Kyle Kirkwood has won the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington in dominant fashion. The Andretti Global driver took the lead at the start and managed to fend off several attacks for the lead. Christian Lundgaard finished second, ahead of Will Power in third, while championship leader Alex Palou finished 20th, three laps down after a series of problems.

Kirkwood takes the lead at the start

When the green flag waved, Kyle Kirkwood, who started second, was quickest off the line and immediately passed polesitter Alex Palou. The field made it through the opening lap almost without incident, aside from contact between Marcus Armstrong and Christian Rasmussen. The contact left debris on the track, forcing the first caution of the race.

A second caution was also caused by debris on the track, this time on Lap 18. It was believed to have resulted from contact between Romain Grosjean and Kyffin Simpson. Several drivers, including David Malukas, used the caution to make an early first pit stop, dropping Malukas back as the only driver from the top ten.

Palou runs into early trouble

Malukas' strategy would not work out for the young American. While running in the back of the field, he made a mistake, hit the wall hard and was subsequently hit by Sting Ray Robb. During the caution, almost the entire field pitted, where Alex Palou made a costly mistake by hitting a tire that was waiting to be fitted. The championship leader was handed a drive-through penalty for this incident.

The caution was particularly good news for Rinus VeeKay, who had made his first pit stop just before the yellow flag. As a result, he moved up to second place, behind Graham Rahal, who was running tires that were 20 laps older. At the restart, the Dutchman immediately attacked Rahal, but thought he had made his move too early and lifted off the throttle. This allowed drivers to pass him on all sides, after which things went wrong. Armstrong made contact with Rasmussen, who spun into VeeKay. VeeKay then crashed into the wall after being hit by Scott McLaughlin. Armstrong was handed a stop-and-go penalty for the incident.

After the restart, it took Kirkwood only a few laps to fight his way back into the lead, after which he quickly built a substantial advantage.

More trouble for Palou

Palou's race got even worse after the incident in the pits. First, the Spaniard lost valuable time during his second pit stop due to a problem with the left-front wheel. On Lap 123, things got even worse when Palou made a rare mistake on track. After hitting the wall on the inside of the circuit, he also made contact with the wall on the outside. The #9 Chip Ganassi Racing crew managed to repair the car, but Palou fell three laps behind.

Kirkwood holds on to the lead

The resulting caution was bad news for Kirkwood, who had built a 10-second lead. The Florida native had also selected the hard tire compound for the final stint, while second-place McLaughlin was running the soft tire. At the restart, McLaughlin immediately attacked Kirkwood for the lead, but braked too late and crashed into the wall.

After the final restart, Kirkwood was able to retain the lead ahead of Lundgaard. Despite Lundgaard also running the soft tires, Kirkwood managed to build a three-second advantage. That allowed him to cruise to an unchallenged victory in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, his second win of the season after Arlington.

Full results of the race on Washington