2026 Freedom 250 Grand Prix

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.