IndyCar Receives Massive Tickets Request Ahead Of Washington, D.C. Race

A packed crowd could convene in Washington, D.C., for IndyCar's Freedom 250 Grand Prix this summer.

IndyCar recently closed the request period for free tickets to the two-day event scheduled for August 22 and 23. The 1.7-mile track will run along Pennsylvania Avenue and race by monuments such as the U.S. Capitol, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and National Gallery of Art.

According to RACER's Marshall Pruett, Penske Entertainment president Bud Denker claimed that IndyCar was inundated with ticket requests.

"The ticket request process ended last Sunday at midnight; it went for nine days, from Friday till Sunday, and there were 288,000 ticket requests," Denker said. "If we'd left it open five more days, we'd be up to Indy 500 numbers. Now we're going back to my office to start putting the filtration process into place in terms of who gets the tickets, because we can't accommodate 280,000 people. Even if we divide that by 140,000 people a day, we just can't process that many people happily through magnetometers."

More on IndyCar's D.C. race

Denker said half of the people given free tickets will witness the Freedom 250 from inside the track. The other half will watch from outside the circuit.

"We call it the Stars & Stripes. Outside is called Stars, inside is called Stripes. It's on our website that way, and we're comfortable with 50,000 a day, inside and outside. So, effectively 100,000 people," Denker said.

"And I've got to have probably another 5,000 off to the side, because of what we're going to be experiencing from White House staff, congressional staff, that's all going to need access in some way, somehow, possibly. So when it's all said and done, you'll have over 120,000 people per day present for this event, both Saturday and Sunday."

Penske has faced some unique challenges preparing for a race at the nation's capital.

"My permit book is approaching 1,000 pages, because every sidewalk has a different jurisdiction," Denker said. "This sidewalk is owned by the city. This one's owned by the National Park Service. This is owned by the National Art Gallery. This is owned by the Smithsonian. This is owned by the Federal Trade Commission. Or the National Archives. All of those require permitting ... so our normal model of doing an event like this would never work in six months."

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