No race car sped down Pennsylvania Avenue, sped past the U.S. Capitol, sped past the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and sped past the National Mall on both sides. Certainly, no motorsport entity has been invited to the federal capital by a sitting president, and INDYCAR expects to offer a spectacle of power like never before. Officially, the 147-lap race, covering 250 miles, will be the 15th of the 18 rounds on the INDYCAR SERIES calendar. But, of course, this opportunity represents much, much more than that. “We're already inspired by it, and the 'wow' factor is already there,” said California-born Alexander Rossi. “As soon as it was announced (in January), we started counting down the days until we could do it.” The first free practice will be held at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday. The remainder of the day will feature a second free practice session at 1pm and the qualifying session for the NTT P1 Award at 5pm. Sunday is the big day of the INDYCAR SERIES. The official race broadcast starting at 1pm ET. From a competition point of view, this is the first of four races that will define the championship, although Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou has already practically secured his fourth consecutive title and fifth in six years. The lead is an impressive 133 points, 12 points more than it was at the same time as last year's historic landslide victory. Palou has won six of the first 14 races and still has a chance to become the second driver in INDYCAR SERIES history to win eight races in consecutive seasons. The legendary Mario Andretti won eight races in 1966 and eight in 1967. The most interesting dispute is for second place. Six points separate Andretti Global's Kyle Kirkwood, Team Penske's David Malukas and Arrow McLaren's Christian Lundgaard. Lundgaard has won two races this season, Kirkwood one. Malukas is still looking for the first victory of his career. This will be the sixth street circuit race of the season and the second in two weeks. Palou won three of them, while Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson, winner of last weekend's Ontario Honda Dealers Indy at Markham, took one win each. Rossi, Ericsson and Palou are among the seven Indianapolis 500 winners in this field of 25 drivers. Scott Dixon, Will Power, Josef Newgarden and Felix Rosenqvist are the others. Obviously, they've already been on big stages at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend, but racing among America's historic landmarks during the country's 250th anniversary celebration is a whole other level. The stage is set. Post navigation Norris was fastest in the third practice session at the Hungarian GP Kyle Kirkwood dominates and wins historic and stellar victory in Washington, D.C.