After crashing out of Top 12 qualifying on Saturday, Kirkwood was rear-ended at Turn 3 by Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott on the opening lap of the race around the new 1.7-mile downtown Detroit street course.
The impact smashed his rear wing, requiring his team to fit a new one under caution. They managed to replace it without losing a lap, but it meant the Long Beach Grand Prix winner restarted the race dead last.
“I got hit from behind and cycled back to 27th, which was super-unfortunate but it’s part of IndyCar sometimes, and it’s out of your control – and I’ve had a lot of those this year unfortunately,” Kirkwood told NBC.
“But we stuck with our gut, we stuck with the same strategy we’d planned on doing because we knew we had a really fast car all weekend, so we used that to our advantage among the close racing.
“Our strategy cycled us in front of a lot of cars and we were able to pass a lot of cars because of our pace, and we had great pitstops, so everything played in our favor there. Cycling back to P6, I thought that was phenomenal and I was ready to finish right there!”
Source: Autosport