled for the on-track lead as Kirkwood sat behind them in third. While Rosenqvist's team thought he might have been able to make it till the end, he pitted with just seven laps to go.

Ilott made the same choice two laps later, putting Kirkwood back in the lead with O'Ward and Rasmussen close behind. On the final lap Kirkwood had safely secured his win, and while Rasmussen challenged O'Ward till the final moment, the Danish driver had to settle for third place behind the Arrow McLaren of O'Ward.

Dixon finished the night in fourth place ahead of Ferrucci and Daly. Rinus VeeKay took a quiet seventh place finish, while Palou, Armstrong and Shwartzman rounded out the top ten.