Hours before President Donald Trump's IndyCar race in Washington, D.C., NBC News' Sahil Kapur flagged a potentially dangerous problem that could pose a risk to drivers.

The event, dubbed the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, has been touted by Trump as D.C.'s first-ever IndyCar race, and the president is expected to attend. Drivers took to the course Saturday for practice and qualifying, but as Fox Sports flagged, they ran into trouble almost immediately. A bump in the circuit sent a number of racers into a runoff area after briefly losing control of their vehicles, as shown in a video compilation shared by "IndyCar on Fox". Surface trouble of this kind is a familiar hazard on temporary street circuits, which are laid out on public roads rather than purpose-built tracks, and low-slung open-wheel cars like IndyCars, riding inches off the ground on stiff suspension, are especially sensitive to irregularities at high speed. A comparable episode occurred at Formula 1's 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, where a loose water valve cover damaged Carlos Sainz's Ferrari in practice and forced overnight repairs to the circuit.

"It's not an authentic DC street track without bumps!" wrote Kapur, NBC News' senior national political reporter, in a post on X Saturday night. "That said, this is a big one in a flat-out section that caused a bunch of IndyCar drivers problems today – and will be a thing in tomorrow's race."

Trump's race has already drawn scrutiny from critics, some of whom called the event a "terrible idea" given D.C.'s "very bumpy" roads. Even former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, a Trump-aligned former congressional candidate who lost his primary race earlier this month, warned that the race could pose serious issues for drivers.

"The BUMPS are most certainly going to be the talk of the Freedom 250 in DC," Sessler wrote in a post on X. "The track is VERY bumpy! Not just bumps but cars jumping off the ground sort of bumps!"

The Freedom 250 Grand Prix marks the first-ever IndyCar street race held in the nation's capital, run on a 1.66-mile, seven-turn temporary circuit weaving past the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument. Trump formally established the race through a Jan. 30, 2026, executive order directing the Departments of Transportation and Interior to designate a race route through the National Mall and surrounding city streets, in honor of the United States Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence being commemorated nationwide in 2026. What bears watching ahead of race day is whether organizers address the problem section, since on temporary street circuits sanctioning bodies and promoters sometimes grind down or patch trouble spots between sessions — though Kapur, for one, expected the bump to remain a factor in the race.

It's not an authentic DC street track without bumps! That said, this is a big one in a flat-out section that caused a bunch of IndyCar drivers problems today — and will be a thing in tomorrow's race. pic.twitter.com/5COA7xSvDK — Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 23, 2026