2026 Freedom 250 Grand Prix

Kirkwood Leads 128 Laps to Win IndyCar's Washington Debut as Palou's Day Comes Apart

Kyle Kirkwood took the lead in Turn 2 on the opening lap and gave it back only under pit sequences, leading 128 of 147 laps to win the inaugural Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. by 3.0906 seconds over Christian Lundgaard.

It is the seventh NTT IndyCar Series victory of Kirkwood's career and his second of 2026, and it came a week after the crash at Markham that dropped him to 21st and cost him ground in a championship he is still chasing. The No. 27 Sam's Club Andretti Global Honda was never seriously threatened over 250 miles on a circuit nobody in the paddock had raced before Saturday morning.

"After last weekend, my mistakes there, kind of flipped a switch where I was like these mistakes feel terrible. I hadn't had one of those in a very long time," Kirkwood said. "Sometimes those are actually good for me because all this week I feel like I've worked harder than I ever have in preparation for this event."

Alex Palou started from pole and finished 20th, three laps down. The championship leader served a drive-through penalty on Lap 43 for hitting another team's equipment on pit lane, spun and made contact at Turn 4 on Lap 122 to bring out the fifth caution, then was sent to the back of the field on Lap 126 for taking emergency service in a closed pit. He still leads the standings, but the margin that stood at 133 points on Saturday morning is now 91 with three races remaining.

Lundgaard's second place in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was the best result available to anyone not driving for Andretti Global. Will Power completed the podium in the No. 26 TWG AI Andretti Global Honda, climbing from 12th on the grid for his third consecutive podium, and Marcus Ericsson took fourth in the No. 28 Acura Andretti Global Honda after starting 21st. The one-three-four finish delivered the organization's 80th all-time win in Indy car competition and completed a sweep of the three street circuits that joined the calendar this season, following Kirkwood at Arlington in March and Ericsson at Markham a week ago.

"The momentum we've been carrying, Kyle, he did an awesome job today. He didn't put a wheel wrong all day," said Ron Ruzewski, team principal at Andretti Global. "I think as a whole, our team has been really clicking. Today one, three, four. Last week we had double podium."

The race turned on tire strategy at its final restart. Kirkwood had built a lead of more than 15 seconds by Lap 111, watched it evaporate through two late cautions, and restarted on Lap 128 as the only driver in the top six on primary tires.

"I got huge wheel spin when I got to power, which the guys on the red tires and alternate tires didn't have that big of an issue. So I was under a lot of fire," Kirkwood said.

Scott McLaughlin took the opportunity, diving down the inside at Turn 1 on Lap 129 in the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. Kirkwood conceded the corner, hoping to cross back on exit. McLaughlin instead made contact with the barrier and was out, his race ending after 128 laps; Felix Rosenqvist spun behind the incident and continued with nose damage in the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda. McLaughlin was seen and released from the INDYCAR Medical Unit.

"Once he got alongside me, there's no way he's stopping," Kirkwood said. "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."

The restart on Lap 134 gave him a 0.5603-second cushion over Lundgaard. He was quickest at the end when it mattered, running eight consecutive laps in the 58s and setting the fastest leader lap of the race at 58.2879 on Lap 145.

Six cautions accounted for 29 of the 147 laps, and the race's seven lead changes among four drivers owed more to strategy than to overtaking at the front. Graham Rahal inherited the lead on Lap 39 by staying out when the field pitted under the Turn 7 caution, holding it for 12 laps in the No. 15 Gaylor Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda — almost entirely under yellow — before Kirkwood took it back at Turn 3 on Lap 51. Power led four laps and McLaughlin three, both during later pit cycles. Rahal finished 13th.

That Turn 7 caution ended two races. David Malukas made heavy right-side contact with the barrier and quarter-spun in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, and Sting Ray Robb hit the stricken car's left rear in the No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet. Both climbed out unaided and both were classified with 35 laps completed. It was a damaging afternoon for Malukas, who arrived fourth in the standings.

