"Never been more disappointed with P3": Kyle Kirkwood 'throws' away Detroit GP pole to teammate Colton Herta

Kyle Kirkwood was one of the two Andretti drivers in the Fast 6 for the Detroit Grand Prix and secured a top-three qualification for the race on Sunday (June 1). However, the 26-year-old was gutted by the seemingly great performance because he had botched his final run in which he was four-tenths above the provisional pole time and threw away the chance of lining up his car on pole position.

The Florida-born driver joined Andretti in 2023 and has played second fiddle to Colton Herta since then. But the tale of the 2025 season has seemingly been picking up in favor of Kirkwood so far.

The 26-year-old is the sole driver to have won a race in the 2025 season, except for reigning champion Alex Palou. With Andretti's strong pace in Downtown Detroit, the pole position was potentially up for grabs for him.

Kyle Kirkwood was on a solid run and was poised to take over pole position despite Colton Herta improving on his time, but disaster struck as he suffered a major snap during his run and lost all the advantage within a few feet.

Though his laptime helped him earn a P3 start, the Andretti driver was left dejected, as he shared in the post-race interview:

"I've never been more disappointed with a third in my life. I was up four tenths going down into turn three, and there was a snap right there just enough to tap the wall and it broke the tow link... I threw away a pole; I've never been more frustrated with a third like I said."

Kirkwood has three starts around the 1.645-mile track and has secured two top-10 results in his previous outings.

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Kyle Kirkwood has had an interesting weekend in Detroit so far

Kyle Kirkwood at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Last time IndyCar raced at a street circuit, Kyle Kirkwood was on pole. While he was unable to recreate this feat this time, the Florida-born driver started the weekend off by leading the first practice session.

But his weekend started off with a weird incident as his car was bumped in the same session by Will Power. This had left the Andretti driver fuming, who said (via FOX Sports):

"Does it give him the right to push my car through a couple of corners and almost cause a wreck? I don’t think so. I don’t think so. ... I expect INDYCAR to do the right thing with that. I’m sure they’ll do something. Who knows what? I have never seen that before."

"Everyone’s stopped. I’m frustrated, too. But the difference is I’m not pushing guys, I’m not running into the back of guys. Everyone knows Will to get animated sometimes and that’s another moment of it."

On the other hand, Colton Herta will be paired by David Malukas on the front row for the Detroit Grand Prix.