Winners and Losers: Detroit Grand Prix

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Kyle Kirkwood took his second race win of the 2025 IndyCar season at the Detroit Grand Pric ahead of Santino Ferrucci and Colton Herta. 

It was a weekend of career bests for some, and major let downs for others. DIVEBOMB lists some of the winners and losers of the weekend.

Winner - Santino Ferrucci

Ferrucci scored his best career IndyCar finish to date in Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix, grabbing his first second-place finish in eight seasons.

His start to the weekend wasn’t promising, after he struggled in qualifying and was eliminated in the first round. He then started 21st in the race, a disappointing result compared to his teammate David Malukas’ second place start.

But it was Ferrucci who would eventually finish in second after Malukas fell down the order and a well-timed caution allowed Ferrucci to cycle up to the lead of the race. It was Kirkwood who took the win with the A.J. Foyt Racing driver a few seconds behind, but a career best result for Ferrucci after starting 21st was a win in his books.

Ferrucci’s car was later docked points and penalised for being under the required driver ballast weight, but notably was able to keep his finishing position for the race, which is the main thing that he’ll care about.

Winner - Andretti Global

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The star of the Detroit Grand Prix weekend was easily Andretti’s Kirkwood, seemingly the only driver with the ability to beat Álex Palou this season. Kirkwood took his second win of the year this past weekend after qualifying third, beating out Ferrucci and his teammate who started on pole to take a decisive win in a weekend where Palou was, for once, out of contention after contact with Malukas.

It was a good weekend for Colton Herta, too, although the Californian driver will be frustrated after missing out on the race win. But Herta took his first pole position and first podium of the season, so still a great result especially for the team when paired with Kirkwood’s win.

A double podium for Andretti (plus Marcus Ericsson’s 13th place finish!) capped a good weekend for the team after a weekend in the losers column in the Indy 500.

Winner - Kyffin Simpson

Another driver who scored a career best IndyCar finish in the Detroit Grand Prix was Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson. 

Like Ferrucci, a sub-par qualifying put him out in the first round, and he started 19th in the race. Also like Ferrucci, Simpson benefitted from a well timed pit stop before the Lap 67 caution which allowed him to jump up the order. From the restart Simpson dropped a few position to Kirkwood, Herta and Power but maintained fifth-place to the finish and secured his second IndyCar top ten result and his first top five finish.

Simpson has maybe the highest calibre of teammates to look up to on the current roster between Scott Dixon and Palou, and it can be tough for a young, relatively unassuming driver to compete amongst those great names.

The Detroit Grand Prix was a solid result for Simpson, who proved that he can take advantage of good opportunities and be the highest-finishing CGR driver when his teammates are down for the count.

Loser - David Malukas

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Several of our winners this past weekend recovered from disappointing qualifying results to career best race results. The story of Malukas’ weekend is the opposite.

The A.J. Foyt Racing driver equalled his best IndyCar qualifying result, coming second place to Herta on Saturday. In the race Malukas lost out to Kirkwood early on, dropping further back in the order. But it was his contact with Palou in the later stages of the race that did him in.

Malukas tapped Palou from behind going into Turn 1, putting the championship leader of the race. The contact earned him a stop and go penalty for avoidable contact, which ruined whatever chance he had left of a good finish. At the end of the race, Malukas’ hopes of a podium or a race win were dashed as he finished 14th.

After an unassuming start to his 2025 season, Malukas was on the up-swing after his runner-up finish in the Indy 500. He has now, however, missed out on capitalising on his upward momentum and will have to rebound for the next race.

Loser - Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

It’s fair to say that no team had a worse day than RLL as issues with the cars plagued all three drivers and led to the trio finishing in 20th, 22nd, and 23rd.

Graham Rahal qualified a respectable fifth, while his rookie teammate Louis Foster started highest of all the rookies in 14th. Devlin DeFrancesco qualified and started 23rd. And it was DeFrancesco who was the first of the three to suffer issues in the race, losing a rear wheel early on and bringing out a caution. He received penalties for having to service the car in a closed pit lane, and for bringing out the caution.

DeFrancesco retired on Lap 83 and finished 23rd, the same position he started in. Foster, despite a solid start to the race, had a suspension issue that sent him into the back of Felix Rosenqvist and he retired from the race as well, in 22nd place.

Rahal, the lone RLL driver left, had also suffered issues with a rear wheel earlier on in the race and had to pit one lap after an initial pit stop to rectify the issue. He came out three laps down, and managed the best result for the team in the race with a disappointing 20th, capping off a weekend to forget for the team.

Loser - Scott McLaughlin

Credit: Dominic Loyer

No one needed a good weekend more than McLaughlin, whose heartbreak early on in the Indy 500 landed him in the losers column for the biggest race of the year.

It was a solid but uninspiring qualifying for the Kiwi driver, who finished eighth and missed out on a chance to fight for pole position but beat out both of his teammates.

McLaughlin’s troubles started early on in the race as he hit the back of Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel after a restart. Siegel recovered to continue the race, but McLaughlin received a penalty for his troubles, which dropped him back to 24th.

From there McLaughlin hunkered down and made his way through the field, recovering to a 12th place finish. His ability to come through the field makes you wonder what he could have done without his contact with Siegel, and ultimately cements another unfortunate weekend for the Team Penske driver.

All photos in this article were taken by DIVEBOMB Photographer, Dominic Loyer. You can find Dominic's work on Instagram (@dominicloyer_photography)