Team Penske, Reuss make White House pit stop for Freedom 250 race

IndyCar made a pit stop at the White House this week.

Detroit auto giants Roger Penske and General Motors President Mark Reuss joined Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist, Indy 500 runner-up David Malukas, and reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou at the White House to give the nation’s capital a preview of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix coming next month to DC’s streets.

The motorsports event follows June’s UFC Freedom 250 slugfest that showcased the world’s best ultimate fighters on the White House south lawn. Team Penske driver Malukas and his pit crew showed off their quick hands, too, with a tire-burning, 6.5-second pit stop in front of the West Wing.

President Donald Trump, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Penske President Bud Denker, and Fox Sports CEO (and IndyCar broadcast partner) Eric Shanks looked on while White House staff cheered from the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

“As we count down to the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, this will be like no other race,” said Trump, flanked by a pair of Chevrolet Corvette ZR1s from GM that will serve as pace cars for the event. “It'll be one of the most unforgettable racing events the world has ever seen, and we have the most talented people. These (drivers) have a lot of courage.”

The Freedom 250 was hardly a foregone conclusion this summer as initial plans to run the race on Capitol Hill ran into congressional roadblocks.

Denker recounted how a White House executive order broke the logjam by moving the race to city streets around the National Mall. The historic, one-time event has been a collaboration between Bloomfield Hills-based Penske Entertainment, which owns IndyCar, the federal government, and the D.C. mayor’s office to celebrate the nation’s 250^th birthday.

“Within 24 hours of this idea changing onto the city streets, we had an executive order in my inbox to review,” said Denker. “Four days later, I was in (the president’s) office here to sign it.”

The event will be free to the public, a promise that brought a flood of interest.

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“Over 250,000 people signed up to come to this event, and we will be able to accommodate 100,000 each of the two days,” Penske said of the Aug. 22-23 race that will be broadcast on Fox. “We're honored. We think about the Indy 500 as an iconic race, but this is going to move right up there next to it ... from the standpoint of the best in the world.”

It was an emotional day for Malukas, a first-generation American born of Lithuanian immigrants who built a successful trucking business.

“Incredible day and one I’ll never forget,” said the 24-year-old, who has had a strong debut season for Team Penske. “It was my first time getting to see the White House and truly see it, getting a special tour from the president. It was such a cool experience to do an IndyCar pit stop for the first time at the White House.”

Malukas lost out to Swede Rosenqvist, 34, of Meyer Shank Racing in the closest Indy 500 finish in history last May, but has continued with consistent results, sitting fourth in the driver’s standings as the highest-scoring Penske driver. His #12 Team Penake IndyCar is powered by a hybrid Chevrolet V-6 assembled in Pontiac.

Spaniard Palou, 29, leads the series in a Honda-powered IndyCar from Chip Ganassi Racing.

“I think, for all the drivers, this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to celebrate America's 250^th,” said Malukas. “I can't think of any other better way to do it than here in Washington D.C. at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix.”

The GP brings a very different race than the 240-mph banked turns of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Like the Detroit Grand Prix in late May, the Freedom 250 promises to be a street fight.

Where the Motor City event’s 1.7-mile track circles the iconic Renaissance Center, the Freedom 250’s 1.7-mile, seven-turn circuit will lap the National Mall — including Turn 1 with the west façade of the US Capitol building as its backdrop. The turn leads onto Pennsylvania Avenue from 3rd Street, where IndyCars are expected to reach speeds of over 170 mph on a public road with a speed limit of 25 mph.

“You're going to see cars racing down Pennsylvania Avenue, (which) wasn't exactly designed for that,” laughed Trump, a car collector and motorsports fan. “They're going to go all around the National Mall at speeds that are not quite legal . ... If we did that during the regular day, I think people would be put in jail — perhaps for the rest of their lives.”

Parallel to the 0.4-mile run down Pennsylvania Avenue between Turns 1 and 2 will be the pit lane where drivers will take on fuel and tires during the 100-lap race.

The drivers will speed west towards the White House on Pennsylvania before hanging a left turn onto 9^th Street at the National Archives building.

The Turn 3 left-hander onto Constitution Avenue is followed by a right onto 7^th Avenue at the National Gallery of Art. Turn 5 is another 90-degree left-hander leading onto Independence Avenue, where cars will howl past the imposing National Air and Space Museum buildings before negotiating Turns 6 and 7 onto Maryland Avenue and then 3^rd Street in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool and Capitol building.

Palou handed the president a red, white, and blue racing helmet with “President Trump” across the visor.

“We have a special helmet for you,” said Penske, 89, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump in 2019. “We hope you will wear that when you're riding around in The Beast (the presidential limo made by GM), leading the field to the green flag.”

The Freedom 250 will be the 15^th of 18 IndyCar races this year. The series is in Nashville this weekend for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Team Penske, Reuss make White House pit stop for Freedom 250 race