Kirkwood “Not Upset” By Power’s Shove, But Hopes IndyCar “Do The Right Thing”

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief

Kyle Kirkwood was unbothered after being shoved during practice by Will Power during opening practice of the Detroit Grand Prix on Friday.

And part of that was undoubtedly because Kirkwood’s ended up at the top of the timesheets after the 80-minute session, throttling to a lap of 1m01.751s around the nine-turn, 1.645-mile temporary street circuit.

It was a good recovery by Kirkwood after his No. 27 Andretti Global Honda was bumped from behind by the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet of Will Power during the full group running. Kirkwood was running off-pace while navigating traffic ahead, notably the slower No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of David Malukas, when the nose of Power’s machine lined up and hit the rear of Kirkwood’s gearbox. Instead of backing off once contact was made, Power throttled down and shoved Kirkwood by Malukas and through the next few corners.

Once by Malukas, Kirkwood drifted off to the right – lifting his hand out of the cockpit – as Power sped away. There was no penalty handed out by IndyCar Race Control for the incident.

Will Power using the chrome horn. #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/34nbVGJY6X

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 30, 2025

Kirkwood’s car sustained damage as a result, with his crew forced to work on the underwing and diffuser before getting back out and setting the fastest overall time in the second group running. Power ended up third overall, 0.635s off the mark set by Kirkwood.

“Everyone’s going slow around here,” Kirkwood told FOX Sports. “The track is not big enough to fit all the cars, and he got frustrated. Whatever, I guess. Does it give him the right to push my car through a couple corners and almost cause a wreck? I don’t think so. Malukas is right in front of me; I can’t really do much. He (Power) was just shoving me along. Everyone stopped.

“I don’t know. I’m not upset. I don’t care. We’re P1. But at the same time, I expect IndyCar to do the right thing with that. I’m sure that they’ll do something. Who knows what? Never seen that before, but good day in the Siemens 27 Honda. We had damage from that, too. So maybe we’re even a little bit faster. Who knows.”

For his part, Power appeared amused as he smiled when talking about his view of the incident with FOX Sports.

“Well, I came around and he slowed up in the middle and made contact,” Power said. “I thought, ‘Well, I may as well get a gap now,’ so I just pushed him past the car in front, just moved him out of the way and got a really nice gap. If I hadn’t touched him already, I was like, ‘Oh, well, I’m already touching him. I may as well just keep pushing him and get myself a gap.’ Got a good gap, and finished the run nicely.”