Kyle Kirkwood drops his verdict on Scott McLaughlin and Nolan Siegel's Detroit crash that enraged Tony Kanaan

Andretti Global star Kyle Kirkwood featured as the guest in the latest episode of the Speed Street podcast. The 2025 Detroit GP race winner reflected on the crash between Scott McLaughlin and Nolan Siegel at the 1.6-mile street circuit, which enraged the online clash between Arrow McLaren Tony Kanaan and the Team Penske driver.

On the Lap 18 restart at Detroit GP, Nolan Siegel and Scott McLaughlin ran just outside the Top 10. McLaughlin tried making a move on the Arrow McLaren driver and hit Siegel while doing so. This sent the 20-year-old spinning around and to the back of the grid. McLaughlin was penalized for the same reason as he caused a collision.

After the race, Scott McLaughlin reflected on the crash and suggested that Nolan Siegel was a little too ambitious and braked early, which caused the crash. However, he did take some responsibility for the crash. Former IndyCar driver and now Arrow McLaren Team Principal took to X and started a clash by reacting to McLaughlin's reflection about the crash.

Detroit GP winner Kyle Kirkwood was the guest for Conor Daly's Speed Street podcast. Conor Daly suggested that he was in front of Siegel when the Team Penske driver crashed into him and detailed the wild world that IndyCar Twitter has turned into following the crash (the online clash between Kanaan and McLaughlin).

On the other hand, Kirkwood was running just behind the duo and had a front-seat view of the crash. Reflecting on the crash, the Andretti Global driver said:

“So I see I see both sides, but like there's two things that happen in McLaughlin's situation. There's one Nolan's trying to get his tires up. He was one of the guys that were like scared of cold tires and it was sketchy for his car and he couldn't get anything up.” (58:30 onwards)

“McLaughlin was on the other end of that spectrum. He was like on fire on restarts. I couldn't catch him and I thought our restart pace was really good. So he's just instantly attacking as hard as he can. And Nolan's on the other end where he's breaking like super early earlier on on a restart, right?” he added.

“But then I also understand that McLaughlin was attacking. He had the pace, he had the grip. And that looked like a racing incident to me,” he concluded.

Despite all the drama, Kyle Kirkwood was the eventual beneficiary as he took his second win of the season home and remains the only driver this season to win IndyCar races apart from Alex Palou.

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Kyle Kirkwood remains the only driver to win a race in the 2025 IndyCar season apart from Alex Palou

Alex Palou began his title defense with back-to-back wins in the first two races. However, Kyle Kirkwood took the crucial victory in Long Beach to stop Palou in his tracks. However, the Spaniard wasn't one to stop and went on to win the next three races, i.e., Alabama GP, Sonsio GP, and the prestigious Indy 500.

Unfortunately, Palou crashed out of the Detroit GP after contact with David Malukas. Kyle Kirkwood, on the other hand, was one of the favorites coming into the street race and dominated to win the race. The Andretti Global driver was in the effective race lead for the most part.

Seven races into the IndyCar season, Kyle Kirkwood remains the only driver to have won a race apart from Palou.