"That was a really, like, thread-the-needle corner, complex. I assume Malukas hit the inside and bounced," Power said of the Turn 6 and 7 section. "The hardest section of the whole track."

A second incident followed almost immediately. On Lap 43, Marcus Armstrong made contact with Christian Rasmussen at Turn 5, spinning the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet into the path of Rinus VeeKay, whose No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet hit the barrier. VeeKay was out after 43 laps and was seen and released from the medical unit. Armstrong drew a 10-second stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact and finished 17th in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.

Kyffin Simpson produced the drive of the afternoon behind the leaders, improving 18 positions from 23rd on the grid to fifth in the No. 8 Sunoco Chip Ganassi Racing Honda — the largest gain of any driver. Nolan Siegel was sixth from 18th, Scott Dixon seventh from 13th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda and Josef Newgarden eighth. Caio Collet finished ninth in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, the leading rookie, with Mick Schumacher 11th after starting 24th.

Behind Kirkwood's control at the front of the field, the race produced 155 on-track passes, 122 of them for position. Power made 13, more than any other driver; Kirkwood made 12 working through lapped traffic.

"It was racy. You could pass. A lot of my positions were gained just on-track passes. It was everything you'd want," Power said.

Kirkwood was less certain the view from the lead had been compelling. "I hope quite honestly I think for our sport, IndyCar, I hope that part of the race wasn't boring with me leading a lot of it, if I'm being completely honest," he said. "But the racing product, when I was around other cars, you could actually race cars pretty well."

Power set the fastest lap of the race at 57.9495 on Lap 122 and was quickest through more sections of the circuit than any other driver, including Turns 1, 4, 5 and 6.

Conditions were the warmest of the weekend. At 1 p.m. the ambient temperature was 82 degrees with relative humidity at 48 percent under mostly cloudy skies, and Firestone engineers measured the track surface at 120.3 degrees. Overnight grinding at the exit of Turn 1 and the entry of Turn 6 had addressed the two places drivers complained about most across Saturday, though nobody pretended the circuit had been transformed.

"I mean, it still is bumpy. Still is bumpy," Lundgaard said. "I feel like most of the bumps are either when you're going straight or in the brake zones."

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called drivers to their cars at 1:03 p.m., Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Lieutenant General Lawrence G. Ferguson gave the command to start engines at 1:10 p.m., and President Donald Trump waved the green flag. Race chairman Bud Denker said 215,000 people attended across the two days, drawn from 288,000 ticket requests, and that the event required 1,350 pages of permits against roughly 200 for Detroit.

"This was not a race, it was an event. There's a difference, isn't there?" Denker said. "The racetrack, the raceability exceeded my expectations. We just weren't sure because there's no testing."

Whether the series returns is unresolved. Denker described it as a financial question rather than a political one, noting that the barriers alone cost more than three and a half million dollars and that the anniversary year drew sponsorship that may not repeat. The drivers were less equivocal. Asked whether he wanted to come back, Power answered immediately: "Definitely want to come back here." Lundgaard agreed, and went further on what the weekend had felt like.

"I feel like this is a good contender to the Indy 500," Lundgaard said. "I think overall this is just a testament to where the series is going. Nothing's like DC. But I think we did very well for the first time."

Kirkwood, the only driver who can currently claim a Washington victory, framed it the same way. "Outside of the Indy 500, I don't think there's another race that you'd want to win," he said.

The championship now narrows to five drivers. Palou leads on 553 points from Kirkwood on 462, with Lundgaard third on 443, Malukas fourth on 411 and Pato O'Ward fifth on 399. Under the elimination criterion, any driver trailing by more than 162 points after this race is out of contention, which ends Newgarden's bid despite his eighth-place finish.

Lundgaard, who moved to third in the standings, allowed himself some satisfaction at the leader's misfortune. "I think I'm just happy to see Alex not win for once," he said. "Alex and David had some unfortunate luck out there. But those are the days that we need to not have for the rest of the season."

