After about seven months of buildup, the Freedom 250 weekend is upon us. For those that have been living under a rock, this event was designed to be a one-time event to be run as part of America 250 – the year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, long recognized as the birthday of the US.
I was preparing to go off to college when America celebrated its bicentennial, fifty years ago in 1976. America’s 200th birthday seemed to be a much bigger deal than this year’s semi-quincentennial; possibly because bicentennial was a lot easier to spell and pronounce. Gerald Ford was finishing out Richard Nixon’s term as president, on the heels of Watergate. There was obviously a lot of political unrest at that time, but no one really connected the bicentennial to the Nixon/Ford administration. In fact, the bicentennial was looked upon as a chance to put the political bickering aside for a while, in order to unite in the year-long celebration of our country. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the Daytona 500 to the Indianapolis 500 – the bicentennial logo was seen everywhere, and served as a unifying sense of pride.
America 250 has mostly spent 2026 as a source of division in this country. Those that dislike the current administration lack the ability to separate what should be a focal point of unity, due to the president that they despise. Unfortunately, this weekend’s Freedom 250 has been lumped into everything they loathe about the president.
Many people hate Donald Trump, and I get that. Many people love Donald Trump, and I get that. What I don’t get is why those that hate Donald Trump and profess to be IndyCar fans, proudly say they want this event to fail in an epic manner. They refuse to attend and claim they will not even watch it on TV – except some say they may watch to bask in the joy of watching what they hope will be a disaster.
I understand that I can be a very shallow individual at times, but I have never allowed whoever is in the White House to affect my enjoyment of an event. If I did not vote for a certain Commander in Chief, does that mean I have to refuse to pull for the football team of his alma mater? Worse yet, would that mean that I had to boycott even watching them play out of protest?
This is a very unique opportunity that has been given to IndyCar. I have friends locally that are not even sports fans, much less racing fans. But knowing that I am a big IndyCar fan, they have sought me out to tell me how cool this event sounds and they cannot wait to watch it. They have been peppering me with some of the simplest questions about IndyCar and motorsports in general for the last couple of weeks, but I gladly answer them in hopes that they will watch. I don’t think this is specific to just my friends. There will be a lot of people who will be watching this event that may not have ever tuned into an IndyCar race before – maybe not even the Indianapolis 500.
I don’t see supporting this race as a sign that you support Donald Trump. Just like when a championship team is invited to the White House, that dsoesn’t mean the team supports the current president. I believe all members should go, regardless of which party is in residence there. It’s an honor to be invited. It’s an honor that goes with winning. IndyCar was invited to be the featured series in this event. It is an honor to be invited. It has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with celebrating 250 years of our nation, regardless of what some of the outraged say. When individual players of championship teams opt out of a White House visit for political reasons, I alwys think less of them – even if I don’t care for whoever is president at the time. It’s an honor to be invited. You don’t make this about yourself and your own political beliefs.
FOX Sports is all in on this race. Now that they own 30% of the series, they base their decisions on what is best for their business – not what their emotions tell them to do. I think they know what they are doing. This event is going to be good for business. Yet I have seen countless geniuses on social media pontificating on what a stupid decision this race is for FOX and IndyCar, and they hope to be laughing hysterically on Monday morning, when all of the experts will be doing their postmortem on the event. Some “fans”!
When this event was announced less than seven months ago, all I thought about was what a great opportunity this was for IndyCar. What a spectacle to incorporate into celebrating America 250! I guess I was naïve in not realizing that this would instantly become political, and therefore polarizing. Nowadays, people love to become outraged and lose their mind when someone doesn’t totally agree with them. If someone totally agrees with me on everything I say or do, I immediately become suspicious. I like to be challenged and be given the opportunity to explain my side. Perhaps they can present a compelling argument to prove I was wrong. That’s doubtful, but I do enjoy listening to another point of view. Maybe that’s why my way of thinking no longer seems to fit in with today’s world.
When my father was a few months younger than I am now, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He knew he only had a few months to live. I was with him when he got the news. What were the first words out of his mouth? “Well, it’s just as well. I don’t fit into this world anymore”. I didn’t fully understand what he meant then, but I do now. That’s the way I have felt all week, reading all of the comments on social media cheering for the Freedom 250 to fail, for the whole world to see. And they were using all of the same tired jokes. If you are going to make a snide remark – at least be original. These all seemed to come from the same playbook.
