Palou Reaches Sweet Six After Strategic Win at Hot Road America
INDYCAR
Amid a race full of mystery from different strategies, the certainty known as Alex Palou emerged once again.
Palou earned his sixth victory in nine NTT INDYCAR SERIES races this season, his torrid form matching the air temperatures in the mid-90s to win the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR on Sunday. Two-time defending series champion Palou drove his No. 10 SOLO Cup Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a 2.175-second victory over Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian.
Santino Ferrucci finished third in the No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet.
Stay tuned for a complete report.
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Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Fox Sports
Who is Kyle Kirkwood? Meet the beach-loving, Nirvana-listening INDYCAR star
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Who is Kyle Kirkwood? Meet the beach-loving, Nirvana-listening INDYCAR star Published Jun. 30, 2025 12:22 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link Kyle Kirkwood hails from Jupiter. Not the planet, but a town on the east coast of Florida, north of Palm Beach. The 26-year-old Andretti driver currently sits second in the INDYCAR standings, and with three victories is the only driver besides Alex Palou (six) to win a race this season. So is Kyle Kirkwood a ride-the-wave surfer dude or an intense, ultra-talented competitor? Is it possible to be both? Find out in this exclusive Q&A: Who is Kyle Kirkwood? South Florida kid. Grew up in Jupiter, Fla. I started karting when I was 4 and moved up the ladder. Don't come from any racing background whatsoever. In my spare time, I'm surfing, fishing — anything on the water. Nothing really motorsports related in my off time, if I'm being honest. How would your girlfriend describe you? You don't want to hear that. I'm not sure. You'll have to ask her. I used to work in Daytona, and Florida kids were sometimes more interested in surfing than school. So are you somebody who just loved the beach? Yeah. I was always in the water. Of course, I did school. I did that whole process. Most of my time was consumed by racing. But any free time I'd get, it was either surfing or fishing. I'd say that waves are a bit better in Daytona than they are in South Florida. We get blocked by the Bahamas, but that means that the fishing is better in South Florida. So more fishing than surfing. ADVERTISEMENT Fishing is among Kyle Kirkwood's favorite hobbies. Fishing and surfing are laid-back activities. That's not necessarily the mentality of a race car driver. How do you balance having the mentality for both? I think that they balance each other out. That's the way I look at it. By fishing and surfing, it's a way for me to kind of just shut off the motorsports world. Everybody knows motorsports is high stress, high anxiety and can wear you down quite a bit. So having those things to bounce back to and find enjoyment in is crucial for my longevity in this sport. Have you always been competitive? No. Only in racing. I'd say my family is more competitive than I am. My oldest brother is the most competitive person I've ever met. So there's competition that's kind of within my blood, but not in anything else other than racing, I would say. So when you go fishing, you don't have to catch the biggest fish? No, I just enjoy doing it. Of course, if somebody else is out there catching a lot more fish than I am, I'm going to be pretty ticked off. But that doesn't usually happen. We talked the other day and you said you yell at the TV a little bit when you watch other sports? Does watching other sports give you more anxiety than racing does? Other sports give me more anxiety than racing does. I've spent time as a driver coach, too. And when I was coaching some kids in karting and some car stuff, I would lose it way more than I do when I'm actually driving. There's that sensation of being in control that kind of puts you at ease. So watching sports, like watching the Indiana Pacers for the past few weeks, drives me insane. I love it and I hate it at the same time. Kyle Kirkwood (right) cheers on the Pacers during their playoff run this season. So you're going to be one of those parents? Oh my gosh, I am. I am not looking forward to that. I already know that's coming. I see my parents, compared to how they react to everything else to how I've been in racing, and I already know I'm going to be a mental wreck when I have kids. Your bio says you like training? I enjoy training. I like the energy that it gives you. I think it is very important to train. Especially for driving these INDYCARs and especially when it's 95 degrees out. It definitely comes in handy. I can't say that every day that I wake up in the morning like, "Yeah, let's go train." I'd rather be out in the boat sitting, getting some sun, if I'm being honest. Is there any specific thing about training, like