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Red, White And Vroom?: Racing Fans, Legends Take Over DC As America 250 Goes Out With An Engine’s Roar

Kurt Kaiser, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

WASHINGTON — Crowds of spectators packed recently erected bleachers and stands Aug. 22-23 to watch as auto racing legends old and new sped through a course across the nation’s capital, with multiple D.C landmarks providing the backdrop.

For the first time ever, some of the streets of downtown Washington were transformed, albeit temporarily, into a racetrack as it hosted the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, which included competitions for both IndyCar and the recently resurrected International Race of Champions (IROC). The races, organized by the Trump administration-linked Freedom 250, was the latest Washington-based celebration planned in honor of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

“They said a race in D.C. would never happen,” an announcer’s voice broadcast across the National Mall venue during Saturday morning’s practice sessions. He went on to remark he sensed palpable “patriotism,” adding, “I want to feel that 15 times this weekend.”

Patriotism indeed appeared to be the theme of the weekend-long extravaganza which featured two ticketed — but at no cost — viewing areas on each side of the track aptly named “Stars” and “Stripes.” Concession stands — which did feature priced menu offerings — likewise bore names including “Red White & BBQ,” “Freedom Grill,” and “Checkered Faves,” with the latter being a nod to the flag race officials wave to signal a victor. Queueing guests also waited their turn to pose in front of the life-size “FREEDOM 250” and “USA 250” signs set up on the Mall.

“Freedom doesn’t ring, it revs,” declared a large sign visible on a building along the direction the drivers sped.

IndyCar superstars such Àlex Palou, 29, and Josef Newgarden, 35, headlined the high-velocity affair, bringing with them a league of passionate fans from around the world to the stands. The estimated attendance for Sunday’s festivities hit “upward of 150,000,” The Washington Post reported.

They also brought several longtime IndyCar volunteers, including “Yellow Shirts” safety patrol personnel Mark Campbell and Eddie Allison, who have volunteered at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 50 and 27 years, respectively. Dozens of such volunteers made the trip to Washington to help make the Freedom 250 event a success, Allison told the Daily Caller News Foundation after Saturday’s first practice session while he and Campbell worked the grandstands on the “Stars” side.

Campbell told the DCNF the Freedom 250 Grand Prix marked his first trip to D.C. The IndyCar veteran volunteer added that he was impressed by what the events’ organizers were able to put together, calling the venue “awesome” and noting it had “amazing views” of the cars zooming past at speeds up to 240 mph.

Saturday’s IROC race — featuring an all-star style series including both IndyCar and NASCAR hall of famers — brought in a host of household names from the 1980s through the 2000s, including Kurt Busch, 48; Jeff Gordon, 55; and Bill Elliott, 70. Also making an appearance was Brazilian icon Hélio Castroneves, 51, who is perhaps best known to non-racing fans as the winner of the fifth season of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Gordon, who made his NASACR debut in 1992 — when Vice President JD Vance was still in elementary school — proved he was still at the top of his craft with back-to-back wins in both of Saturday’s IROC races. Before the weekend’s event, Gordon’s last individual race win came in 2015.

On the “Stars” side of the track, fans in long lines for hours to get the autographs of Gordon, Elliott, and fellow IROC racing legend Tommy Kendall, 59.

Although IndyCar previously conducted many races on urban streets — including its long-running Grand Prix of Long Beach in Southern California, as well as events in Detroit, Houston, and Baltimore — bringing its signature open-wheel cars to the seat of the federal government initially presented a unique challenge. Democratic D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen predicted the August weekend would simultaneously be “a huge, huge headache for the District” but also “kind of fun,” The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times, reported.

Allison also told the DCNF that a lot of the volunteers assisting with the Freedom 250 races also helped to put on IndyCar’s annual Detroit Grand Prix, last held in June.

The organizers who put the D.C. event together “were faced with a lot of logistical challenges and they’ve come through 100%,” he reflected. “They did the best they could with the resources that they had.”

Campbell specifically thanked Bud Denker, the president of the Penske Corporation — the global transportation services company which provided the lion’s share of the event’s financial backing — calling him an “incredible individual” and “instrumental” to the Freedom 250 Grand Prix’s setup.

“I don’t even think he’s human,” he added.

Denker told POLITICO’s “Playbook” that, during Trump’s first term in 2018, the 45th president called the corporation’s founder, Roger “the Captain” Penske” — a former race car driver in his own right — while he was celebrating his IndyCar team’s 200th win. Penske would reach a deal to buy IndyCar and its Motor Speedway the following year; he currently owns both.

“So it tells you that Mr. Trump is engaged in our sport and the support he’s given us,” Denker told the outlet.

The president has a complicated history with the marquee open-wheel racing series, after having been asked by IndyCar in 2011 — four years before mounting his first successful presidential bid — to drive its iconic pace car. While Trump initially agreed, he ended up deciding not to go forward with accepting the honor following extensive political backlash, mostly over to his comments regarding then-President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

A decade and a half later, however, Trump and IndyCar agreed to join forces in a different manner. Denker recounted to “Playbook” that he offered the recently returned president in 2025 to “let us bring a race to you.”

It’s official America, Washington, DC is NOW a racetrack! 🏎️ 🇺🇸 https://t.co/QMYNv9e9wZ

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) August 22, 2026

In the early months of 2026, however, Denker’s attempt to deliver on this promise in time for America 250 ran into some obstacles. His bid to authorize the race on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol fell short in January after failing to garner the requisite 60-vote threshold in the Senate, the outlet reported.

After the Penske executive and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke, however, the two agreed on a plan to hold the race while diverting the track away from congressional grounds. At the end of the same month, Trump signed an executive order directing Duffy and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “designate a route through Washington, D.C., that is suitable for conducting an INDYCAR street race and that will showcase the majesty of our capital city in celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s independence.”

The final seven-turn, 1.7-mile-long track veered a couple blocks from Congress and set the finish line on 3rd St., NW. The route stayed entirely west of Capitol Hill, traveling northwest up Pennsylvania Avenue in the direction of the White House, before making a sharp turn onto 9th St. and then onto Constitution Ave. and 7th St. — bisecting the National Mall — before drivers were to take a left on Independence Ave.

🇺🇸🏁 Track map for the INDYCAR Freedom 250 Grand Prix! pic.twitter.com/4jFBYDZQc4

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) March 9, 2026

D.C. officials had to weld more than 200 manhole covers shut in order to avoid any flying away with the traffic over them going nearly ten times its usual speed, Denker said, according to The Associated Press. Nearly one in four of these manholes also required silicone fittings so the road was not too bumpy for the drivers.

Even with all the extra preparation needed for the race to take place, at least one element could not be controlled: the weather. A light drizzle, however, did not stop fans from filling the bleachers at 9:00 a.m. Saturday just to see Palou, Newgarden, and company practice on the soaking-wet pavement.

Despite the estimated six-figure attendance, the count is less than the roughly 350,000 who flock to the Speedway each year to watch the Indianapolis 500, Campbell and Allison noted. They both told the DCNF how they each use golf carts to patrol immense areas, with Campbell estimating he was in charge of roughly 100,000 seats to Allison’s 75,000.

The two “yellow shirts” did agree, however, that, short of bringing the Indianapolis 500 — the largest single-day sporting event in the world — to the nation’s capital, working with Penske, Freedom 250, and the rest of the team who put the weekend together marked an unbeatable experience.

“Just to be a part of this, I’m in awe,” Allison told the DCNF.