Just when you thought you had heard every possible joke about gridlock in Washington, along comes something to break up the monotony. On Friday, President Trump and officials from IndyCar announced that the series would put on a grand prix on the streets of Washington this August — the Freedom 250.
Intended as a one-off event to promote the nation’s 250th birthday, the race will showcase both the monuments in and around the National Mall and the innovation that powers open-wheel race cars. It would also mark, if not the biggest event for the American semi-quincentennial, likely the fastest.
Logistical Hurdles
That is, of course, assuming organizers can create a major sporting event in the nation’s capital on fewer than eight months’ notice. When announcing the IndyCar schedule last September, series CEO Mark Miles said: “I don’t think a 2026 race in Washington D.C. was ever feasible. … Imagine trying to make that work in the nation’s capital with less than a year’s notice.”
Now, four months later, he has even less time to add an 18th race to the series’ schedule. And the Freedom 250, scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 21-23, will come in the middle of a 29-day stretch that will see five races in as many weeks, including a trip to Canada (which requires teams’ haulers to go through Customs).
In addition, having a race on Washington streets in August will require the city to clear them of snow and ice by then. I note this only half-jokingly, given the mediocre (at best) attempts to plow and clear the streets after last week’s winter storm. (Seriously, are we now just doing DIY road clean-up?) Washington residents might reasonably wonder what the blankety-blank Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser was doing promoting an auto race while the streets remained snow-clogged. (Of course, Trump critics would say the same thing about his focus on events like the Freedom 250 vis-à-vis “affordability.”)
On a related note, the mid-August dates come when Congress will be on its summer recess, with less-congested streets more easily able to bear the traffic-related hassles a road course race will cause. But it also raises the specter of those dual hallmarks of summer in Washington: stifling heat and humidity, interrupted only by thunderstorms, which could cause problems for spectators and teams alike.
When rumors started circulating about this race over a week ago, critics noted that Congress might need to approve legislation blessing the event, due to a prohibition on advertising on the Capitol grounds. But Bowser’s support, coupled with IndyCar series owner Roger Penske’s announcement that “most of the grounds will be free” for spectators to watch, should help to dislodge Democrat objections surrounding the race.
Logical Market
Notwithstanding the hurdles involved, the Freedom 250 makes sense for IndyCar on a number of levels. Since the series last raced at Pocono Raceway in 2019, it has not hosted an event in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic. (The 2020 schedule originally included an event at Richmond Raceway, but the Covid panic forced its cancellation that year, and it never returned to the schedule.)
For the past handful of years, if this Washington-based fan wanted to see an IndyCar race, his closest options were events in Ohio (a six-hour drive), Toronto (an eight-hour drive), Nashville (an over nine-hour drive), or the Indianapolis 500 (over an eight-hour drive). Fans in New York or New England faced even longer travel distances. Now, for one year at least, the Freedom 250 will bring the series closer to East Coast audiences. The marquee event will also help attract new fans, as evidenced by the press coverage of Friday’s announcement, and the new interest by potential sponsors that some drivers reported.
Exciting Spectacle
Based on press reports, it appears Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, whose Wisconsin home features two IndyCar tracks (Road America and the Milwaukee Mile), has been a driving force behind the event. Penske and Trump also have a long-standing relationship; the latter awarded the former the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019, which is on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Those partnerships will come in handy as the federal government and IndyCar coordinate logistics for this major event.
With the track layout not yet determined, the quality of racing remains to be seen. But if the Freedom 250 runs around the streets of the National Mall, it could resemble the Formula One Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which runs through the wide, long streets of that nation’s capital, Baku. It suggests a fast-paced race winding through the nation’s capital — far from your typical Washington gridlock.