a specific workout or something that you enjoy most? High cardio. I find that more enjoyable than endurance or weightlifting. Do you listen to podcasts or anything when you're training? No. I listen to music just to block out everything else that's around me so I can just focus on myself. Is there a certain type of music you listen to? It's either alternative rock, maybe some EDM when I'm training. It's not really something I listen to on an everyday basis. So it's more just to give me a little bit more hype for the training session. Like current alternative rock? More like '90s or early 2000s. Stuff like Nirvana. Where are you putting all these trophies you're winning? Not in my house yet because I don't have a big enough house. My house is tiny in South Florida, and my girlfriend wants to kill me for stacking up the house in the living room with trophies. So they're currently sitting in the shop. But at some point, I've got to figure out what to do with them. Which will come by the end of the season. Will you be somebody who puts trophies all around the house? Will I see it when I walk in? I would love to put them everywhere, but I'm not going to be allowed to do that. So I'm going to have to get my own little corner of the garage or something that Vicky is going to allow me to put them in somewhere. It would probably be in a room, or hopefully in the future, in an office or something like that against the wall. But you would if you had your druthers. You'd like to just kind of walk by and see one and then walk to another room and see another? I won't be allowed. I can't even have that. It's going to be, "Kyle, here's your racing stuff, here's your trophies, here's your surfing and fishing stuff. And they stay here." A championship or Indy 500 trophy. Is that going to get an exception? Probably. I'll get it in a little glass case. Hopefully, she'll allow me to put it inside the living room or something. That'd be cool. Pre-race festivities ahead of the Indy 500 included a trip around town. You've won a few races this year already. What is the best thing about winning? Momentum. That's the best thing about winning. It brings a team around you. It allows people to work harder without acknowledging the effort that they put in. It just builds and compounds interest on top of winning. You go on to the next weekend, you have confidence. You want to win. You want to keep progressing. And it's starting to show a little bit. We're consistently at the front now. Like we're winning a couple races and there is that momentum that's behind it. So that's the best thing about winning. I wouldn't say it's a celebration afterward or anything else that's intangible. It's more what it brings for the future and how it progresses your season. That's the way I look at it, at least. What was the worst part about winning so much until this level and then not winning as much? I was used to being in the front a lot. I never got the opportunity to race people for fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth or anything like that because a lot of the races, I was just at the front. And that's not me trying to be cocky. That is just the honest truth. And for me, coming into the series, especially when I was at Foyt and all of a sudden you're racing for 18th and a top 20 would be a pretty good day. That's impossible to accept. So I always ended up over-pushing, trying to overextend to get something back, which would have worked in lower categories where the talent level wasn't as deep. But now, that's just not sustainable. You have to be absolutely perfect to win races here in INDYCAR, and you've got to be absolutely perfect to stay at the front, especially through practice sessions, qualifying, everything. It was tough. First year was hard. Second year was good. We had two wins, but the rest of the races — it was like fighting for 12th or something, which is something that I didn't cope with very well. Now let's say you're fighting for 12th, or maybe have a 12th-place car, and you get a top 10. Do you feel good? I would say I felt better last year with it. But this year, now that we actually have an opportunity to do something bigger than we did last year, I wouldn't be as happy with it. It's always good when you have a car that's meant to be somewhere, and you exceed what the car was capable of doing. But at the same time, you know you need points, you know you're one of the title contenders, and you hate to see somebody just continue to walk away with it. Especially when people are like, "Oh, you're our last hope of having a good season or a good championship at the end of the season." The pressure is on you! I don't mind it, if I'm being honest. We're going to do everything in our power. We've had pace, we've had everything to get it done here in the middle part of the season. And if anything, it just gives me confidence in my team, in my car and our ability to go out and do cool things. So I don't see it as a negative in the sense of there's too much pressure on me. Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass. share
