Kyle Kirkwood Wins Indycar Thriller In St. Louis

Kyle Kirkwood kept the Indycar duarchy alive with a late win at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday night.

Indy 500 champion Alex Palou and Kirkwood are the only two drivers to win races this year, with their record now standing at five to three.

Kirkwood started the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 in 10th behind Palou, who spent the night fighting an ill-handling car to finish eighth.

Kirkwood worked a pit stop strategy to take the lead on 256 of the 260-lap race as other drivers made late stops for fuel and held off a charging Pato O’Ward by a half-second to claim his first career oval track win and fifth overall.

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“We were not too happy with the car yesterday, and we had got some help from the teammates, made the car really good,” Kirkwood said during his post-race interview on Fox.

Kirkwood won the last race at Detroit as Palou crashed out. Palou leads the season standings with 335 points ahead of O’Ward with 262 and Kirkwood with 260.

The race’s most dramatic moment came when Louis Foster got in to the marbles on lap 129, hit the outside wall and spun toward the infield wall and was T-boned by race leader Josef Newgarden, who flipped and slid down the track upside down. Neither driver was injured in the incident.

Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate Will Power, who started on pole, also crashed out of the race early with a tire failure, while their teammate Scott McLaughlin retired with a mechanical failure.

The Indycar series heads next to Road America on June 22, where Power won last year.