What kind of IndyCar fans are these, that intentionally root for the sport they follow to suffer a public black eye? Is it really worth it to you to see the sport you supposedly love, suffer an embarrassing setback just to prove a point? What is the point you are trying to make here anyway? How does boycotting this race do you any good? Do you really think it will hurt Trump? Will Donald Trump, IndyCar or FOX Sports even realize that you have deprived yourself of watching what may be one of the most unique races in IndyCar history? This way of thinking baffles me. I don’t care who is in the White House, I’m going to live my life the way I want to by watching or attending what I want. OK…end of rant.
Politics aside, this is going to be an interesting weekend. Based on the liveries we’ve seen, at least a quarter of the field will be in some type of stars & stripes scheme. The 1.7-mile track has only seven turns, with three fairly decent-sized straightaways and one turn (Turn Two) being sharper than 90°. There is only one sweeping turn, and that’s being generous, and that is the section between Turns Six and Seven before heading to the Start/Finish line on 3rd Street, in front of the Capitol. Glancing at the map, the track doesn’t seem that interesting or demanding – but how much can you really tell from a map?
I think what will be interesting will be the backdrops and photo ops provided. The Nashville downtown street circuit was not great (and I’m being kind), but it offered spectacular shots of the cars going over the bridge, with downtown Nashville in the background. The Capitol will offer a very unique background with Indy cars speeding in front of it on 3rd Street, as the go from Independence Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue – arguably two of the most famous streets in the US.
Conceivably, Alex Palou has the potential to clinch his fourth consecutive IndyCar championship and fifth overall. Personally, I hope he doesn’t – not that I have anything against him personally or that I think anyone else has a real chance. But if there are as many new eyeballs as expected watching this race, I’d like for them to have a reason to tune in next weekend for the double-header at Milwaukee.
One thing that will be different that I have mixed emotions about is that the length of this race has been increased to an actual 250 miles (147 laps). That is significantly longer than any temporary street circuit that I am aware of For context, last week’s street race at Markham, Ontario had a race distance of 197 miles, which is about average. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach this past April was 177 miles, so 250 miles will be taxing on drivers, and if the race turns out to be a crash fest – it could be taxing on viewers and spectators as well. I read somewhere that Firestone has already given each team an extra set of tires. What I don’t know, are they black or red? Altogether, there will be six sets of blacks and five sets of reds allocated for each car. Rookie drivers get an extra set of black tires for the weekend. This could be a four or even five-stop race, which is crazy for a temporary street race.
This will be a two-day event, much like last week at Markham ended up being, but this one is planned. Practice One gets underway Saturday morning at 9:00 am EDT on FS1. Practice Two will start fairly quickly at 1:00 pm EDT on FS2. Qualifying begins at 5:00 pm EDT on FS2. Sunday’s Morning Warmup will start at 9:00 am EDT on FS1. Then a special 90-minute Pre-Race show will begin on Big FOX, with Sunday’s race starting at 1:00 pm on Big FOX. Why a 90-minute pre-race? I don’t know. I am assuming it will be a 90-minute infomercial for IndyCar. Some fear it will get political. I hope not. I’m tuning in to watch racing, not politics. FOX Sports and FOX News are two different entities. Let’s hope they stick with racing.
Who will win this weekend’s Freedom 250? The easy answer would be Alex Palou. But with four races to go and an almost insurmountable lead, I think he has moved away from the goal of tying AJ Foyt’s ten wins in 1964. While he can still do it, I think his goal is to not throw away an almost certain fifth championship. He saw last week in qualifying how quickly things can go south. I think he will not win another race until after he clinches the championship this season. That means he will not win this weekend.
I think Will Power has another good shot, like he did last weekend. But like last weekend, I think Marcus Ericsson will win on Sunday. He has a strong track record of winning at new venues. He won the first race in Nashville in 2021. He won the pole at Arlington and finished fourth, before winning last week at Markham. Now that he’s gotten the monkey off of his back and won his first race for Andretti Global, I think he will win two in a row. Racing is funny like that.
I am glad that this weekend is finally here and we can get the politics behind us. I hope everyone can enjoy the weekend for what it is, no matter what happens before, during and after the race. This is an IndyCar race. It is not a political rally for either side. Hopefully, we can leave it at that.
George Phillips