Indianapolis Star
9 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
Racing social media sensation Hailie Deegan: '10 Insta posts offsets price for my sponsor'
INDIANAPOLIS -- Hailie Deegan comes by her 3.3 million followers on TikTok, 1.7 million followers on Instagram and 605K YouTube channel subscribers honestly. She's a novelty. A 23-year-old woman racing cars on the open-wheel circuit in a sport overrun by men, a lot of those men who are generations down the line with longtime, readymade sponsors at their fingertips. She is also the daughter of Brian Deegan, one of the most successful athletes in X Games history with 16 medals -- 12 in motocross and four in rally car racing. He was the first athlete to land a 360 in a freestyle motocross competition. Racing consumers fell in love Brian Deegan (like father, like daughter) and his infectious personality. At 51, he has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, 613,000 on TikTok and 73,100 on X. She is also the daughter of Marissa Deegan, a woman who latched onto technology when others weren't. She had a cell phone before anyone had a cell phone. She was at the forefront of the Blackberry craze. She started her daughter's social media platforms long before that was a thing in the world of racing. And Marrissa Deegan has her own 200,000 followers on Instagram and 34,600 on TikTok. Deegan has been staring into the lens, being recorded, for as long as she can remember. She has been sharing her life from the time she started in racing at 8 to now, as a driver in IndyCar's primary developmental series Indy NXT for HMD Motorsports. "I was so used to having cameras around 24/7 that it was almost just like I expected that of myself. Oh, I gotta show my life on social media. Show everyone what I'm doing. Show everyone who I am," Deegan told IndyStar. "And I think people gravitated toward that." They did. And that has come with a lot of good. But it also has come with the bad. Given that iconic name in the sphere of racing, Deegan has gotten plenty of comments that aren't so friendly. Spoon fed. Spoiled. Handed everything on a silver platter. "I think people think, 'Oh, you race cars. You live in a multimillion dollar mansion, drive around in some million dollar car.' No, it's not," said Deegan. "Really, I live a very normal life. Yes, my job is racing. My job is to keep up with social media, keep sponsors happy, run a merchandise company. Like that's my job." And it is a tough job. "People don't realize how hard it is to bring in sponsors," Deegan said, to continue the dream she has to race for at least the next 10 years. That is why Deegan, known as racing's social media sensation, has turned to what she is most comfortable with -- facing the camera and telling the world her story -- to foot the monstrous bills that come with racing a car. "My dad was highly successful on the two-wheel side of motorsports, which is about two zeros less than what you need to be in four-wheel motorsports," she said. "I'm all sponsor funded. It is not driven by family money whatsoever. Yes, I have the family name, but my parents haven't contributed financially to my racing for a long, long time." They gave her the start, the unconditional love and the continued endless support. But now it's Deegan's time to carry forward her own dream. "That's why I've used my social media to bring another value to the table. I could sell a primary sponsorship for a race, but also backend 10 Instagram posts that kind of offsets the price and makes it more favorable for my sponsor," she said. "So they both work hand in hand for me." When it comes to securing sponsors, Deegan is picky. The money might sound good, but it has to fit. "I've turned down a lot of sponsor deals over the fact that it doesn't align with me as a person. And so if there's something that truly I would never use this product, I will not do the deal," she said. "It obviously isn't worth it for a company if I don't love the product." Which brings her to one of her main sponsors, Monster Energy. Deegan drinks an energy drink a day. Perfect match. She also loves cooking, baking and, especially, grilling which makes her deal with Pit Boss another win-win. "I hate selling stuff that I don't use. People can see right through that," she said. "With social media nowadays, people can see when stuff is so fake." And that is what makes Deegan's social media so popular -- its authenticity. Most of her posts are either shot at a race track or hanging out with family or her fiance, Chase Cabre, who she met competing against in the NASCAR K&N Series. Cabre has become not only the love of Deegan's life, but her partner in business. "He was badass driver and I'm lucky to have him because he's probably the best in-house coach I could have," she said. "He is so talented at racing, but he just didn't grow up with money." Deegan watches all her film with Cabre and plays a