Kyle Kirkwood is back to chasing Alex Palou, although it seems to get more difficult with each lap.

Kirkwood appeared poised to overtake the four-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion late in Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear only to have a caution set him back. Shortly thereafter, Kirkwood had another opportunity to swipe the lead from Palou (photo, top), only to have another caution again derail his momentum.

“Of course, it came out after I’d burned 10 seconds (of the push-to-pass overtake system),” Kirkwood said of the second of those yellows.

The advantage the rest of the way belonged to Palou. His No. 10 HRC Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was finishing the race with a set of the preferred Firestone primary tires while Kirkwood’s closing hopes were on a set of alternates that were losing grip. Given that scenario, Palou simply drove away from Kirkwood, earning a 3.0584-second victory.

Kirkwood’s second-place finish allowed him to move back into second place in the standings, but his deficit to Palou is now 62 points, which is more than can be gained on another driver in a single race. Kirkwood’s option was to accept what this day had given Andretti Global’s No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda.

“Overall, a good day,” he said. “You can’t be very upset with starting sixth and finishing second. We did all the right things. Pit stops were great, strategy was great.

“I kind of made the decision to run (a set of primary tires) when we did, which I think was probably the right call in hindsight. I don’t know what we could have done better. All the stones were left unturned.”

Kyle Kirkwood

Palou caught a break with a caution on Lap 66 that shuffled Kirkwood (photo, above), his strongest challenger, back to seventh on the restart, but Kirkwood wasted no time getting back within striking distance. It just wasn’t enough as Palou won for the 12th time in the past 25 races, staking his strongest case yet for capturing a record-tying fourth consecutive series championship.

“They’re fast, they’re a good team, and he’s a phenomenal driver,” Kirkwood said of Palou and his Chip Ganassi Racing crew, which led 71 of the 100 laps in this race. “(Winning) is kind of expected.

“They struggled at street courses in recent years, and they don’t now. They’re clearly one of the best, and they’re a group that we’re trying to catch up to now almost on street courses.

“Can you say it’s frustrating? I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating – it just makes us work harder and want to drive to do better in all aspects because they’re doing everything right, and they have for many years now.”

Kirkwood has been hailed as a street course expert, with five of his six career series wins coming on such circuits. But Palou added this win to similar ones this season in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and he now has five career street circuit victories, including the inaugural downtown Detroit race in 2023.

Kirkwood’s consolation is that next week’s race is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway, an oval race he won last year. Palou finished eighth in last year’s race there and has never finished higher than fourth. Sunday’s broadcasts are set for 9 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).

Kirkwood believes he is still firmly in title contention.

“If we have the run that (Palou) has had in the middle part of the year here, it would be very possible for us to catch up,” he said. “If we have a good weekend next weekend – that was a track (CGR) has struggled at in recent years. Maybe they get better, I don’t know.

“But there’s a lot of good races on our schedule that I still think we can catch up. It’s not done and lost by any means. He was about 50 points behind us I think at one point. (A title) is very possible still. What are we, eight through, 10 to go?

“There’s a crazy amount of races left.”