By David Morgan, Associate Editor
WASHINGTON – An American victory in America’s capital city.
Kyle Kirkwood left no doubt in Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the streets of Washington, D.C., dominating the 147-lap marathon with a convincing with over Christian Lundgaard and his Andretti Global teammate Will Power rounding out the podium finishers.
The remainder of the top-10 went to Marcus Ericsson, Kyffin Simpson, Nolan Siegel, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Caio Collet, and Romain Grosjean.
On a day that started with flyovers from Air Force One, nearly every branch of the military, a lap from the Presidential motorcade, and the green flag being waved by the President himself, it was only fitting that an American driver was the one to bring home the win for the Stars and Stripes.
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“You can’t even put it into words. This is incredible. I’m almost in tears here,” said Kirkwood, a native Floridian.
“This is a big moment for us. Big moment for America here, the 250, right? Big moment for Andretti, big moment for Sam’s Club and Honda. These guys, they’re the ones that gave me the equipment and this car right here to be out there, to go out there and perform. But man, that was a hard race. 147 laps. I’m out of breath right now trying to get words to you if I’m being honest.”
After starting from the outside of the front row, Kirkwood jumped to the lead over points leader Alex Palou and would hold the top spot for all but nine laps of the event, locking down his second win of the season and second on a street course, having also won earlier this year in Arlington.
“It felt good to dominate out there. I’m not going to lie. That was a really good moment,” said Kirkwood. “I’m a fellow Florida guy. I live up in Jupiter, so it’s cool to see [President Trump] down here and right here in this race. So, what an incredible place to do it.
“If you can’t win in the 500, this is definitely the place to win. And I don’t know if we’re ever going to get another chance at this. I hope we do. I hope we do. This was awesome. But this was what a dream come true.”
Lundgaard would finish some three seconds in arears of Kirkwood, but did finish as the top Chevrolet driver of the race, breaking up an Andretti sweep of the podium.
“I feel it’s fitting an American won, right? But no, we gave it our best shot,” said Lundgaard. “Really great. I feel like it’s good to bounce back from last week in Markham, starting up front and not quite executing. Just so happy. Awesome event, we’ve got the Capitol in the background, this is only something you could dream of.”
As for Power, he scored his third straight podium finish and was just as happy for himself as he was for Kirkwood winning and the overall strength that Andretti has shown as of late.
“So awesome to see Kyle win this race. Marcus [Ericsson] last week, two of us on the podium. Such an epic event,” said Power. “I could never have dreamed of racing in a place like this when I started all those years ago in Toowoomba. Yeah, stoked, man, stoked. I really wanted to get on the podium. A win would be phenomenal, but one of our team cars won.
“We’re coming, man. Becoming the team to beat.”
The only threat to Kirkwood’s win came on a restart on Lap 129 in which Kirkwood and Scott McLaughlin lined up 1-2 for the charge into Turn 1.
In an attempt to take the lead and control of the race on that restart, McLaughlin went full send into that sharp left hander, but pushed too hard into the corner, making heavy contact with the wall and knocking himself out of contention in the process.
An incident that Kirkwood was luckily able to avoid and proceed on to the victory.
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Scott McLaughlin is out of the race after wall contact in Turn 1. pic.twitter.com/UJGJUAKvTH
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“I was under a lot of fire,” Kirkwood explained of the restart. “I saw him coming. I kind of defended a little bit, but I was like he’s not going to try this. And he did, right? Quite honestly, I thought he was going to make it stick initially.
“Once I saw how fast he was, in your mirror you can kind of see it out of your eye, you’re focused on braking, but you see where he’s coming from. I knew I had to kind of give up the position and hope that I could cross him up on exit. That’s all I was trying to do.
“Once he got alongside me, there’s no way he’s stopping. That’s when I really checked up, tried to get a good run out. Fortunately, I was able to hold Christian out.
“The yellow came out after that whole incident, could have been a nightmare for us, being on primes, being the second guy in line to do a restart, probably wouldn’t have ended up well for us.”
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