IndyCar

Kyle Kirkwood wins inaugural Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C.

Motorsport Technology
2 months ago
4 min read

Kyle Kirkwood came through in dominant fashion to win the inaugural Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. after championship leader Alex Palou crashed out.


Kirkwood, who still has an outside chance of catching Palou with three races remaining, did exactly what he needed to do in heading home the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Christian Lundgaard and Will Power.

“You can’t even put it into words – this is incredible,” Kirkwood is quoted on IndyCar.com. “I’m almost in tears here.

“This is a big moment for us, a big moment for America here with the 250.

“I feel that it’s fitting that an American won, right? We gave it our best shot.”

Freedom 250 on the streets of Washington DC – Picture by Joe Skibinski

Indeed it was a fitting result for the patriotic attendees at the temporary 1.7-mile street circuit, that offers historic views of the National Mall and White House amongst other iconic monuments.

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A certain Donald J. Trump would also have been pleased by the result, the President of the United States on hand to wave the green flag and get the race underway.

Freedom 250 on the streets of Washington DC – credit Joe Skibinski

Having started on the front row, Kirkwood commanded the race in dominant fashion after passing Palou on lap 2, leading 128 of 147 laps as rival Palou fell by the wayside.

The Spaniard clearly got out of the wrong side of his bed on race day and suffered an uncharacteristically error-strewn race.

Having been passed by Kirkwood at the start, his misery was compounded when he hit rookie Mick Schumacher’s tyre on lap 39 during a pit stop under caution leading to a penalty for unsafe release.

It then went from bad to worse, a second botched pit stop with the airjack operator dropping his car and costing time led to Palou over pressing and crashing out at Turn 4 with just 19 laps remaining.

“It hurts, man,” added Palou. “I wanted to get that win. It kind of hurts a lot that we had this bad of a day. It’s OK; things happen.”

For Kirkwood, victory means he lies 91 points behind Palou with only three races remaining but with momentum on his side.

“It felt good to dominate out there; I’m not going to lie,” Kirkwood added. “That was a really good moment.

“What an incredible place to do it. If you can’t win the (Indianapolis) 500, this is definitely the place to win.

Kyle Kirkwood celebrates on the podium – Credit Joe Skibinski

“I don’t know if we’re ever going to get a chance to do it again – I hope we do. This was awesome. What a dream come true.”

Next up it the crucial double header at the Milwaukee Mile, the last oval event of the season on August 29 and 30 before the season concludes with the INDYCAR Grand Prix of Monterey on Sunday, September 6.

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