Power, who has been through several title fights, was blunt about what 91 points means with three races left. "It's pretty tough, three races to go, 90 points with a guy that's very consistent," he said. "Obviously the team will keep digging. We'll do everything we can to close that gap and make it possible going to the last race."

The series heads to the Milwaukee Mile next weekend for a doubleheader before the season finale at Laguna Seca.

Newgarden Tops Warm-Up as Late Engine Penalties Reshuffle the Washington Grid

Josef Newgarden turned a 57.6076 in the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet to lead the half-hour warm-up for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., edging polesitter Alex Palou by 0.0782 of a second in a session that told less about outright pace than about who has found something in race trim.

Nobody went faster than they had on Saturday afternoon. Across the full 25-car field, every driver's benchmark for the weekend still dates to Practice 2, and the only entry on the combined order carrying a warm-up time is Graham Rahal — and only because his Saturday afternoon ended against the Turn 6 barrier before he could set a representative lap. Newgarden's own morning best was slower than the 57.5800 he managed in Practice 2, which is the pattern across the board.

That flatness was partly by design and partly a property of the circuit. Teams spent the 30 minutes on race setups rather than chasing a number, and Palou had already predicted the surface would not reward waiting. Overnight, though, the circuit did change in one specific way: Race Control reported that grinding had been carried out at the exit of Turn 1 and the entry of Turn 6 — the two locations drivers had complained about most consistently since Saturday morning.

Those were precisely the spots Palou flagged after the opening session, when he described bumps he did not think could be engineered away. Pato O'Ward had identified the same pair, noting that the exit of Turn 1 and the run down to Turn 2 had come to define the layout's character. Turn 6 is also where three of the weekend's incidents occurred: Rahal's contact and Louis Foster's nose damage in Practice 2, and Kyffin Simpson's barrier contact that brought out the red flag in qualifying.

Behind Newgarden and Palou, David Malukas was third at 57.8364 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, a considerably more encouraging morning than the shootout lap that left him sixth on the grid. Kyle Kirkwood was fourth and O'Ward fifth. The order otherwise scrambled hard against qualifying — Scott McLaughlin, who starts third, was 13th; Christian Rasmussen, who starts fourth, was 23rd on 16 laps; and Marcus Armstrong, who starts fifth, was 19th. Newgarden's 15 laps were the second-fewest of anyone, ahead of only Will Power's 13.

The morning's more consequential news came from race control rather than the timing screens. INDYCAR Officiating announced six-position starting grid penalties for the entries of the No. 6 Arrow McLaren, the No. 28 Andretti Global and the No. 47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, all for unapproved engine changes following Saturday's qualifying. Under the rule, a fifth engine counts as an unapproved change-out unless a full-season entrant has completed the required mileage on its first four.

That is the same rule Santino Ferrucci was penalized under on Saturday morning, though for a separate offense — an engine change following the race at Markham a week earlier. The result is four cars carrying identical sanctions into a 25-car field, three of them for something that only became knowable after qualifying had finished.

The official starting lineup shows how they resolved. Nolan Siegel qualified 12th and starts 18th. Marcus Ericsson qualified 15th and starts 21st. Mick Schumacher qualified 20th and starts 24th. Ferrucci qualified 22nd and starts last in the No. 14 Homes for Our Troops AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Siegel and Ericsson lose the full six positions, but the two furthest back cannot — with four penalized cars clustered in the rear of a 25-car field, there is not enough grid left behind Schumacher and Ferrucci to move them the whole way.

The tire designations add a further layer. All six Firestone Fast Six starters begin on alternates, while O'Ward, Dennis Hauger, Christian Lundgaard, Felix Rosenqvist and Caio Collet — the drivers filling positions seven through 11 — all start on primaries. The split is sharper further back: Power starts 12th on alternates, directly ahead of Scott Dixon, who begins 13th on primaries. Teams must run at least one set of primaries and two sets of alternates for a minimum of two laps each across 147 laps, so the opening stint choice sets up very different obligations later.

