WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a grand spectacle befitting of the incredible backdrop of the Nation’s Capital, Kyle Kirkwood of the United States put the finishing touches on this country’s 250th Anniversary with a victory in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix.
A crowd of 150,000 fans jammed into the 1.7-mile, seven-turn street course, filling the grandstands, lining the fences and turning the National Mall into Festival of Speed.
At the end of 147 grueling laps in hot and humid conditions, it was Kirkwood that got to live out his “American Dream” by scoring a victory in the one-and-only race on the streets of Washington, D.C.
“You guys were awesome in the pits today, you deserved this one, thank you so much,” Kirkwood radioed to his Andretti Global / Curb-Agajanian crew.
“Kyle, you really carried us to this one today,” his race strategist, Bryan Herta radioed back.
On the cooldown lap, Kirkwood was loudly cheered by the massive crowd, many of whom had never been to, or seen, an auto race of any kind.
Kirkwood lit up his rear wheels with a doughnut across the front straight and then driving it back to front straight as the winner.
He jumped out of his car, threw his hand into the air and then dived into the hands of his Andretti Global crew before getting the congratulations from IndyCar legend Mario Andretti.
Kirkwood led 128 laps in the 147-lap contest and defeated Chrisitan Lundgaard of Arrow McLaren by 3.0906-seconds. Andretti Global teammate Will Power was third in the No. 28 followed by another Andretti Global driver Marcus Ericsson.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson was fifth.
“You can’t even put it into words, this is incredible,” Kirkwood said. “I’m almost in tears here. It’s a big moment for us, big moment for America with the 250, big moment for Andretti, Sam’s Club and Honda. They gave me the equipment to perform.
“But man, that was a hard race. One-hundred-and-forty-seven laps around this place, I’m out of breath right now.
“It felt good to dominate out here. I’m not going to lie. What an incredible place to do it. If you can’t win the Indianapolis 500, this is the place to win. I don’t know if we are ever going to get another chance here.
“This was a dream come true.”
Lundgaard got his sixth podium finish of the season and drove from ninth place to second.
“I feel it’s fitting that an American won,” Lundgaard said. “We gave it our best shot. We did great. It’s good to bounce back from Markham. Starting up front and not quite executing. Awesome event. We’ve got the Capitol in the background. This is only something you can dream of.
“I’m just happy to see Alex Palou not win for once.”
Power’s third-place finish was his third podium in a row.
“Good team, good car, good stops, strategy, made moves on the track,” Power said. “So awesome to see Kyle win this race and two of us on the podium. It’s such an epic event. I would have never dreamed racing in a place like this when I got started racing in Toowoomba, Australia.
“We are becoming the team to beat.”
The race also featured a dramatic turn in the battle for the NTT IndyCar Series Championship for Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing. He finished 20th after dropping one lap down because of a penalty when he hit Mick Schumacher’s tires leaving his pit stall. Later in the race, Palou crashed but was able to finish the race, three laps down to the winner.
Kirkwood chopped Palou’s 133-point lead to 91 points as the series heads into next week’s doubleheader at The Milwaukee Mile.
“It was one of those races where I wanted to win so it hurts that I didn’t,” Palou said afterwards. “I did a couple mistakes; we had a bad stop. Like we had everything happening to us today. I prefer this than then having spread out in like different races. I prefer to concentrate on one.
“But yeah, it was a shame. The first pit stop when I kind of smacked I think a tire, obviously, was not on purpose, and that just put us on the back foot. Then at some point I smacked the wall a little bit. The toe link was bent for like 20 laps, and then suddenly it just broke. So that’s why we spun and crashed and everything. So yeah, one of those days. But it is what it is.”
Palou was attempting to clinch his fourth-straight championship and fifth overall in Sunday’s race on the streets of Washington, DC. But in order for that to have happened, Kirkwood would have also had a bad race.
Instead, it was Palou that encountered misfortune.
“I did that mistake in the pits,” Palou said. “
Then we just had to do something on strategy to try and make it. The issues there that once we had that slow stop with the front tire, we were behind the leader, so we had to burn all our fuel, do an extra stop to try and catch Kirkwood, which we couldn’t, and then that’s it. Like we’re on no man’s land.
“So yeah, one of those bad days that as soon as you’re in a bad situation, you kind of put yourself off the board. 91 points. Never ever super comfortable until it’s done, right? But obviously today sucks more for this race than the championship. I think the good amount of points that we had is great for a day like today, just so we can now focus on Milwaukee and try and win
“The event was incredible. It was incredible. I don’t know. I was always on my own, like doing different stuff, I couldn’t really pass. I don’t know if there were a lot of passes or not, but yeah, I mean, this venue was incredible for us.”