lot of iRacing with him. Cabre is also the man who turns the camera toward Deegan these days, helping to capture her life and racing career on social media. And like the reactions to her social media, the majority positive, Deegan gets similar reaction as an Indy NXT driver. Mostly positive, some negative. Deegan, who grew up in Temecula, Calif., immersed herself in motorsports. "My dad has broken about everything in his body, won championships in off-road racing, rally car racing," she said. "The only thing he never really touched was NASCAR. But also I think with his image, it wasn't necessarily, I guess it didn't fit on brand." Deegan calls her family "on the edgier side." Her two younger brothers both race. Haiden is a professional AMA supercross and motocross racer, and Hudson competes in youth motocross. As for her own career, Deegan has plenty of accolades under her belt. She is the only female driver in the Lucas Oil Off Road Pro series, as well as the regional series to win championships (2013, 2015, 2016). She was also the only youth to win the Lucas Oil Off Road Pro series Driver of the Year award (2016). In Hailie's first season driving in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West in 2018, she scored her first win at Meridian Speedway in Idaho and went on to capture two more checkered flags in the 2019 season, making her the only female to have won races in the K&N Pro Series. As a current driver in Indy NXT, she ranks 19th out of 25 drivers with 82 points. Not exactly where she'd like to be. But she's working hard and trying to drown out any of the naysayers. "I really don't value anyone's opinion unless they're above me success-wise. So if some big name driver told me I sucked or I was terrible at this, obviously that would affect me a lot more," she said. "But people who have never done it before, it doesn't really affect me at all. I don't understand how people can feel like they can have an opinion about that when they've never done it before." Even when she was winning in K&N, there was some negativity. "At the end of the day, on the outside, I don't know if racing is ready for a fully competitive female," Deegan said. "Everyone says they want to push it, but ..." Deegan looks up to and has great admiration for Danica Patrick, modern day racing's female trailblazer. "She's probably, in my opinion, she was the woman that really really made it and did a lot and so I give her full props," said Deegan, who said she knows Patrick faced similar negativity from people as a female driver. "But who cares? She's way more successful than everyone who's talking about her combined." And Deegan has something Patrick didn't have when she started her career. "I'm thankful that I did build my social media and invest a bunch of time into it at a young age and didn't just neglect it," said Deegan, "because it's paying off for me right now."
Indianapolis Star
9 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
5 thoughts on IndyCar's new car, what it could mean for the sport's future, paddock insight
The new specifics are few, but the news was no less exciting as it rang across the IndyCar paddock: After 16 years of use, IndyCar's combination of its DW12 chassis and 2.2-liter twin-turbo engine will be retired after nearly 270 races of use come the 2027 season finale. For reference, the careers of Bobby Rahal (264 starts) and Dario Franchitti (265) rank within the top-15 lengthiest in American open-wheel racing history dating back to 1946. The car was born out of the testing acumen of the late Dan Wheldon, saw the entry (and soon to follow exit) of a third engine manufacturer in Lotus, welcomed first a manufacturer aero-kit and then a universal one and was the proving ground for IndyCar's aeroscreen and bespoke hybrid system. Among its full-time driver contingent, only Scott Dixon, Will Power and Graham Rahal have raced anything else in their top-level American open-wheel racing careers. 'The DW12 served the series so well, as it provided a combination of phenomenal, wheel-to-wheel racing and critical enhancements to safety,' IndyCar president Doug Boles said. 'But recent significant updates to the car … have helped advance the need for a completely new car. 'We are pleased by what our engineers and Dallara have collaboratively designed and believe it will appear to the fans and paddock, while also upholding our standards of safety and enhancing IndyCar's on-track competition well into the future.' Penske Entertainment's rollout plan announced June 22 included a private audience of owners or executives from all its full-time teams minutes after the end of Practice No. 2 on Saturday, during which sources with direct knowledge of aspects of the meeting said meeting attendees were not shown a mock-up of the new car design, which is said to have undergone a notable redesign since owners were gathered for an offseason meeting in October when talk around the new car around the paddock picked up significantly. Multiple sources