Conditions were the coolest of the weekend, with an ambient temperature of 72 degrees at 9 a.m. under partly cloudy skies and a track surface at 79 degrees, according to Firestone engineers. Humidity had climbed to 84 percent — a figure that lends weight to what O'Ward said after the first session about what this race will cost physically.

"Physically it's humid out there, man. We're going to lose a lot of water, a lot of water. We need to be well-hydrated," O'Ward said.

Kirkwood, who starts second, was similarly direct about the demand of the distance. "It is going to be physical, though. This place is very quick. The corners, the grip we had when we first got here, there's not been a lot of evolution. It's physical. Steering is heavy. Huge brake zones. Brake temps are very high. It's a tough place," he said.

Palou, for his part, expects the race to be untidy. "It's going to be chaotic. It's a street course. It's new. It's 250 miles. There's huge bumps. Huge, huge. It's going to be tough. It's going to be chaos," he said. He also anticipates a congested track: "There's going to be a lot of traffic tomorrow, for sure, which makes it for a great race."

The command to start engines comes at 1:10 p.m. ET, with the green flag on the 147-lap, 250-mile race at 1:17 p.m. on FOX.

Palou Takes Washington Pole With the Lap That Mattered Most

Alex Palou won the NTT P1 Award for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. with a 56.8993 in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, beating Kyle Kirkwood by 0.5668 of a second in a Firestone Fast Six that gave every driver exactly one lap to get it right.

The margin was startling in a session otherwise decided by hundredths. It is Palou's seventh pole of 2026 and the 19th of his IndyCar career, moving him level with Danny Sullivan and Josef Newgarden for 16th on the all-time Indy car pole list.

Kirkwood had been the fastest driver on track for most of the evening and finished second anyway. He led Segment 1 with a 56.7729 in the No. 27 Sam's Club Andretti Global Honda — a lap that stands as the qualifying record for the Streets of Washington, D.C. — then led Segment 2 at 56.8291. In the shootout he ran first of the six and posted a 57.4661, more than half a second off his own earlier benchmark, and could only watch from pit lane as the rest of the field came through.

The Fast Six order is set by team selection rather than by time, with the quickest driver from Segment 2 choosing first, and the running order that emerged was Kirkwood, Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Armstrong, David Malukas and Christian Rasmussen. Palou went second at 6:04 p.m. and took provisional pole, and nobody got close afterward. McLaughlin managed a 57.6200 in the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet for third. Rasmussen was fourth at 57.8892 in the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, a notable result for a team that has now put a car in the top four of qualifying at a circuit nobody had seen before Saturday morning. Armstrong took fifth at 58.8145 in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda.

Malukas was the one casualty of the format. The No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet made contact during its lap and the resulting 1:10.6709 left him sixth, nearly 14 seconds adrift — the kind of number that only appears when a single-lap shootout goes wrong, since there is no second attempt to fall back on.

Three penalties shaped the session before it reached that point. Santino Ferrucci lost his best lap to that point in the No. 14 Homes for Our Troops AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, retaining the ability to advance, for causing a local yellow that affected another competitor during Group 2. Kyffin Simpson lost two fast laps and the ability to advance after bringing out a red flag at 5:28 p.m., making contact with the barrier at Turn 6 in the No. 8 Sunoco Chip Ganassi Racing Honda; the checkered flag flew on Group 2 at that point with results pending review. Armstrong drew a drive-through penalty during Segment 2 for a pit lane speed violation, recorded at 47.027 mph at Pit Center, and served it inside that same segment. Surrendering a lap's worth of track time on a 10-minute clock is a meaningful cost in a session where six of 12 drivers go home, and Armstrong still transferred — advancing fourth on six laps, fewer than any other driver in the round, before taking fifth in the shootout.

