Kirkwood Fastest in Opening Practice in D.C.

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

WASHINGTON — Kyle Kirkwood is carrying the banner for the Stars and Stripes thus far in Washington, D.C., leading the opening practice for Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix.

Kirkwood’s flying lap came during the group stage of the debut practice session, putting up a lap of 57.374 seconds around the seven-turn, 1.7-mile street course that weaves its way around the National Mall in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol Building.

A winner already this year on a new street course in Arlington, the driver of the No. 27 Andretti Global Honda will be looking to add another to his resume this season.

https://twitter.com/IndyCar/status/2091169811732553743

Second fastest was points leader Alex Palou, who could wrap up his fifth NTT IndyCar Series championships in the last six years, as he led the second group session to close out the practice session that started under wet conditions but dried out as the session progressed.

“Yeah, very cool. I mean, it was a hectic session there with starting on wet, kind of the track just evolving a lot. I think it’s going to have the opportunity to evolve a lot in practice two,” said Palou.

“First I didn’t know if it was going to be fun or not to drive. It’s a blast, super fun. Very bumpy, huge bumps heading into turn two and turn six. Massive bumps that are going to spice things up.

“I think it’s actually going to create good racing just because it’s quite tough to go over there and have good braking and also have good traction when the bumps are on exits.

“Yeah, really fun. Incredible to see the Capitol Hill, exit of seven, just incredible experience. Yeah, so far super happy. Looking forward to see what we can do in practice two.”

The remainder of the top-10 fastest in Practice 1 were Dennis Hauger, David Malukas, Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Kyffin Simpson, Alexander Rossi, Rinus VeeKay, and Christian Rasmussen.

As was to be expected on a new street course, there were some drivers that found the edge and stepped over it, including Christian Lundgaard and Will Power.

Power led the opening segment of practice will all cars on track, but once into the group stage when speeds began to pick up, Power pushed it a but too far, tagging the wall on the exit of Turn 5.

He was able to get his car back to pit road, but the team will have to go over the car to make sure there are no lasting issues before the next practice session, scheduled for 1:00 pm ET on FOX Sports 2

Will Power tags the wall in opening practice. pic.twitter.com/cPtiqkWELS

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