{"id":36636,"date":"2026-09-02T17:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=36636"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:55:13","slug":"historic-freedom-250-grand-prix-garnered-historic-tv-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/historic-freedom-250-grand-prix-garnered-historic-tv-audience","title":{"rendered":"Historic Freedom 250 Grand Prix garnered historic TV audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kyle<\/p>\n

Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the #27 Sam’s Club Andretti Global Honda, celebrates with an eagle after winning the Freedom 250 Grand Prix.<\/em><\/div>\n

Finn Gomez, Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n

The race was a spectacle. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser presided over the traditional calling of drivers to their cars. Drivers from 15 countries reveled in a backdrop that included the Washington Monument, U.S. Capitol, National Gallery of Art and Air & Space Museum. Spectators ogled seven flyovers featuring everything from the B-2 stealth bomber to F-22 fighters to Air Force One \u2014 not including a bald eagle that joined the winner\u2019s podium.<\/p>\n

Penske Corp. estimates the race brought in $100 million-$200 million in economic benefit to the D.C. region in addition to global exposure.<\/p>\n

The Freedom 250 GP was vigorously opposed by congressional Democrats, who called it a vanity project for President Donald Trump, and the race would not have been run were it not for an executive order from the White House.<\/p>\n

Read full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyle Kirkwood, driver of the #27 Sam’s Club Andretti Global Honda, celebrates with an eagle after winning the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. Finn Gomez, Getty Images The race was a spectacle. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser presided over the traditional calling of drivers to their cars. Drivers from 15 countries reveled in a backdrop that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36637,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36636\/revisions\/36637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}