JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Staying in D.C. when thousands of people gather on Pennsylvania Avenue - it is usually for a presidential inauguration. But this weekend, crowds will line the streets near the National Mall to watch cars racing in the Freedom 250 Grand Prix. It's one of several celebrations in the city to mark the country's 250th anniversary. NPR's Deepa Shivaram reports.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: It's been a little difficult to get around the roads near the National Mall recently. Massive chain link fences have blocked off the street and access to some buildings. It's part of the preparation leading up to the capital city's first IndyCar race taking place this weekend. The course is mapped around the National Archives and the Air and Space Museum. The pit lane is on Pennsylvania Avenue. The cars are expected to drive at a speed of nearly 200 miles per hour. President Trump spoke about the race last month.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They're going to go all around the National Mall at speeds that are not quite - if we did that during the regular day, I think people would be put in jail perhaps for the rest of their lives, right?
SHIVARAM: The race is one of several events in D.C. this year marking America's 250th birthday. But it started simply as a passion project for Bud Denker. He's the president of the Penske Corporation, the group organizing the race and funding most of it. He traveled to D.C. for two days to walk the streets and see if it was possible to fit a race track within the city.
BUD DENKER: I mean, literally, around the Capitol - up Constitution, down Independence, up First Street, which is in front of the Supreme Court. And I found this perfect race track.
SHIVARAM: But like a lot of things in Washington, politics got in the way. The track Denker outlined was on congressional land and needed a bill from Congress to approve, but it didn't have enough votes. That's when the Trump administration got involved. Denker routed a new track, and within days, he says, Trump approved the event.
DENKER: And then my head was blowing up thinking, oh, my God, I got less than seven months to do this.
SHIVARAM: Now the race has become part of Trump's long list of celebrations for America's 250th that have had wide-ranging impacts on the capital city. Earlier this year, the White House hosted, for the first time, a UFC fight on the South Lawn for Trump's birthday. July 4 celebrations this year included a military flyover which grounded flights in D.C. and involved the largest fireworks show in the nation's history. Some of Trump's other projects involve more permanent changes to the city, like a giant 250 foot arch and the renovations around the reflecting pool that have cost taxpayers around $15 million. Marc Selverstone, the director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia, says the type of events Trump has organized this year and his other architectural changes around D.C. are in line with the type of president he is.
MARC SELVERSTONE: His desire to be the first, the best, the greatest, the biggest, the most powerful, the most consequential is part of his brand.
SHIVARAM: Being the first president to oversee an IndyCar race in D.C. is part of that. Trump is expected to wave the green flag and will take a lap around the track in his own car before the event begins.
Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF GARY NUMAN SONG, "CARS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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