The Freedom 250 had a lot of hype leading up to it, and a lot of patriotism and pomp on full display. Surely the race couldn’t match the build-up could it? In my opinion – it actually did. Before everyone jumps on me for being an IndyCar cheerleader, keep in mind that I usually have relatively low expectations going into a temporary street race weekend. American Kyle Kirkwood put the cherry on top by dominating and winning, leading 128 of the 147 laps.
Was it as memorable as the finish of this past May’s Indianapolis 500? No. Was there perfect execution of a strategy everyone doubted like last weekend’s race at Markham, Ontario? No. But I thought it was better than two-thirds of the street races I’ve seen in the last few years. And it was certainly not the s**tshow that many of the naysayers were predicting. Far from it!
I had a few local friends watching this weekend that had never ever watched a single lap of IndyCar racing. When there was a full-course yellow for debris from contact on the opening lap, I was concerned. I was afraid it was a sign that we may be looking at a crashfest, the likes of which we had never seen before. I was also fearful that my newbie friends would lose interest quickly and turn it off. My fears were unfounded.
Even though the second caution was also for debris, possibly left over from the initial caution period – by Lap 44, we were on our fourth caution. If you do the math, it looked like we were in for a long afternoon. But from that point, we had 74 laps of continuous green-flag racing before Alex Palou crashed in Turn Four, putting an exclamation point on one of the worst days I can remember the four-time champion experiencing. The final caution came on the re-start from the Palou crash, when Scott McLaughlin tried an ambitious move that would have made Takuma Sato proud. It didn’t work.
Six cautions for 27 total laps in a 147 lap race, with two of them for debris is not what I would call a crash fest. Last week’s race that everyone ended up loving after a very rocky start; featured six cautions for 25 laps in a 90 lap race.
The first actual crash of the day was the scariest, when David Malukas hit the outside wall hard in Turn Seven on Lap 37. The hit was hard enough, but Sting Ray Robb added insult to injury by coming through the corner and tagging Malukas hard as he was sitting there helpless. To be fair to Robb, the caution was not flashing as he approached the corner at speed. He had no time to react.
The final re-start came with thirteen laps to go. At one time earlier, I saw that Kirkwood had a fourteen-second lead over second-place. The final caution erased whatever lead Kirkwood had as the field bunched up. Kirkwood got a much better start with Christian Lundgaard behind him, than he did when McLaughlin thought he could get him in Turn One just a few laps earlier. Kirkwood had a 1.5 second lead over Lundgaard as the laps were winding down, but suddenly Lundgaard started closing the gap with nine or ten laps remaining. I thought we were in for some last lap dramatics. But Kirkwood regained his footing and pulled away again, winning by more than three seconds when the checkered flag flew.
TV Coverage: FOX pulled out all the stops this weekend, and it showed. I watched all three telecasts on Saturday, the Warm-Up Show on Sunday morning, and of course the race itself – including all of the 90-minute Pre-Race Show. I wanted to see it all for myself, just in case I saw people complaining. I wanted to see if their complaints were valid, if there were any.
Last Thursday, I saw where several people were certain that Fox News would take over the pre-race show and make it all about the President. I didn’t think that would happen, but I couldn’t be sure. It didn’t.
Instead, we got Chris Myers hosting an outside desk, similar to what they set up behind The Pagoda on Race Morning at Indianapolis. Myers was joined by Danica Patrick and Helio Castroneves. I can’t say that either of them brought a lot to the table. Danica talked about her goosebumps from the opening ceremonies, and Helio just grinned and was his usual effervescent self. He was pleasant enough, but really didn’t discuss anything really racing related.
There were some “humorous” (I’m being kind) skits involving Revolution-era happenings. There was also some lengthy and over-the-top segment of how the pace car was brought to Washington for the race. It involved every branch of the armed services, but it seemed like an unnecessary way to promote the military, when you knew it simply arrived on an auto transport or possibly driven directly from Indianapolis. I didn’t pay attention to the pace car used at the start of the race, but the pace car they were using on re-starts had the same paint scheme as the 500 pace car used this past May. It was likely the same car, and it was certainly not the Corvette the segment showed being carried by helicopters and hovercraft. It just seemed like a waste of effort and time that could have been devoted to more racing coverage.
