- Alex Palou is +140 to win the Freedom 250, a price that implies about 42%.
- Kyle Kirkwood is next at +320, an implied 24%, with Christian Lundgaard third at +750.
- IndyCar lists the race at 147 laps and 249.9 miles, the longest street race in at least four decades.
- Palou leads the standings by 133 points and has won three of the season’s five street races.
WASHINGTON – Alex Palou is the +140 favorite for Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C., the first NTT IndyCar Series race run on the streets of the nation’s capital. No driver in the field has raced the 1.7-mile National Mall circuit.
A Reputation Price On A Circuit Nobody Has Raced
Palou’s number is priced off a season, not off a track. He has won six of his 14 starts in 2026, a 43% win rate, and three of the five street races run so far. His price reads 7/5 at fractional books, the same number as +140 in American betting odds.
That +140 implies roughly 41.7%, a shade under his own win rate this year. The market has carried his form onto a course nobody has driven in anger. Whether his true chance in Washington beats what the price implies is the bet.
| Freedom 250 outright | Price |
|---|---|
| Alex Palou | +140 |
| Kyle Kirkwood | +320 |
| Christian Lundgaard | +750 |
| Marcus Ericsson | +800 |
| Will Power | +1200 |
| David Malukas | +1200 |
| Pato O’Ward | +1500 |
| Scott McLaughlin | +1500 |
Kirkwood at +320 implies about 23.8% and Lundgaard at +750 about 11.8%. The board runs 25 drivers deep and stretches to +50000 on Sting Ray Robb.
A field that size is a different exercise from the two-way markets that carry most of legal sports betting. The favorite can be beaten by any of two dozen cars and still have been the right side of the number.
147 Laps And Four Stops Widen The Variance
IndyCar lists the race at 147 laps and 249.9 miles, a distance that dwarfs the usual street-course assignment. The 1.7-mile layout runs counterclockwise through seven turns, six of them left and one right. It starts on 3rd Street beside the U.S. Capitol and runs down Pennsylvania Avenue, with pit road on the left.
The series expects the race to last about three hours, roughly an hour longer than a typical street event and the longest street race in at least four decades. Drivers face as many as four pit stops.
That matters to the number. Every additional stop and restart is another place for a caution to wipe out track position on a bumpy temporary course lined with concrete. Unfamiliar circuits produce more of both. Race length that adds pit cycles and yellows raises variance, and variance is the enemy of a short price.
Palou Needs 62 More Points For A Fourth Straight Title
Palou carries a 133-point lead over Kirkwood and 137 over third-placed David Malukas into the weekend, with 54 points available per race. He needs 62 more points across the season’s final four starts to clinch a fourth consecutive championship and a fifth in six years.
Washington is the 15th of 18 races on the 2026 calendar. Two races at the Milwaukee Mile on Aug. 29 and Aug. 30 and the Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Sept. 6 close the season. Race weekend lands in a market that already offers legal Washington DC sports betting.
Qualifying is set for 5 p.m. ET Saturday on FS2. The green flag falls at about 1:13 p.m. ET Sunday on Fox, after an 11:30 a.m. ET pre-race show.
