Fantastic Five of 2025: Bommarito Automotive Group 500
INDYCAR.com
Editorial Staff
5 HOURS AGO
Note: This is the second of a five-part series looking back at the five best races of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season – in chronological order – as judged by INDYCAR.com staff writers Curt Cavin, Eric Smith and Paul Kelly, including the writers’ analysis of why those events were great. Installments will appear on Fridays through October.
THE RACE
- Race: Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline
- Site: World Wide Technology Raceway (oval)
- Date: Sunday, June 15
- Winner: Kyle Kirkwood
- NTT P1 Award winner: Will Power
Kyle Kirkwood (photo, top) used pace found with help from his teammates and masterful strategy in a chaotic, exciting race to win the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway.
It was the fifth career victory for Kirkwood and career-best third win this season. But most importantly to Kirkwood, it was his first career oval victory after four wins on street circuits.
SEE: Race Results
The podium was filled with three INDY NXT by Firestone champions. Kirkwood drove his No. 27 Siemens Honda fielded by Andretti Global to victory by .5398 of a second over Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Christian Rasmussen finished a career-best third in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet after starting 25th, making 62 on-track passes.
The 260-lap race, in which 14 of the 27 drivers led, came down to an intriguing gambit between two fuel strategies and navigating thickets of traffic over the last 50 laps. There were 254 passes for position, tying the series record for WWTR set last year.
Six-time series champion Scott Dixon, a master of saving fuel, was the last car not to stop during the second-to-last pit cycle and took the lead on Lap 194 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Then David Malukas brushed the Turn 4 wall on Lap 196 in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, triggering the fourth and final caution of the race. Dixon cruised behind the pace car in the lead, which allowed him to save more fuel in a possible attempt to need to make just one more pit stop.
Then Dixon stopped when the pits opened on Lap 200 and stayed in the lead due to his one-lap gap before the stop. On the restart on Lap 207, Dixon led O’Ward, Kirkwood and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet.
Kirkwood passed O’Ward and stalked Dixon, pressing him to use more fuel, but couldn’t pass. Andretti Global then called Kirkwood to the pits for his last stop on Lap 233.
Dixon and strategist Mike Hull knew “The Iceman” couldn’t stretch one tank of fuel for 60 laps on the 1.25-mile oval without significantly more caution laps, so Dixon pitted on Lap 236 and handed the lead to O’Ward.
O’Ward made his final stop on Lap 238, with Santino Ferrucci taking the top spot in the No. 14 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises. When Dixon, Kirkwood and O’Ward cycled through their final stops, Kirkwood ended up the leader among that trio due to speedy work by his Andretti Global pit crew.
Ferrucci led a group of four cars that still had to make their final stop, all running ahead of Kirkwood, O’Ward and Dixon. But Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Fresh Connect Central Honda of Andretti Global, Callum Ilott in the No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet and Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian all pitted from the lead by Lap 256, handing the lead back to Kirkwood. He never trailed thereafter despite pressure from O’Ward.
WHY IT WAS GREAT
Curt Cavin: Usually, this high level of intrigue is reserved for the Indianapolis 500, and by that I mean it was impossible to predict which driver was going to win this Bommarito Automotive Group 500. I watched the replay of this 260-lap slugfest, and there were at least a dozen drivers who seemed capable of winning. At various points the strongest car belonged to David Malukas, Will Power, Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Conor Daly and, well, you get the idea. There were a lot! An event-record 14 drivers led the race, five by 25 or more laps. There were a staggering 485 overtakes, a record-tying 254 of them for position. The low line was preferred by some, the high line by others. A few drivers tried to win it on fuel. One nearly lost it on fire. At times there were packs of four cars approaching the tight corners, something that never works on a short oval. It was nuts of the finest order. In the end, it was Kyle Kirkwood, who started 10th, taking his first career oval victory. I didn’t see that coming, but he was one of many who seemed deserving.
Eric Smith: What stood out to me most was that this was a true race – one that had me glued to the edge of my seat for all 260 laps. The moment that sticks with me is the exhilarating, breathtaking mid-race battle for the lead between Pato O’Ward and Conor Daly (photo, below). They raced inches apart, lap after lap, neither willing to give an inch, yet respectful enough to avoid disaster. And who could forget the incredible performance from Christian Rasmussen? After starting 25th, he stormed to the front, only to be set back by a pit road penalty for taking service during a closed pit. But Rasmussen wasn’t done, he charged back through the field to finish a then career-best third, passing a race-high 62 cars. With front-runners facing setbacks and constant passing throughout the pack, the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline absolutely delivered.
Paul Kelly: Before the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline even took the green flag, maybe it was destiny it would be one of the five best races of the year. After all, the start time was moved from the afternoon to prime time Sunday on FOX, the first-ever prime-time Sunday night race in INDYCAR SERIES history. Reality didn’t disappoint. This race embodied everything that’s great about NTT INDYCAR SERIES competition on ovals: speed, side-by-side action and fuel strategy. Sometimes you get races with one or two of those elements; you’re lucky if you get all three. This event on the egg-shaped, 1.25-mile oval in the shadow of the Gateway Arch had it all. Curt and Eric did a great job spelling out the specifics of this race, but there are two other reasons why it stood out to me. One, Kyle Kirkwood took an important step toward the “triple crown” of winning on all three types of circuits in the series, earning his first oval win after his four previous career victories came on street circuits. But also remember the calendar: Alex Palou had just marched through the Month of May with three victories – at Barber and sweeping both races at Indianapolis – and looked like he could sleepwalk to a fourth Astor Challenge Cup despite Kirkwood’s win in early June on the streets of Detroit. Kirkwood’s third win of the season and second in a row sent a clear message that it wouldn’t be quite that easy for Palou, who finished eighth in this race, the first time all year he looked even slightly mortal.
PREVIOUS 'FANTASTIC FIVE' INSTALLMENTS