For those that were expecting a 90-minute Donald Trump infomercial, it didn’t happen. In the last 15 minutes, FOX devoted about three minutes to interviewing Trump. They would’ve been delinquent in their duties had they not interviewed the president, no matter who it was. Trump was not his usual boastful self. Instead, he talked about how Roger (Penske) approached him and they got it done. The rest of the time, he talked about his love of racing.
The Warm-up Show featured Roger Penske on the couch with Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe. He gave us insight on how much work Bud Denker had done on this project and how it all came about. I was surprised that we heard nothing from Denker all day Sunday, after he was interviewed Saturday morning during Practice One.
As far as the race coverage went, I thought FOX brought us some excellent shots – not just of the Capitol, but of all the various sites in the area. Will Buxton gushed a little more than usual, and I didn’t know that was possible. But Townsend Bell and James Hinchliffe provided great balance to him and were even more insightful than usual. I thought the two of them had an excellent weekend. The three regular pit reporters did their usual excellent jobs, but I’m not sure Jaime Little added anything – especially when she interviewed the First Lady during green-flag action with no window to watch what was going on. That should have been part of the Pre-Race Show.
Overall, I would give FOX an “A” for what was obviously a lot of beyond the norm preparation on their part.
Pre-Race Ceremonies: There was no Back Home Again in Indiana, as there shouldn’t have been – but I liked the choice of performers for God Bless America and our National Anthem. Both were talented tenors that performed beautifully without making their performances all about them. Both performances were extremely tasteful.
There were seven flyovers that looked like they would have been spectacular in person. One is good, two is even better – but seven? You can’t get enough of a good thing.
The Legions of the Miserable: As I mentioned Friday, there has been considerable opposition to this entire event since it was announced at the end of January. Many people I know and respect for their racing knowledge, went on the offensive from Day One, proclaiming that this was to be a total disaster with only seven months to prepare. They laughed at the course and said it would be a bigger s**tshow than the debut of the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville in 2021 was.
What I still don’t understand, is the group of people that refused to even watch this race – except to rejoice once it was the disaster they knew it would be. Over the weekend, I saw more vile comments toward IndyCar, Roger Penske and FOX Sports than I have ever seen. They wanted this event to fail.
By Saturday, it was obvious that not only was it not going to be a disaster – it was going to be a rousing success. Instead of tipping their cap to Bud Denker and Roger Penske, they doubled down. The comments got meaner. They said the race on that layout was going to be a joke. Things hit an all-time low on Saturday night when I saw a comment from some loser that said he was “Praying for a deadly crash!”. Seriously?? That’s when I could restrain myself no more and let this person have it. And these people are supposedly IndyCar fans.
How miserable these people must be, if they allow their hatred to spill over into something they supposedly enjoy. There are a lot of public figures I do not like at all, but I don’t allow them to live rent-free in my head and poison activities that I once found enjoyable.
This weekend was a tremendous success. Those that predicted gloom and doom for months, were down to complaining about the trophy design by the time the race was over. Personally, I liked the trophies.
The Legions of the Miserable have always been around IndyCar. People always complain about everything. I’ve done my share of complaining, but I’ve never hit the extreme we saw on display over the past seven months. I’m glad it’s over and I’m glad the weekend was extremely successful. Hopefully things can now get back to normal by Milwaukee.
It Wasn’t Perfect: I had two different friends who were on the grounds both days, and were not part of the media. They are both level-headed and I trust their assessments of what they witnessed. Most were troubles encountered by all first-time events.
Both said the grandstands were packed. Normally that’s a good thing, but when you have general admission – I heard things got heated when someone got up to go to the restroom and lost their seat. There were a lot more people than what they had stands for.
I also heard reports that there were not enough video boards. To be fair, I’ve always thought every track we go to needs more video boards. One of my friends said there was no PA there. When I challenged him by saying Allen Bestwick was there on the PA, he said it was only for the suites on the front-stretch, and not for anywhere else. If that’s true, that’s not good.
I also heard a lot of concession stands an out of food on Saturday, which was the light day.
None of these are horrible occurrences, and pretty standard complaints for a firt-time event. If there is ever to be a Year Two for a DC street race, these things need to be addressed.
