By David Morgan, Associate Editor
WASHINGTON – Will we be back?
That was the million-dollar question as soon as the checkered flag flew on Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C.
By nearly every metric, this race, which saw an American driver in Kyle Kirkwood bringing home the victory in the nation’s capital and only came to fruition with an executive order signed by President Trump in late January, exceeded expectations, prompting the question of whether a return trip should be in order.
The man with the answers: Bud Denker, Chairman of the Freedom 250 of Washington, DC.
“It’s been a year since I’ve been here to try to do this,” Denker said. “I’ve learned in this city, a lot of people can say no, but not a lot of people can say yes. The big guy, when the big guy says yes, shit happens.
“The big guy got behind this, Mr. Trump. When he and Secretary Duffy said we’re going to make this happen, we did it together. Remember, that was on January 30th. We had seven months to do what we did out here in the most complex environment in the year. 1,350 pages of permits. Imagine that. Detroit is like 200. 1,350 pages of permits. All that was done in the time period.
“I’ll tell you this. I’ve heard this…it’s the most well-run organization the city has ever dealt with; they want us to come back. We heard that time and time again. Secret Service, MPD, fire department, mayor. Just because my team of Michael Montri and Jonathan Bailey are just geniuses. These guys could go anywhere in the world and put a race on. You saw it today.”
With the political undertones surrounding this event and its origins with the current administration in the White House, many were fearful of that overshadowing the event, but instead it served the purpose everyone inside the paddock expected it to do and brought everyone together for some good old fashioned American fun.
“To see the people on the National Mall, if you’re out there, everybody had a smile on their race. Didn’t matter if you were Democrat or Republican here, they had a smile on their face,” Denker said.
“It just shows you in this sport, we can bring things together, can’t we?”
Denker added that a number of high-ranking law enforcement officials noted that over the course of all of the 250th anniversary events that have taken place in the city in 2026, Sunday’s race was the only event not to be interrupted by a protest.
“That’s pretty profound. There wasn’t one protest around this event. That tells you something about what motorsports is.”
Denker went on to explain that he has heard from numerous politicians that were in attendance at the event, all the way up to the President and First Lady, who expressed their desire to see the race return.
But it will be a decision that he and Roger Penske will have to sit down and discuss once the smoke clears from Sunday.
“To sit in there and every single one of them was hitting me about coming back, coming back, coming back. Melania, First Lady, on the way out says, we look forward to seeing you again next year.
“Pressure is on. Even the First Lady is involved in this thing, right?
“I’ve been saying, so has Roger, let’s see how it goes the first year. As Dana White said after the UFC fight, these are very expensive propositions in this city. It was for him, and it was for us. You don’t raise the kind of revenue to cover your costs.
“Roger and I will talk about it. Mr. Trump hit me 15 times today about having to have this.”
The race no doubt cost the Penske Corporation untold millions of dollars, but Denker noted that some of those capital costs will carry through to future events.
“The walls have been all bought. Cost us over three and a half million dollars,” Denker said. “They’re going to sit in a lot on New York Avenue for who knows how long. $300,000 to lease this lot. Those walls are like the half-life of uranium. They don’t go away. Those walls are going to sit.
“…The investment is already made in the walls and some of the infrastructure. That’s a sunk investment. I’d love to have a number of years more because you depreciate that asset. We’ll see.”
Denker added that they were able to use some shared assets between the three street races that Penske Entertainment puts on (D.C., Arlington, and Detroit), which also helps out cost wise going forward.
The fencing used in D.C. was the same fence that the series uses in both Arlington and Detroit, as well as the pedestrian bridges being the same ones used in Arlington and the tire for the tire barrier coming from Detroit.
He added that while there is a lot pulling in a positive direction for a return, he does have some trepidations on whether future editions of this race would have the same appeal than Sunday’s race and the allure of the 250th anniversary surrounding it.
“The other thing about it is, you have to say to yourself, there’s only one 250-year event. What is 251 going to look like? What do you call it? Sponsors that came in this year, will they come back again in a non-anniversary year?
“Many corporations set aside money for their anniversary. They did. They had marketing dollars set aside. We captured a lot of that. How much of this revenue would we reclaim again next year when it’s not such a novelty, an event?
“I would be concerned about the raising of the same kind of revenue we did this year.”
Nonetheless, if the dollars and cents make sense to come back to D.C. in 2027, Denker expressed his confidence that he would be able to get the go ahead from the powers that be around the city and on the federal level to make it happen again.
“I don’t think we get one pushback from any person that we worked with in this city to not have this race again…. There were many, many, many meetings to get where we are.
“You know what we built? We built trust and transparency. Because we have that with the city, every single agency, because of the team I have, there would be nobody to say not to do this again. I’m confident of that. The decision’s up to us.”
5gfqg0