Kyle Kirkwood continues reign as “King of the Streets” with dominant Freedom 250 victory
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Kyle Kirkwood’s “King of the Streets” moniker rang true once more in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., leading 128 laps en route to victory in the event’s inaugural running Sunday afternoon. He led Christian Lundgaard and Will Power for his sixth victory on a street course.
"To be able to win in what will be considered probably my home race, right, being the Freedom 250 as an American, is something very special," Kirkwood, driver of the No.27 Andretti Global Honda, said. "I'll cherish this moment for a very long time."
Kirkwood’s three-second gap over runner-up Lundgaard, driver of the No.7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, is a significant understatement of how dominant the American was over 147 laps. At one point, he held a 16-second gap over the rest of the field.
While the race saw two of the first three full-course yellows for debris on Laps 1 and 18, the first caution for an incident came on Lap 36. David Malukas, driver of the No.12 Team Penske Chevrolet, was the cause of the yellow after clipping the inside wall of Turn 7, sending him into the barrier. Sting Ray Robb, driver of the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, had nowhere to go and crashed into Malukas while exiting Turn 7.
Malukas and Robb were forced to settle for finishes of 24th and 25th, respectively
The majority of the field utilized the caution as their first set of pit stops. This led to Kyffin Simpson (5th), Romain Grosjean (10th), Graham Rahal (13th) and Rinus Veekay (23rd) staying out for the ensuing restart, already pitting on pit road under green-flag conditions. Simpson and Grosjean were the only two who made the alternate strategy work, staying inside the Top-10 for the duration of the race.
The difference in tires saw the field tighten up off the restart, leading to Marcus Armstrong tagging Christian Rasmussen, who spun and hit Veekay into the wall. Veekay exited the race with an incident, while Rasmussen and Armstrong had to settle for 14th and 17th, respectively.
After the series of calamities, the race saw its longest green-flag run of 71 laps. Alex Palou, driver of the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, brought out the caution on Lap 122 after a spin off Turn 4, which nearly stole the win away from Kirkwood.
On the faster alternate tires, it looked like second-place runner Scott McLaughlin, driver of the No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, had the advantage on the restart before overshooting Turn 1 and slamming into the tire barrier. After getting a better jump on the final restart, on Lap 134, Kirkwood held the lead for the Freedom 250 victory.
"I was the only one on prime tires out of the top six. It's not easy. I got huge wheel spin when I got to power, which the guys on the red tires and alternate tires didn't have that big of an issue. So I was under a lot of fire," Kirkwood said. "Once he got alongside me, [I knew] there's no way he's stopping. That's when he really checked up, tried to get a good run out. Fortunately, I was able to hold Christian out."
ANDRETTI GLOBAL IS FINDING FORM
Other than McLaughlin's late-race theatrics, Kirkwood did not lose the lead on track once, alluding not only to his recent run of form but also to Andretti Global’s dominance lately.
Last weekend at Markham, Ericsson dove into pit road late, driving from sixth to first through the final 20 laps of the Ontario Honda Dealers INDY at Markham for his victory of the season.
Similar to Ericsson, Power had an opportunity to win at Portland International Raceway on an alternate strategy, but lap traffic proved the difference, forcing him to settle for third.
His third-place result at Washington, D.C., marked the first time since 2021 that he has earned three straight podiums.
Kirkwood completed the trifecta with his second win of the season, his sixth-career victory on a street course. He earned Andretti Global's third win of the season and fifth podium in the last three races.
"Team's made huge progression over this season, and you can see it now. It's all coming online. I think the expectation now every weekend is to be on the podium, challenge for a win,” Power said. “I think next year we'll be wanting to be all top five in the championship type stuff.”
The race's turning point came off the back of a Palou pit road issue: a penalty for hitting Mick Schumacher’s, driver of the No.47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda, tire under his first pit stop. This was only compounded by a slow stop on Palou’s front left tire, which sent him a lap down on Lap 67.
Even with his usual heroics, Palou was not able to dig himself out of his early disadvantage, eventually seeing the four-time champion wreck on Lap 124. The incident effectively ended Palou’s day with a 20th-place finish.
"Palou was extremely fast today. If they didn't have their pit lane woes, I think he would have been a force to be reckoned with," Kirkwood said. "I'm just going to go out there and try and win every single race and see where it goes from there. It's starting to pan out."
ROUNDING OUT THE PODIUM
Lundgaard settled for a quiet runner-up finish, settling in third for most of the day before McLaughlin wrecked out late. It marked his sixth podium of the season, as the Danish driver remains a free agent for the 2027 season.
“Obviously Kyle and I were second and fourth in the championship going into this weekend. Alex and David had some unfortunate luck out there,” Lundgaard said. “Those are the days that we need to not have for the rest of the season. I'm definitely pushing for that second. Kyle made that a little tougher for me today.”
For many drivers, the most difficult aspects of the Freedom 250 were the duration and track surface of the streets of Washington, D.C.
"We knew it was going to be a battle, right? You almost have to look at this race in every sense as a little 500 where it's going to be so many stops," Kirkwood said. "It was keeping it off the walls, doing everything clean, hitting your marks, not making big mistakes. Everything offline was very slippery. Staying on lines, dotting Ts, dotting Is was a big part of today."
Even through the demanding conditions, Power and Lundgaard, among other drivers, expressed their desire for the event to return.
“What an experience all weekend,” Power said. “The best background I've ever had on a racetrack, obviously. Just being a part of it, seeing where the series is going.”
“I feel like this is a good contender to the Indy 500,” Lundgaard said. “I think overall this is just a testament to where the series is going.”
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. Results:
Kyle Kirkwood #28 - (WINNER)
Christian Lundgaard #7 -3.091s
Will Power #26 -4.184s
Marcus Ericsson #28 -12.464s
Kyffin Simpson #8 -13.863s
Nolan Siegel #6 -15.651s
Scott Dixon #9 -18.587s
Josef Newgarden #2 -19.476s
Caio Collet #4 (R) -20.19s
Romain Grosjean #18 -22.218s
Mick Schumacher #47(R) -26.644s
Alexander Rossi #20 -30.934s
Graham Rahal #15 -32.05s
Christian Rasmussen #21 -1 lap down
Dennis Hauger #19 (R) -1 lap down
Pato O’Ward #5 -1 lap down
Marcus Armstrong #66 -1 lap down
Louis Foster #45 -1 lap down
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -1 lap down
Alex Palou #10 -2 laps down
Santino Ferrucci #14 -14 laps down (Retired)
Scott McLaughlin #3 -18 laps down (Incident)
Rinus Veekay #76 -103 laps down (Incident)
David Malukas #12 -111 laps down (Contact)
Sting Ray Robb #77 -111 laps down (Contact)
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES returns to action in West Allis, Wisconsin, for a doubleheader weekend at the Milwaukee Mile. Fans can tune into the Snap-On Makers and Fixers 250 and Snap-On Milwaukee 250 action on Aug.29 at 2:30 p.m. and Aug.30 at 1:00 pm EST on FOX or the FOX One app.
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