Woes for One of The Big Four: For years we had the Big Three, which consisted of Chip Ganassi Racing, Team Penske and Andretti Global (or whatever name they were operating under at the time). Now with three wins this season and the drivers they have poached for next year, we have to include Arrow McLaren and call them the Big Four.
Obviously Andretti Global is on a roll. For the second week in a row, they had two of their drivers on the podium – including the winner. On Sunday, Kyle Kirkwood won the race and Will Power finished third. But Marcus Ericsson finished a very strong fourth.
Arrow McLaren had a good weekend also. Lame duck driver Christian Lundgaard finished second, while Nolan Siegel finished sixth. Pato O’Ward was hardly a though all day and finished sixteenth and a lap down.
The big news at Chip Ganassi Racing is that points leader Alex Palou had a disastrous day. After starting on the pole, he struck Mick Schumacher’s tire in the pits and was assessed a drive-through penalty. Then on a subsequent pit stop, his left-front tire changer could not get the wheel nut on, and Palou went down a lap. It got worse. Palou hit the Turn Four wall on Lap 123. He was able to get back out, but finished twentieth.
Lost in all of Palou’s woes is that Ganassi actually placed two drivers in the Top-Ten. Scott Dixon finished seventh, while Kyffin Simpson was fifth.
Team Penske had a weekend they would probably like to forget. Penske drivers David Malukas and Scott McLaughlin both crashed their cars. Josef Newgarden was the only Penske driver running at the end, finishing eighth.
Points Lead Slashed: The days of Palou having a mediocre day came to an end on Sunday, With his three separate disasters and a twentieth-place finish, coupled with Kyle Kirkwood winning the race – some serious damage was done to Palou’s points lead. Palou led by 133 points heading into the Freedom 250. By the time the race was over, that lead was down to 91 points. That’s still a lot, but Milwaukee is coming up next weekend and it is a double-header. Although he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2025 and the Nashville oval last month, ovals are still considered his Achille’s heel. If Kirkwood wants to make a serious run at the championship, he needs to hope for another bad weekend at Milwaukee for Palou, while he wins or does very well in both races, because Alex Palou owns Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca – site of the season finale in two weeks.
Should IndyCar Try to go Back? From the beginning, this was touted as a on-off event to celebrate America 250. But the FOX crew said they are hearing whispers that IndyCar may return. On one hand, it makes sense since they have a lot of the infrastructure in place. Plus, I’m sure they learned a lot that they can improve on if they do it again. But this was a special event. Part of what made it so special was that it was supposed to be a one-time occurrence. It seems to me if IndyCar went back, it takes away from the uniqueness that we all witnessed this weekend. I think I kind of like it that it was a one-off event and leave it at that. Wha do you think?
Drive of the Day: As usual, there were a few candidates for this race. Kyffin Simpson was a viable candidate because he charged from starting twenty-third to finishing second. Marcus Ericsson started twenty-first and finished fourth. I am going with Marcus Ericsson. He won last week, and it would be easy to relax and take it easy this week. But he charged through the field, just like Simpson did. But I’m old and and I’m going with the old guy.
All in All: Although there was tremendous opposition to this race, and the naysayers said it would be a disaster and an embarrassment for IndyCar, Roger Penske and Bud Denker pulled this off. From my couch, the grounds looked immaculate. The 90-minute Pre-Race had several good segments and a lot of feel-good patriotism. The Capitol Building provided one of the most spectacular backdrops I have ever seen for any type of race. On television, this had the feel and presentation of a world-class event.
Strip away all of the pageantry, and we are left with a race on a 1.7-mile, seven turn track. I was a little skeptical when I saw the map, and I feared we would be looking at a 147 lap parade. But the track was wide and provided ample passing, and the result was a very entertaining race – much more so than I was expecting. There were three main strategies in play during the race, but I think Kyle Kirkwood would have won running any of them – he was that hooked up on Sunday.
If you don’t strip away the pageantry, the result turns out to be magic. While there were many doubters and naysayers out there, IndyCar hit a homerun with the Freedom 250. The reports from the people I knew on the grounds both said that almost everyone around them seem to be having a good time. Those that I have spoken with that watched on television like we did, all have nothing but positive things to say about the two-day IndyCar event in Washington, DC. Hopefully, we’ll be able to see the long-term benefits of all that hard work.
George Phillips
