Kyle Kirkwood Wins the Freedom 250, and Palou Finishes Twenty Places Behind

Kyle Kirkwood won the Freedom 250, the first IndyCar race on the streets of Washington D.C., leading 128 of the 147 laps in the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda. Alex Palou, who had taken pole position, finished 20th and saw his championship lead shrink to 91 points with three races remaining.

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Kirkwood started from second and passed Palou at turn two on the first lap of the Freedom 250, a race created as part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. From there, he led the majority of the 147 scheduled laps on the 1.7-mile street circuit around the National Mall, building a lead that at times exceeded fifteen seconds. A caution period late in the race bunched the field back up for a restart, but the Andretti Global car responded without giving up the top spot and crossed the finish line with a margin of just over three seconds over Christian Lundgaard of Arrow McLaren.

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Will Power finished third and Marcus Ericsson fourth, both with Andretti Global, giving the team three cars in the top four. Kyffin Simpson of Chip Ganassi Racing rounded out the top five.

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For Palou, the afternoon changed course at the first pit stop. He had qualified on pole, his seventh pole of the season, but on lap 39 he hit a tire from another team that was sitting in Mick Schumacher's service area and received a drive-through penalty, which he served four laps later, dropping him to 20th. A subsequent stop with a loose wheel cost him more time, and on lap 123, a crash into the wall at turn four caused by steering damage from an earlier impact ended any chance of fighting for the win. He finished 20th, two laps behind the winner.

"It hurts," said Palou. "I wanted to win this race. It hurts quite a bit that we had such a bad afternoon. It's okay, things happen."

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Palou had arrived at Washington with a 133-point lead over Kirkwood at the top of the championship and with the chance to extend that margin before the final three rounds. Instead, the gap shrank to 91 points. The point totals leave Palou with 553, Kirkwood with 462, Lundgaard with 443, Ericsson with 361, and Power with 328.

Since the sport's reunification in 2008, the largest deficit a driver has overcome with four races remaining was 59 points, by Dario Franchitti in 2010. Palou could still secure the title at the August 29–30 doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile oval, but the result at Washington shrunk the cushion he had coming into the weekend.

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Washington was the third new track on the 2026 calendar, following inaugural races at Arlington, Texas, in March, and at Markham, Ontario, the week prior. Kirkwood also won at Arlington, giving him two wins in 2026, both coming on circuits IndyCar visited for the first time. The other inaugural race of the season, at Markham, went to Ericsson, who ended a 63-race winless streak just one week before Washington.

The race saw just thirteen cars out of twenty-five entrants finish on the lead lap, the result of six caution periods that neutralized 29 of the 147 laps. Scott McLaughlin, who had started third, briefly took the lead on one of the restarts before hitting a tire barrier at turn one and retiring. David Malukas retired early on lap 35 after contact.

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The championship continues on August 29 and 30 with the doubleheader at the one-mile Milwaukee oval, featuring the Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250 on Saturday and the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 on Sunday. The 2026 season closes on September 6 at Laguna Seca, California, with the Monterey Grand Prix.

Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington DC

Pos	#	driver	team	laps	time
1	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	147	160:42.955
2	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	147	+3.091s
3	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	147	+4.184s
4	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	147	+12.464s
5	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	147	+13.863s
6	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	147	+15.651s
7	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	147	+18.587s
8	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	147	+19.476s
9	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	147	+20.190s
10	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	147	+22.218s
11	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	147	+26.644s
12	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	147	+30.934s
13	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	147	+32.050s
14	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	146	+32.737s
15	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	146	+33.269s
16	5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	146	+34.535s
17	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	146	+36.481s
18	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	146	+38.178s
19	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	146	+38.907s
20	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	144	+40.622s
21	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	132	-
22	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	128	-
23	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	43	-
24	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	35	-
25	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	35	-