American driver wins the inaugural IndyCar Freedom 250 in Washington D.C.

Credit: Hope Van Beek

American-born Andretti Global racing driver Kyle Kirkwood crossed the finish line first at the inaugural Freedom 250 IndyCar race in the Nation's capital.

Kirkwood took his second race win of the season in the race organized to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard finished in second place ahead of Kirkwood's Andretti teammate Will Power.

How it happened

Álex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood led the field to green on Sunday afternoon, Kirkwood taking the lead from the polesitter heading out of the first corner. Christian Lundgaard jumped up from ninth on the grid to sixth in the first few corners before the caution flew for debris on the track as Marcus Armstrong made contact with Christian Rasmussen.

The caution ended at the start of Lap 5, and Lundgaard was immediately under pressure from behind from David Malukas, but the Lithuanian-American driver struggled to regain sixth place.

By Lap 8, Kirkwood had extended his lead over Palou to over a second, Scott McLaughlin and Rasmussen holding position behind them. A little further down the field, the rookies were running well as Dennis Hauger and Caio Collet held eighth and 10th place respectively.

Much further down the field, Romain Gosjean and Kyffin Simpson scrapped for 24th place, the pair making slight contact on Lap 17 as Grosjean maintained the place. That contact brought out the second caution of the day as a piece of debris ended up on track again.

Malukas was the only driver of the frontunners to pit under yellow, coming out down in 22nd on the harder primary tyre. The race restarted again on Lap 22 with little excitement except for Collet getting past Pato O'Ward for eighth momentarily before the Arrow McLaren driver took the place back. But later that lap, right behind them, Josef Newgarden made a lunge to overtake Alex Rossi to get up into the top 10.

At the back of the field, Santino Ferrucci pitted to have a new steering wheel fitted to his car, losing precious time in a weekend where he started off on the back foot with a grid penalty for an unapproved engine change. He came back out of the pits seven laps down on the rest of the grid.

The first big incident of the day came on Lap 37, as Malukas hit the inside of Turn 7 and hit the wall before Sting Ray Robb ran into his stranded car. The yellow flags came out as the pair of drivers were collected by the safety team.

During the caution, a swarm of driver came in to make a pitstop, including most of the top running drivers. Palou was caught up in an incident as he hit one of Mick Schumacher's tyres exiting his pit box, which was reviewed as he came back out in sixth behind Kirkwood.

Credit: Bella Rosen

Palou was given a drive-through penalty for the contact with the stray tyre, to be served once the field went back to green. On the restart on Lap 43, Palou ducked into the pits to serve his penalty as Graham Rahal and Rinus VeeKay battled for the lead of the race. But VeeKay quickly dropped down to sixth as Simpson took second place. The saying "cautions breed cautions" held true as Armstrong spun Rasmussen, who in turn hit VeeKay, the latter two drivers hitting the wall and stopping on track as the yellow flags came out once more.

Palou was down in 21st as the caution came out, giving the Spaniard quite a margin to overcome if he wanted a chance at getting back to the front in this race. Armstrong picked up a penalty for avoidable contact with Rasmussen.

Rahal led Kirkwood on the restart on Lap 51, the former still yet to make a pitstop in this race. Within a lap, Kirkwood was able to not just get past the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver and retake first place, but put up an almost two second lead. Simpson and Grosjean, who were fighting to stay out of last place at the beginning of the race, followed behind them in third and fourth ahead of McLaughlin.

Rahal pitted on Lap 61, moving Simpson up to second place as Kirkwood continued to hold a firm lead on the race. Palou made another pitstop on Lap 67, but the day went from bad to worse for the Chip Ganassi Racing driver as an issue with his front left wheel prolonged his time in the pits. He came back out a lap down and in 21st place.

Lundgaard came into the pits from fifth on Lap 78, putting on a pair of soft tyres and coming out in 10th. Kirkwood and McLaughlin followed and pitted on Lap 80, Kirkwood coming out in second behind Will Power. Power made a pitstop a lap later, putting the Andretti Global driver back in the lead.

As Kirkwood got caught up behind the backmarkers, the gap between him and Mclaughlin in second place began to shorten dramatically (though still over six seconds). Lundgaard continued his slow but steady assent up the grid as he overtook Simpson for third place on Lap 91.

Credit: Hope Van Beek

With 43 laps to go, Kirkwood had built up a solid lead again, and was running 13 seconds ahead of McLaughlin. Lundgaard sat third ahead of Power and Simpson, the latter up 18 places from his starting position.

Marcus Ericsson, the lowest running of the three Andretti Global cars, came in to make a pitstop with 36 laps to go, putting on the soft tyre to make a gamble by going against his higher-running teammtes. He came back out of pit lane in 14th place.

Kirkwood made a pitstop soon after, coming out in fourth not long before a local yellow came out on track as Grosjean went off track briefly, but a wider incident was successfully avoided. McLaughlin had inherited the lead but came in for a pitstop shortly after, gifting the lead to Power.

With 31 laps to go, Kirkwood was back in front ahead of McLaughlin and Lundgaard again, Power and Ericsson completing the top five. But after a stretch of calm, a full course caution came out with 25 laps to go as the championship leader Palou hit the wall in an uncharacteristic mistake - he was able to continue with his front wing hanging off the car and limped back to pit lane.

The race went back to green briefly, but true to form the chaos continued. McLaughlin jumped ahead of Kirkwood at the restart but promptly hit the wall, bringing out the caution yet again. On top of that incident, Felix Rosenqvist spun further down the field.

Ahead of the next restart, Kriwkood led Lundgaard, Power, Ericsson and Simpson. Collet was the highest running rookie in ninth place, putting him in a prime position to score his first top 10 and highest IndyCar finish to date.

With 13 to go, the racing began yet again, and no one challenged Kirkwood as he led from the front of the field this time. With nine laps to go, Kirkwood was over a second ahead of Lundgaard, leaving a slimmer and slimmer chance as the laps wore down that anyone could challenge the American for the win.

With just a few laps to go, Ericsson got past Simpson for fourth place, putting all three Andretti cars in the top four. Lundgaard was unable to challenge Kirkwood and had dropped to four seconds behind him three laps from the end.

And it was Kirkwood who crossed the finish line first when all was said and done, taking his second win of the year and closing the gap to Palou's championship lead after 250 miles of racing in Washington D.C. Lundgaard came in second and secured another podium, with Power completing the podium.

Ericsson, the final Andretti car, finished fourth as Simpson, who started 23rd, completed the top five. Nolan Siegel, Scott Dixon, and Newgarden followed as Collet in ninth secured his best career IndyCar finish. Grosjean completed the top 10.