Colton Herta's dad bows to 'formidable' Kyle Kirkwood's rise to becoming an IndyCar title contender in 2025

Kyle Kirkwood has cemented himself as the next big thing in IndyCar by being the only driver this season to win races apart from dominant reigning champion Alex Palou. He has become the lead Andretti Global driver in the championship standings, replacing 2024 title-contending teammate Colton Herta near the top.

Kirkwood's race strategist, Bryan Herta, who is Colton's father, is nothing but proud to see the 26-year-old come into his own this year. A few days after Kirkwood's win at the Detroit GP, the older Herta said (via RACER):

"Kyle's been great. He's having a really strong season. He's had great results on a number of different types of tracks. I think we saw a lot of that starting to manifest in second half of last year. The (oval) pole at Nashville, and some things where he was showing a lot of excellence in areas that we hadn't seen from him yet."

"I think that's just a great indication of his continued growth and improvement. You know, he hasn't been in IndyCar that long, but he's obviously formidable, and he's becoming formidable on all types of tracks," he added.

Kyle Kirkwood was nearly on track to get pole position for the Detroit GP, if not for making contact with a barrier in Turn 3. It was Colton Herta who took his second consecutive pole on the 1.645-mile circuit, but couldn't convert it into a win. Nolan Siegel's aggressive overtake on Herta after the first round of pit stops bumped him into the Turn 4 wall, also allowing Kirkwood to pass him at the same time.

Kirkwood is the only driver in American open-wheel racing history to win championships in all rungs of the junior ladder - USF 2000 in 2018, Indy Pro 2000 in 2019, and Indy Lights (now Indy NXT) in 2021. After seven races in the 2025 IndyCar season, he is third in the standings, trailing Pato O'Ward by 12 points and leader Alex Palou by 102.

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Kyle Kirkwood has mixed feelings about Alex Palou's unfortunate incident at the Detroit GP

After winning, Kyle Kirkwood shared his feelings about championship leader Alex Palou's unfortunate crash at the Detroit GP. Palou was having a flawless IndyCar season until lap 72 of the race.

Though the Spaniard was nowhere in the hunt for his sixth win this year, David Malukas sending him into a barrier was rather unfortunate. Malukas locked up his front tires going into Turn 1 after a restart and drove into Palou's No. 10 Honda.

That sent the Chip Ganassi Racing driver's car nose-first into the barriers. It was Palou's first DNF since race one of the Iowa double-header in July last year.

Kyle Kirkwood commented on the situation, which fortunately played into his hands in the context of the championship.

"I shouldn't be smiling thinking that, but I knew that he crashed, and I knew that we needed to capitalize on some points today, given the outcome for him. I don't know what happened with him, and I feel bad for him, but this also does help us a lot with the points," he said via Motorsport.

Both of Kyle Kirkwood's wins this season have come on street circuits, which he seems to have mastered. The next race is at the World Wide Racing Technology oval in St. Louis on June 15, a track where his best IndyCar finish is a mediocre P15.