The format itself produced an order that rewards reading before assuming an error. Drivers eliminated in Segment 1 fill positions 13 through 25 by group rather than by time, with Group 1 taking the odd-numbered spots and Group 2 the even ones. That is how Will Power ended up 13th in the No. 26 TWG AI Andretti Global Honda despite a 57.0916 that was quicker than every driver who qualified between seventh and 12th, and how Marcus Ericsson's 57.2799 in the No. 28 Acura Andretti Global Honda placed him 15th. Pato O'Ward was the fastest driver eliminated in Segment 2, seventh at 57.3064.

Two rookies reached the second segment. Caio Collet advanced from Group 2 in the No. 4 Combitrans Amazonia AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet and qualified 11th, while Dennis Hauger took eighth in the No. 19 Ault Block Chain Dale Coyne Racing Honda.

Qualifying ran at 5 p.m. under mostly cloudy skies with an ambient temperature of 79 degrees, relative humidity at 68 percent and a track surface at 99.2 degrees, according to Firestone engineers — considerably warmer than either practice session.

Palou, who has now led the championship standings for most of the season, said afterward that the single-lap format suits him even as it unnerves him.

"It's the best thing and the worst thing at the same time," Palou said. "There's a side of me that loves it. When I'm heading into the corner without knowing if there's going to be enough grip or not, it's like, Yeah. The other side of me is, This is not good, we should not be braking there."

He also pushed back on the idea that the circuit rubbered in significantly across the day. "Not big. I think when a track has so much grip itself, the evolution is not as big," Palou said. "I didn't expect this tarmac to have so much grip. That's why it's so physical for us."

Asked about a championship he could theoretically clinch Sunday, Palou kept his focus narrow. "I think the best thing is that we have this huge opportunity with the status of the championship to just focus on the race and try and make history," he said.

Kirkwood was blunter about what 147 laps will demand. "It is going to be physical, though. This place is very quick. The corners, the grip we had when we first got here, there's not been a lot of evolution. It's physical. Steering is heavy. Huge brake zones. Brake temps are very high. It's a tough place," he said.

He put the distance in context against the street races the series normally runs. "This is on par with one of the more physical street courses I think on the season. We typically do 90 laps at those other ones," Kirkwood said.

Both front-row starters used the session to register the same complaint about a compressed two-day schedule, the second in as many weekends. Kirkwood turned the argument toward the crews. "I think from within the whole paddock, we would prefer three days, spread it out, allow people to sleep, eat, hydrate and be prepared," he said. Palou was equally direct: "It's a little bit too intense. I prefer when it's a three-day weekend."

Kirkwood, who arrived carrying the King of the Streets label, offered a qualified acceptance of it. "I've won all my races, except for one, on street courses. So I understand the title," he said. He was more unreserved about the crowd. "I actually took a moment on one of the warm-up laps in qualifying to look on both sides of the track," Kirkwood said. "It's big for IndyCar, for the sport, for the U.S., for us drivers, teams, our sponsors. It's all win-win."

These remain qualifying positions rather than starting positions. Ferrucci qualified 22nd and carries a separate six-position grid penalty into Sunday for an unapproved engine change following last weekend's race at Markham, so the official starting lineup will differ from the qualifying order once it posts.

Final practice is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. ET Sunday on FS1, with the command to start engines at 1:10 p.m. and the green flag at 1:17 p.m. on FOX.

Palou Edges Kirkwood in Practice 2 as a Dry Washington Circuit Rewrites the Order

Alex Palou turned a 56.6145 in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to lead Practice 2 for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., holding off Kyle Kirkwood by 0.0766 of a second and taking over the top of the combined practice order in the process.

The circuit that greeted the field on Saturday afternoon bore little resemblance to the one they had learned in the morning. Where Practice 1 opened under declared wet conditions and light rain, Practice 2 ran dry throughout — cloudy skies, an ambient temperature of 73 degrees, relative humidity at 79 percent and a track surface at 90.14 degrees, according to Firestone engineers. The grip that arrived with it produced gains across almost the entire field.

Fourteen drivers bettered the 57.3744 that had led Practice 1, and every driver in the field except one improved on his own morning benchmark. Scott McLaughlin found the largest gain of anyone, taking 1.7122 seconds out of his Practice 1 time in the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, with Will Power close behind at 1.7078 in the No. 26 TWG AI Andretti Global Honda after a first session that had left both well down the order.