with knowledge of meeting said Penske Entertainment leaders didn't dive too deep into the cars' specifics beyond what was laid out in the Saturday afternoon release shortly after their meeting together completed. Here are five thoughts I have in the wake of IndyCar's most substantive statement around its future technical regulations since Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles sat down with IndyStar at St. Pete in March and elaborated on the process and did his best to dispel rumors and clarify the work that had taken place in the offseason. Miles said one could come 'as early as 2027,' but after a year, though an initial prototype had been developed and seen wind tunnel time, Miles was still not able to offer a hard-and-fast timeline. In fact, he promised that the series would see some level of change to the cars being raced in 2027, planting the idea that some updates could rollout that year with the rest coming by 2028. IndyCar and Penske Entertainment have given no indication why that phased rollout with new technology on track more quickly has been scrapped, but there was no mention of 2027 in Saturday's release. Another delay as it may, the firm road map — as long as it doesn't see delays the likes of the elongated hybrid system rollout — now begins to give teams the makings of a runway on which they can prepare not only for the cost impacts of a new car but the way in which they wind down use of their parts related to the DW12. 'I'm pretty happy with where the whole thing is right now,' Meyer Shank Racing co-owner Mike Shank told IndyStar. 'I think the move to 2028 was really crucial for all of our sakes, and now we can plan around it the best we can. 'And because they moved to 2028, we have a proper, doable plan that allows us to fully depreciated (our DW12s) and run all the parts out as much as we can and end up with worn-out racecars by the end of 2027.' It was already well-understood across the paddock that the car would be made by Dallara and would include low-voltage hybrid technology and a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 engine. Maybe the most impactful piece of information IndyCar unveiled was the early makings of a timeline for which the new car would begin on-track testing. That process, according to IndyCar's release, will begin in 'early 2026.' It will allow for a nearly two-year runway of testing and production ahead of the car's on-track debut. By comparison, the DW12 began on-track testing in August 2011, just seven months before it was first used in a race. A test and production window nearly three times the length of that of IndyCar's most recent new chassis should assuage any concerns that Penske Entertainment will be unable to meet its benchmarks along the way, despite the festering wounds of how the hybrid testing and development process went from 2022-24. 'This gives us a lot of time to really develop this, so it's not a cluster-you-know-what, and we'll actually be able to run the car,' Shank said. 'I think Doug Boles has done an awesome job. I was impressed with how he led (the team owners' meeting),' added Prema Racing IndyCar CEO Piers Phillips. 'This is a team sport, and once you get over the pit wall, you want to beat everybody, but I always say, you've got to get to the pit wall together as an organization, and I think the group discussion has been very productive.' It remains a paddock mystery as to who and how many engine manufacturers the sport will have once Honda and Chevy's deal with the sport that runs through 2026 expires. Of the two, Honda Racing Corp. USA is the party those around the paddock are uncertain whether it will re-sign or not in the wake of the company airing its concerns in late 2023 with the state of the sport and the return on investment it offers. 'It's great to see IndyCar moving forward and announcing plans around the new car. That's something fans have been waiting for and teams, drivers and OEMs have been waiting for, so I think that's a really good step forward,' Chuck Schifsky, the national manager of HRC USA's racing endeavors, told IndyStar at Road America, who noted that HRC USA continues to meet 'regularly' with Penske Entertainment executives regarding the future of the sport and the prospect of their involvement in it past 2026 and that those meetings 'have been doing well.' Schifsky offered no specifics as to HRC USA's decision-making timeline, though one has been given to Penske Entertainment. Though it wasn't explicitly stated in the release, one would imagine that new car testing in early 2026 for IndyCar's next technical regulations would involve manufacturer-specific testing — i.e. a 2028 safety cell with updated parts and body kit and manufacturer-specific engines inside. Such a theory would require HRC USA to decide whether or not they plan to stick around long enough ahead to have a 2.4-liter test engine and testing plan prepared, making it reasonable to expect the longtime IndyCar manufacturer's future in the sport (or lack of it) to be solidified in the coming months. Changes coming in IndyCar's new car: Weight reduction, engine formula, more Though specifications around the engine formula are minimal, beyond it being a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 internal combustion engine with a low-voltage hybrid component, if that sounds familiar, you're not going crazy. It's the bones of what the series announced in 2019 would be coming in 2022 — after the internal combustion engine side was announced in 2018 for 2021. To me, that signals two things: One, for Chevy and (potentially) Honda, it's like slipping on an old forgotten pair of pants in the back of your closet. For both of them, the 2.4-liter engine formula is a piece of technology both were a good ways down the road with three years ago. In March 2022, just weeks after the 2.4-liter engine and hybrid combo were punted to 2024, the IMS road course hosted both Honda and Chevy for a multi-day test of both camps' 2.4-liter engine. Results of both sides' testing was kept largely private, but we know that Chevy turned 600 miles, and Honda went so far as to embark on an additional test day a couple months later with both the 2.4-liter and a version of the hybrid system. Though both sides ultimately decided to scrap continued development of their respective 2.4-liter engines to pour time, money and energy into helping IndyCar get the hybrid to the finish line, it's not as if those development plans just disappeared into thin air. There's reason to think both could get those engines back up and running with relative ease and that producing a dependable, competitive, track-tested engine with which to compete in IndyCar a couple years down the road isn't a project that requires starting from scratch. In fact, though it's slightly different, the bones of Honda's 2.4-liter engine is currently racing in its Acura GTP cars in IMSA, giving the manufacturer most known to be on the fence something concrete to work off of. The downside to this: Rebooting an engine formula that was in the works for four years previously and one that isn't all too different than what IndyCar is running now doesn't give me great hope that a new manufacturer outside the two competing is coming into the fold any time soon. Though the sport has made some notable gains in its popularity and what it can offer for those who play a major role in the sport, but there's neither been enough of a technological leap nor has the sport gained enough traction for me to think a major racing manufacturer that once turned the sport down is going to circle back around and have a change of heart. The manufacturer arms race in the major racing series around the world is becoming an increasingly crowded and competitive space, with sports like NASCAR offering a massive platform, ones like IMSA and WEC offering a lot of technological freedom and the ability to compete against a bunch of other high-level manufacturers from around the world and ones like Formula 1 that offer maybe the best of both worlds. It's a tough landscape for IndyCar to compete in at the moment, and racing an engine package that has been on the table for years in some form with no new takers doesn't have me thinking one is going to magically pop up any time soon. Setting the record straight: IndyCar CEO Mark Miles details new car development process The word 'horsepower' appeared just once in IndyCar's release about its new car, in noting that the hybrid would offer a gain in that department. In short, the amount of power Indy cars could sport come 2028 is yet to be confirmed, though it's notable that all the descriptions of the 2.4-liter engine and hybrid package that was pursued years ago was said to allow for as much as 900 horsepower when including the internal combustion engine, the hybrid and the push-to-pass boost system. Presently, the cars run around 800 hp at their maximum capacity, according to numbers provided around the time of the hybrid's debut a year ago, meaning a 100 hp gain from various components of the new engine package would mark a notable boost to the power drivers currently have at their fingertips. The downside of that additional power at the time of the addition of the hybrid last summer was that it took the addition of just over 100 pounds of new technology added to the back of the car to produce it, therefore negating that added horsepower boost. The next generation car will come with a drop in weight compared to the car in use between 85 and 100 pounds, making said new car's weight right around the pre-hybrid weight, but one that could be equipped with a significant boost in horsepower. The specifics of all of those will matter a great deal — the weight distribution, after all, matters as much if not more than the car's overall weight — but if a well-balanced car can be had, then a lighter, more powerful one certainly should be something drivers will enjoy competing with far more than the overweight, under-powered one they have now.
