What's Going On
On January 30, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, to be held on the streets of Washington D.C. in commemoration of the nation's 250th anniversary. Many have wondered why this required an executive order, and we at Absolute Zero Motorsport are honestly just as perplexed by that as anyone else. The race will be part of the 2026 IndyCar season.
When And Where
The Freedom 250 is to be a 250-mile (not 250 laps) IndyCar race on the streets of Washington D.C. somewhere in the vicinity of the National Mall, but as of this writing no exact course has been established. Reports say that the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Transportation were tasked with design a course within fourteen days, presumably of the executive order, which puts the deadline by the middle of February. We do have an established date, though, for the weekend of August 21 - 23, 2026. Allegedly admission will be free to the public.
Clarification
If you're browsing a website dedicated to racing, we suspect you don't need explanation for any of this, but since President Trump announced the Freedom 250 there have been a lot of confused people on social media, often unaware that they are confused.
The first thing I personally saw were references to NASCAR, but it really should go without saying that we're not dealing with NASCAR here, and in fact the original post about the race specifically mentioned IndyCar. Then there was confusion between IndyCar and Formula 1, with several people commenting as though IndyCar is European. IndyCar and F1 are both open-wheel, but they're as much the same thing as are our personal road cars and NASCAR. IndyCar is very much American, and in fact their signature race, for which the series is named, is the Indianapolis 500, which is right there in the middle of the United States. Further, F1 isn't really European. F1 originated in Europe, but since then has spanned six continents, with teams, drivers, engineers, and races from across the globe.
Looking Forward
There's a lot of skepticism about a circuit being planned and all the details lined out in a relatively short span of time, and at the moment we have no idea what the course will end up looking like. We're interested in seeing what they come up with, and if they can get it all together in time. If so, then we eagerly anticipate another race on the calendar.
