The NTT IndyCar Series completed a lengthy race on the streets of Washington D.C. on Sunday, racing around dozens of the nation’s most historic buildings.
The 250-mile race length was the longest ever street course in IndyCar history, and stamina was a determinant factor in the results.
Kyle Kirkwood had next to no concerns, however, as he took the lead in the opening corners and dominated for the entire event.
READ MORE: IndyCar Washington D.C. – Full Race Results
The Andretti driver led over 125 laps of the lengthy race, and was often 10 or more seconds ahead of the competition.
Kirkwood’s biggest problems were navigating lapped traffic, but that only slowed him down for short periods of time.
The triumph was Kirkwood’s second victory of the season, and allowed him to slightly close the gap to the championship leader Alex Palou.
He gained 42 points to Palou, but remains nearly two races’ worth of points behind with only three rounds remaining in the 2026 season.
Christian Lundgaard ran a solid race, staying out of trouble as drivers made mistakes around him.
Lundgaard made a late run to try to catch Kirkwood, but crossed the line in second, his sixth podium of the year as he makes his way through his final year with Arrow McLaren.
Will Power climbed through the field yet again, accomplishing a similar feat to the previous couple events by earning a podium after starting in 12th.
His Andretti Global team-mate Marcus Ericsson finished in fourth, giving the team an incredible 1-3-4 finish on the special circuit.
Kyffin Simpson rounded out the top five, and Nolan Siegel was sixth across the line, which is his best career finish in IndyCar.
Palou’s day to forget
Championship leader Alex Palou hit Mick Schumacher’s tire on pit lane during his first pit stop, and was assessed a drive thought penalty for the error.
That was the first of multiple mistakes for the driver who is normally faultless behind the wheel.
He worked his way back through the field as best he could, but was further hampered by a left front wheel issue on a subsequent pit stop.
Palou’s woes were not done, as he spun with just over 20 laps remaining and crunched the nose of this #10 Chip Ganassi Racing entry into the barriers.
Palou ended the day three laps down in 20th, and lost a sizeable portion of his championship advantage due to the errors on pit lane.
Pato O’Ward did not have quite as many issues as Palou, but he struggled all afternoon nonetheless and failed to make an impact on the day.
The popular Mexican driver ended the day in 16th, one lap down.
The opening lap provided plenty of close action and side-by-side fighting, with David Malukas and Christian Lundgaard’s battle for sixth place the most exciting of all.
Shortly after, however, drivers quickly settled into a fuel-saving strategy and largely stayed single file aside from some frenetic restarts and passes coming in and out of the pits.
Six cautions in total broke up the monotony, however, and provided a decent number of opportunities for fans to witness some wheel to wheel action.
Capital ‘T’ troubles
Santino Ferrucci was the first driver to find troubles, coming to pits after just 22 laps with steering wheel issues.
He was able to return to the track after losing multiple laps, and eventually finished the day in 21st position.
The first retirement of the day was David Malukas, as the young driver clipped the barriers inside of Turn 7 and shortly after smashed in the concrete wall on the exit of the turn.
Sting Ray Robb was on track directly behind, and nosed directly into the side of Malukas car as it sat across the track.
Luckily, the hit was to the engine and not the cockpit, and both drivers were able to climb from their cars without assistance.
The cars had to be carried back to the paddock on tow hooks, however, and were not able to return to the race.
Malukas had started in sixth and was attempting an alternate pit strategy, but did not have a chance to see if it would have worked out in his favor.
A short time later, Marcus Armstrong misjudged his braking into Turn 5 and collided heavily with Christian Rasmussen who then hit Rinus VeeKay.
The trio had been running inside the top 10 at the time, and VeeKay was forced to retire from the damage. Rasmussen and Armstrong continued, with the latter being assessed a hefty penalty from race control for the unforced error.
Scott McLaughlin saw his promising day vanish in an instant when he overshot Turn 1 on a late restart while attempting to take the lead.
He bounced off the tire barriers hard, and rolled to a stop with two corners of his car suffering broken suspension. Instead of a solid podium and possible win, McLaughlin finished outside the top 20.
After a long battle on the streets, drivers and teams will reconvene next weekend in Milwaukee for a double-header on the historic one mile oval.
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