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The Freedom 250 race had an American champion, after Kyle Kirkwood secured his second IndyCar season victory on the streets of downtown Washington on Sunday with a dominant performance.
In a race organized as part of the celebration of the country's 250th birthday, President Donald Trump gave the drivers the green flag at the start, and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser served as grand marshal. Kirkwood crossed the finish line in front of the U.S. Capitol with a 3.09-second lead over Christian Lundgaard, after leading 128 of a maximum 147 laps.
Will Power and Marcus Ericsson, Kirkwood's Andretti Global teammates, finished third and fourth.
Alex Palou, who started from pole, had the chance to secure the series title but finished 20th in his second-worst performance of the year.
Following Trump's green flag, the field quickly went under a yellow flag due to debris in turn 4. The first major accident occurred when David Malukas hit the wall and Sting Ray Robb could do little to avoid hitting him while taking a corner. Thus, two of the eight American drivers in the race were out.
Several cars entered the pit lane, and that was when the day began to fall apart for Palou. Upon exiting, he appeared to hit a tire in someone else's area, and he was issued a drive-through penalty.
Later, in another pit stop, one of Palou's tires became loose as he started to move forward. That caused another delay and he ended up falling off the lead lap. Afterwards, Palou spun out while going through a corner. His lead in the standings was reduced from 133 points over Kirkwood, who was second, to 91 with three races remaining.
Kirkwood had a commanding lead before Palou's spin caused a yellow flag. On a restart with 19 laps remaining, Scott McLaughlin tried to overtake Kirkwood and hit a tire barrier. Then, Kirkwood executed a solid restart with 13 laps to go, and Lundgaard did not pose a major threat as the 250-mile race drew to a close.
Misattributed blame?
Marcus Armstrong was penalized for avoidable contact when he caused Christian Rasmussen to spin. Rinus VeeKay hit the wall during that incident, but appeared to be unaware of Armstrong's responsibility when he appeared on television for an interview.
“If Rasmussen is near, you know you're going to crash. Either he crashes or you crash. It’s crap. It’s stupid. It’s a long race, and some people apparently don’t know that,” VeeKay remarked.
[Publicidad]