Kyle Kirkwood Says He Doesn't Want IndyCar Going Back To D.C., And Here's Why!

Driver Kyle Kirkwood Indy Shouldn't Go Back To D.C. ... I Wanna Be Only Winner! Published August 29, 2026 12:30 AM PDT IndyCar pulled off one of the wildest one-off races in years -- 100K+ fans, the nation's capital, cars rippin' around the streets -- and the guy who won the historic race has a simple take on a sequel. Don't do it! Kyle Kirkwood dominated Sunday's Freedom 250 race, leading for 128 of the 147 laps ... becoming the first (and if he gets his way, the only) winner of an IndyCar race in Washington, D.C. When TMZ DC asked the Andretti Global driver if he'd like to return next year, he hit up with an interesting answer. "So I've got biased opinions either direction, right? One of them is, no, we shouldn't come back here because I'll be the only winner and it was such a big event," Kyle told us. "Or two, I have a biased opinion towards the team where, yes, we'd love to come back here because we feel like we have really, really good equipment around these tracks and we haven't figured it out." But if he had to pick? "Quite honestly, probably for the personal reasons that we don't come back." Aside from being the only winner, Kirkwood isn't sure they could ever match the magic of last weekend's event. "I don't think it'll ever amount to what we did here. It was a 250th celebration, whereas if we come back, it'll likely just be a normal IndyCar event, which this was not a normal IndyCar event. This was like an American event." That's a point that's hard to argue. We also asked KK if he got a chance to peek outside the car during the race and take in some of the incredible D.C. scenery. "You're not looking outside the racetrack, right. You look at your brake references, you're looking at bumps, you're looking at the walls, where they're at, and you're really focused on that." "But at the end of the race, I took a moment to look around, see the fans see, see the Capitol building, see the Monument, see all the beautiful architecture that this place has to provide," Kirkwood said. "It was a very special moment for me."