INDIANAPOLIS — The last time Kyle Kirkwood was racing at Indy, he was climbing out of his badly crashed race car after flipping on his lid during a frightening Lap 183 crash in the 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500. His tire flew off in the midst of the wild crash and cleared the catch fencing.

INDYCAR has since made changes to hopefully not allow that to happen again.

MORE: Kirkwood on the cusp of being the next great American Indy Car driver

Now, he comes here the latest winner in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES with his second career win in last Sunday’s Big Machine Music City Grand Prix. Can he score his second win in a six day span in Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix (2 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network)?

“Doesn’t feel as good as the first one,” he said last Sunday. “The first one was absolutely amazing at Long Beach. Now this is a step in the right direction. This helps us in our championship, get us back in the top 10 range, I imagine. This was a phenomenal day for Andretti Autosport on the 27 car.”

He qualified sixth here in May and driving the car that won this race a year ago. In fact, Andretti Autosport swept both races here last season.

Rossi had 5 top 7 finishes in his last 6 tries in this ride including 4 of which in the top 4. In the Road to Indy, Kirkwood had 5 top 4 finishes including a pair of runner-up finishes and a win in six tries. He has finished in the top 10 in 4 of the last 7 races on the season.