The session again ran in three parts, opening with 40 minutes for all 25 cars from 1:05 p.m. before splitting into two group segments. McLaughlin was quickest in the opening run at 56.8947, a lap that held up as his session best and left him seventh overall — one of only two drivers, along with Rinus VeeKay, whose benchmark came from the all-car running rather than a group segment.

Group A went out at 1:52 p.m., and Palou's 56.6145 came on the third of the five laps he completed in that 14-minute window. Kirkwood answered in Group B at 2:11 p.m. with a 56.6911 in the No. 27 Sam's Club Andretti Global Honda, quick enough for second but not for the session.

Behind them the field arrived in a heap. Scott Dixon was third at 56.8180 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, ahead of Nolan Siegel in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Pato O'Ward and Christian Lundgaard, the Arrow McLaren pair separated by 0.0021 of a second. McLaughlin and Alexander Rossi completed a top eight covered by 0.3223 of a second — a spread that suggests qualifying may come down to how cleanly a driver strings together a lap rather than any decisive advantage in pace.

Two red flags interrupted the opening segment, both at the same corner. Graham Rahal brought out the first at 1:14 p.m., stopping in the Turn 6 runoff after light wall contact in the No. 15 Gaylor Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. The session resumed at 1:21 p.m. with 24 minutes remaining. Louis Foster triggered the second at 1:37 p.m., going off at Turn 6 after contact that left the No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequila Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda with nose and front wing damage. Green flag conditions returned at 1:41 p.m.

Foster recovered to run the Group B segment, completing 10 laps there and finishing 24th at 58.9915. Rahal's afternoon did not recover. His seven laps were the fewest of any driver, he set no time at all in Group A, and he ended the session 25th. On the combined order he is the only driver in the field whose benchmark still dates to Practice 1 — a 59.1492 set in that morning's Group A run — and his 32 laps across both sessions are comfortably the fewest, against the 65 that Lundgaard and Dennis Hauger each banked. The field has now completed 1,356 laps at the new circuit.

The afternoon bore out what drivers had predicted after the first session. Palou had anticipated exactly this kind of transformation.

"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 2," Palou said following Practice 1.

O'Ward, who was fifth in the afternoon in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, had made a similar point. "It's got a lot of character, man. It's obviously a very short layout. It was exciting out there. I was looking forward to the evolution that we saw going from wets to the dry," he said.

He had also flagged the conditions that Saturday's humidity readings underline ahead of a 147-lap race. "Physically it's humid out there, man. We're going to lose a lot of water, a lot of water. We need to be well-hydrated," O'Ward said.

Attention now turns to NTT P1 Award qualifying at 5 p.m. ET on FS2, run in two rounds of knockout qualifying before the Firestone Fast Six single-car pole shootout. Whatever the session produces, one starting position will be different: Santino Ferrucci carries a six-position grid penalty into Sunday's race in the No. 14 Homes for Our Troops AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet for an unapproved engine change following last weekend's race at Markham. Ferrucci was 20th in Practice 2 at 57.5801.

Kirkwood Leads a Washington Debut That Began in the Rain and Ended on a Drying Track

Kyle Kirkwood posted a 57.3744 in the No. 27 Sam's Club Andretti Global Honda to lead the first NTT IndyCar Series practice ever run on the streets of Washington, D.C., topping a session that unfolded in three distinct pieces and ended with the fastest lap of the morning coming in the middle one.

The session ran a split format built around the tight confines of the new 1.7-mile, seven-turn circuit: 40 minutes open to all 25 cars, then two 12-minute segments dividing the field into groups. The three rookies — Caio Collet, Dennis Hauger and Mick Schumacher — ran in both group segments rather than one, which is how Hauger came to complete 38 laps, more than any driver in the session.

