KIRKWOOD WINS HISTORIC FREEDOM 250 AS PALOU STUMBLES
Kyle Kirkwood won the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington D.C., the first professional road race ever held on the streets of the American capital. The Andretti Global driver led 128 of the 147 laps and finished 3 seconds ahead of Christian Lundgaard.
The race was staged around the National Mall as the closing event of the celebrations for America’s 250th birthday, on a 1.7-mile, seven-turn temporary circuit that ran along Pennsylvania Avenue and finished in front of the Capitol. President Donald Trump waved the green flag, Washington mayor Muriel Bowser was grand marshal and transportation secretary Sean Duffy took the chequered flag. Tens of thousands attended, and more than three million watched on television, the largest audience for an IndyCar race outside the Indianapolis 500 in years.
Kirkwood started second, took the lead from pole-sitter Alex Palou in the opening stages and was rarely troubled after that. He built a lead of around 16 seconds at one point, and the three-second final margin was the product of a late caution bunching the field rather than any real pressure. It was his second win of 2026 and the seventh of his career, six of them on street circuits.
Will Power took third and Marcus Ericsson, who had won the previous round at Markham, finished fourth, putting three of the team’s cars in the top four. Lundgaard split them in second for Arrow McLaren. Behind them came Kyffin Simpson, Nolan Siegel, Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden, with Caio Collet ninth as the top rookie and Romain Grosjean tenth.
He had taken his seventh pole of the season, a career best, and by the mathematics he could have clinched a fifth title with a win. Instead he lost the lead immediately, then picked up a drive-through penalty for hitting the tyre setup in the pit box belonging to rookie Mick Schumacher. On his next stop a loose tyre cost him more time and dropped him off the lead lap, and a spin later in the race finished the job. He came home 20th and three laps down, his second-worst result of the year.
The first serious crash came on lap 37 when David Malukas lost his Penske Chevrolet at the final corner and hit the barriers, with Sting Ray Robb unable to avoid him. Both retired unhurt, taking out two of the eight American drivers in the field.
On the restart that followed, Marcus Armstrong missed his braking point at Turn 5 and hit Christian Rasmussen, spinning him and collecting Rinus VeeKay, who was running near the front at the time. Armstrong was given a stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact. VeeKay, unaware of who was responsible, blamed Rasmussen afterwards and called the incident “stupid”.
The last major retirement was Scott McLaughlin’s. He had spent much of the race in second, and on a restart inside the final 20 laps he attacked Kirkwood and briefly got ahead by a few metres before running into the tyre barrier. Felix Rosenqvist then slid on the debris and spun, though he was able to continue. The failed move dropped McLaughlin to ninth in the standings.
In the championship, Kirkwood cut Palou’s lead from 133 points to 91 with three races remaining. That gap is still large, and the schedule does not favour him: the next two rounds are ovals at Milwaukee, where his best result is eighth, and street circuits are where he is strongest. If Palou takes seven points out of him in the first Milwaukee race the title is effectively settled, and a swing of more than 107 makes it mathematically certain.
The Milwaukee Mile doubleheader runs on Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August, before the season ends at Laguna Seca on 6 September.
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