Roger Penske believes the Freedom 250 Grand Prix will be a significant financial gain for Washington D.C.
On Friday morning, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order for the purposes of bringing an IndyCar race to the area, including the National Mall, as part of celebrating America’s 250th birthday. The race is set for Aug. 21-23.
While various items, such as the track layout, will be revealed “in the coming weeks,” per an IndyCar representative, some details have emerged via the announcement.
Following the signing of the executive order, Penske, who owns the IndyCar Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Team Penske, shared his thoughts on bringing a race to the nation’s capital.
"For us as a company, to support the 250th anniversary for the country, and there's no better way for us to bring automotive and speed into the D.C. area, and to have the opportunity to be able to compete here with our Indy cars,” Penske said.
“We own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and we're taking that history of over 100 years and the speed and what's taken place there with the different manufacturers, and bringing it here for this race. It will be amazing.
“Certainly the Freedom 250, when you think about it, it's just a byproduct of what the President has done this year, and this event will obviously be in August, which will make a huge difference. We're excited for people to see it. Most of the grounds will be free. It's going to be an economic benefit to the area, to the city.”
Penske was among a handful standing in the Oval Office around President Trump, along with United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, United States Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum, Penske Corp. President Bud Denker, and FOX Sports CEO Eric Shanks.
“And obviously, our FOX partner, Eric Shanks, will be our media partner,” Penske said. “Believe me, what they did for us at Indy this past year. They're gonna take that and put it on steroids, really, and take it to the next level."
Duffy, who helped ignite the buzz with an AI-generated video hyping the prospects of the event was presented on social media - and was endorsed by President Trump - a week ago, shared how this venture with IndyCar came together.
"The president gave us all a directive, which I'm grateful for,” Duffy said. “We're going to celebrate America's 250th birthday, and he asked us all to think outside the box. How do we make this historic and cool? We at DoT were working on this concept. We didn't know at the same time that Penske was working on the same project, too. So we've come together, and to think we're going to see 190mph down Pennsylvania Avenue.
“This is going to be wild. The last time we had a race in the Capitol City was a horse race in 1801. This doesn't happen. There's a lot of work that goes into this. We couldn't be more excited about this. Again, I want to repeat that this is free for the American people, to come to your nation's Capitol and see a great road race. Freedom, America, speed, and road racing, it doesn't get more American than that."
For his part, Burgum noted the history of the Indianapolis 500 as “an icon of our country,” while also noting the developments of the upcoming event.
“Merging the history and the tradition of our Capitol with the speed and the innovation that goes on in the IndyCar Series is incredible,” Burgum said. “There were 81 meetings with the Trump administration and in one week, we had a race ... there's not going to be a hotel availability that weekend in the city."
