Kyle Kirkwood Dominates In The Streets of Washington D.C.

The inaugural ‘Freedom 250’ in the streets of Washington D.C. belongs to Kyle Kirkwood and the No. 27 Honda for Andretti Global. The most dominant victory in the history of street-course racing in the NTT IndyCar Series, leading 128 of 147 laps for his sixth career victory.

“You can’t even put it into words, this is incredible, I’m almost in tears here,” Kirkwood said, postrace. “These guys are the ones that gave me the equipment and the car to be able to go out there and perform.  147 laps, I’m out of breath.”

Kirkwood remains second in the championship standings and 91 points behind reigning four-time champion Alex Palou, who had trouble during pit stops early in the day, and suffering front wing damage with 25 laps remaining spinning in Turn 5. Palou completed the race, finishing 20th.

“We could’ve done a lot differently, it hurts man.” Palou said. “It’s ok, things happen, I’m at least kind of happy that everything happened in the same day instead of spreading out through different races.”

Other incidents in the day were not so forgiving, on lap 37 Team Penske’s David Malukas crashed hard in Turn 7 at lap 35, collecting the No. 77 of Sting Ray Robb with nowhere to go. 

The following restart saw chaos ensue in Turn 5 between Rinus Veekay, Christian Rasmussen, and Marcus Armstrong who all spun around. Armstrong received a stop-and-hold penalty during the yellow flag for avoidable contact.

In the second to last restart of the race, Malukas’ teammate Scott McLaughlin attempted to overtake Kirkwood heading into turn one, ultimately smacking the Turn 1 wall, putting an end to his chances of stealing the win.

The final 15 laps would finish under green with Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard chasing down Kirkwood who finished second, Will Power in third to round out the podium.

Official Results: