Kyle Kirkwood says IndyCar should not return to Washington, D.C., but his reason has nothing to do with the track, the traffic or the six caution periods that interrupted the inaugural Freedom 250.
The Andretti Global driver would simply prefer to remain the only person who has ever won the race. Asked whether IndyCar should return next year, Kirkwood admitted he had “biased opinions either direction” before eventually casting his personal vote for a one-and-done event.
His answer changed when he considered the question from Andretti’s perspective. Kirkwood said the team would welcome another opportunity because it believes its equipment is particularly strong on temporary circuits, even though he personally likes what an exclusive place in the record book would mean.
There is a more serious question behind the joke. Kirkwood doubts a conventional race weekend could recreate an event built around the United States’ 250th anniversary, while organizers say any return will depend largely on whether the financial model still works once that one-time national celebration is over.
Kirkwood Wants to Remain Washington’s Only Winner
“So I’ve got biased opinions either direction, right?” Kirkwood said in a TMZ interview. “One of them is, no, we shouldn’t come back here because I’ll be the only winner and it was such a big event.”
His team-based answer went the other way. Kirkwood said Andretti would “love to come back” because the organization believes it has “really, really good equipment around these tracks,” giving it a competitive reason to want another opportunity in Washington.
When TMZ asked him to choose, however, Kirkwood sided with his own place in history. “Quite honestly, probably for the personal reasons that we don’t come back,” he said.
Kirkwood also questioned whether a sequel could reproduce what made the inaugural weekend unusual. “I don’t think it’ll ever amount to what we did here,” he said. “It was a 250th celebration, whereas if we come back, it’ll likely just be a normal IndyCar event, which this was not a normal IndyCar event. This was like an American event.”
Right After Winning, Kirkwood Said ‘I Hope We Do’ Come Back
Kirkwood’s first reaction at the circuit pointed in the opposite direction. After taking the checkered flag Aug. 23, he acknowledged that the event might never happen again before adding, “I hope we do.”
The 27-year-old had plenty of reason to enjoy the course. According to INDYCAR, Kirkwood led 128 of the 147 laps and beat Christian Lundgaard by 3.0906 seconds on the seven-turn, 1.7-mile temporary street circuit. His advantage had stretched beyond 16 seconds before late cautions repeatedly compressed the field.
The race included six caution periods covering 29 laps, but Kirkwood still controlled virtually every lap that was not affected by pit-stop sequencing. A late restart gave Scott McLaughlin a fleeting opportunity to challenge him before McLaughlin crashed while attempting to take the lead.
The victory was Kirkwood’s second of the season and seventh of his IndyCar career. Six of those seven wins have come on temporary circuits, including the inaugural Arlington, Texas, street race in March. Andretti also dominated the Washington results, with Will Power finishing third and Marcus Ericsson fourth.
The result cut championship leader Alex Palou’s advantage from 133 points to 91 with three races remaining at the time, giving Kirkwood another reason to remember Washington for more than its one-off status.
A Washington Sequel Comes Down to the Money
The Freedom 250 produced numbers that would ordinarily strengthen the case for another race. Event organizers said more than 215,000 spectators attended across the weekend, while the FOX broadcast averaged 3.282 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-Indianapolis 500 IndyCar race since 1995.
Interest from Washington does not appear to be the principal obstacle. Race chairman and Penske Corporation president Bud Denker told AutoWeek that the city agencies involved in staging the event had been receptive to doing it again and that organizers now have experience navigating a permitting and logistical process that required months of preparation.
The harder question is whether the revenue can be recreated. Denker said corporations had marketing money specifically tied to America’s 250th anniversary and questioned how much of that sponsorship support would return for a race without the same national milestone behind it.
Denker told Motorsport that more than $3.5 million had already been spent on barriers that could be reused, giving organizers an incentive to spread those costs across additional years. Political support exists as well. Denker said President Donald Trump repeatedly urged organizers after the race to consider a five-year run, while local officials and agencies also expressed interest in seeing IndyCar return.