Conditions dictated the shape of it. INDYCAR declared wet conditions before the cars turned a lap, putting the field on rain tires under a rule set that requires teams to use their own transported wet tires before drawing on Firestone's, with only five sets available across the weekend. The wet-weather bodywork allowances came into effect as well, permitting blocked nose holes, aeroscreen closure panels and the rest of the cold-and-damp package. At 9 a.m. the ambient temperature was 70 degrees with light rain falling and the track at 78.8 degrees. Race Control also extended the five-mph grace period for pit lane speed tuning through Practice 2.

The start was held for connectivity issues around the circuit and pushed to 9:20 a.m., though the session ultimately ran its full allotment. Alexander Rossi was quickest in that opening 40-minute run at 58.6063 in the No. 20 Java House Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet — a lap that stood up as the benchmark of the segment but not of the session, because the track kept coming to the drivers as it dried.

By the time Group B went out at 10:08 a.m., the circuit had transformed. Kirkwood's 57.3744 came in that 12-minute window, more than a second quicker than anything set in the preceding 40 minutes, with Marcus Ericsson second in the segment in the No. 28 Acura Andretti Global Honda and Josef Newgarden third in the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet. Alex Palou then led Group A at 10:26 a.m. with a 57.6123 in the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, quick enough for second overall behind Kirkwood by 0.2379 of a second.

Hauger's 57.7381 in the No. 19 Ault Block Chain Dale Coyne Racing Honda placed the Norwegian third on the combined order, ahead of David Malukas in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet and Ericsson. Newgarden completed the top six. Of the 25 drivers, all but one set their best lap in a group segment rather than the opening all-car run — a measure of how much time the drying line was worth.

The exception was Will Power, whose best of 58.9392 in the No. 26 TWG AI Andretti Global Honda came in the opening segment and left him 22nd. Power was among three drivers to find the concrete lining the new circuit, making light contact with the right rear alongside Christian Lundgaard in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Splenda Stevia Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet. All three pitted for quick repairs. Power's 19 laps were the fewest of any driver in the session; Lundgaard and Rasmussen were less affected, completing 30 and 32 respectively.

The bumps drew nearly as much comment as the rain. Palou, who arrives in Washington with a 133-point championship lead and six wins this season, described a layout that punishes the car more than the driver.

"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," Palou said.

Asked whether the bumps can be engineered around or simply avoided, he suggested neither is fully possible. "I think the bumps are so big, there's not much you can do. You need to have a car that it's all right over bumps, that it's not trying to kill you every time," Palou said.

He was more encouraged about what the circuit's width might mean for Sunday. "I see that just having a wide track, it's just going to allow us to have more passing than, for example, Detroit," he said.

Pato O'Ward, 13th in the session in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, pointed to ride height as the immediate engineering problem. "We were one of the cars, I'm assuming quite a lot of other cars out there, as well, went out, you're like, Oh, my God, the front is way too low. We have to start raising the car. The strikes were extremely aggressive," O'Ward said.

He also flagged the arithmetic that will shape a 147-lap race with a limited push-to-pass allowance. "I think it's going to be quite interesting to see how people strategize their push to pass because we've only got 150 seconds of push to pass, and we basically have 150 laps. If you use it every lap, you only have one second per lap-ish. You definitely don't want to do that," O'Ward said.

The physical demand registered too. "Physically it's humid out there, man. We're going to lose a lot of water, a lot of water. We need to be well-hydrated," O'Ward said, before adding that he welcomes it: "I'm ready for the street fight, man."

Separately, INDYCAR Officiating announced a six-position starting grid penalty for the No. 14 Homes for Our Troops AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet of Santino Ferrucci, issued for an unapproved engine change following last weekend's race on the streets of Markham. Under the engine rules, a fifth engine counts as an unapproved change-out unless a full-season entrant has completed the required mileage on its first four. The penalty applies to Sunday's race. Ferrucci was 17th in the session at 58.5043.

Practice 2 goes green at 1:05 p.m. ET Saturday on FS2, with NTT P1 Award qualifying to follow at 5 p.m. on FS2.