Roger Penske’s Texas-sized ‘playground’ in Jerry Jones’ neighborhood is IndyCar’s new street course
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Roger Penske and IndyCar found a Texas-sized “playground” in Jerry Jones’ neighborhood for a temporary street course to bring the series back to the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
Nearly three years after IndyCar last ran on the fast 1 1/2-mile oval at Texas Motor Speedway about 30 miles away, the open-wheel series will race Sunday on a 2.73-mile, 14-turn circuit on the streets of Arlington around the home stadiums of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and MLB’s Texas Rangers.
“It’s iconic because we are here between the Cowboys and the Rangers real estate. To have this as our playground, you might call it, for a weekend is amazing,” Penske said. “We don’t have this kind of commitment any place that we go as we do here. The investment by the partners along with IndyCar is amazing.”
The Grand Prix of Arlington is the first of three new street races on the IndyCar schedule this season. It is also the start of a multiyear deal in North Texas that came together with the involvement of a pair of successful businessmen and showmen. Their relationships goes back to when Penske was chairman of the host committee for the Super Bowl played in Detroit in 2006, five years before one in Jones’ then sparkling-new stadium.
A powerhouse partnership
The 89-year-old Penske acquired the racing series in January 2020 and this year marks his 60 years as a team owner, with more than 650 major race wins and 48 championships across multiple series. The 83-year-old Jones is a three-time Super Bowl champion owner, though the most recent title came three decades ago. whose Cowboys play in the stadium referred to as “JerryWorld” because of his desire for big events there.
AT&T Stadium was the site of the first championship game in the College Football Playoff era, an NCAA men’s Final Four and an NBA All-Star Game. This inaugural race comes three months before the first of nine scheduled World Cup matches there, the most for any of the 16 host markets this year for the world’s most-watched sporting event, and while work goes on inside the stadium to prepare for the installation of a grass field.
“Certainly we know what the World Cup’s going to be. But it is amazing what we’re going to do with IndyCar,” Jones said. “There’s no way to that you can present any better, any classier, with any more fan-friendly presentation that’s been put right out here.”
Racing around the stadiums
During a ribbon-cutting this week for IndyCar’s longest street course, Jones said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing and how everything came together — from the track trimmed with paint schemes recognizing the NFL and MLB franchises partnering with IndyCar, to the grandstands and hospitality areas throughout Arlington’s entertainment district. The area is just off Interstate 30 halfway between the downtown areas of Dallas and Fort Worth, a metroplex with more than 8 million residents.
“This thing has been done first class. And no detail has been spared,” said Jones, who also expressed his excitement for the event’s future. “One thing for sure, Roger Penske, they wanted first impressions to be the right one.”
A double-sided pit is set up on the road between AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Field, where the Rangers are about to begin their seventh season. There are a couple of curves into a horseshoe turn in the Cowboys’ parking lot that will lead drivers into a 0.9-mile straight where speeds could reach 190 mph and goes between the MLB team’s current and old stadiums. Both of those baseball venues have hosted two World Series.
“I think this is the new standard, this is what IndyCar needs to stick to,” six-time series champion Scott Dixon said.
“The build of the track, it’s all the attention to detail here. I think it’s very, very impressive,” driver Marcus Ericsson said. “I think this really raises the standard of IndyCar racing.”
IndyCar has extensive history in DFW market
Texas Motor Speedway hosted 36 IndyCar races from the track’s opening in 1997 until Josef Newgarden won the last race there April 2, 2023 — and also the previous one in 2022. The series raced on that high-banked track twice a year from 1998-2004, including six season finales in a row.
The five drivers who combined to win the last 10 IndyCar races at TMS, where laps could be more than 200 mph, are racing in Arlington.
“I’ve got a lot of fond memories obviously,” said Dixon, who won three of those races, and five overall at the track.
“It’s great to be back. I loved the Texas Motor Speedway. Selfishly as a driver, I wish you could go everywhere,” said three-time TMS winner Newgarden, who also won last week in Phoenix. “I would love to race there and here. But if we’re not going to be there, I’m happy that we have this event. I’m certainly really pleased with what they’ve put on here.”
Pole and earlier start
Ericsson, in his eighth IndyCar season and making his 117th start, will be on the pole for the first time after a lap of 104.158 mph in the final round of qualifying Saturday. He never had a pole in 97 F1 races from 2014-18.
The green flag for Sunday’s race was moved up to 11 a.m. local time (CDT), from 12:20 p.m., because of the forecast of 25-35 mph winds later in the day, with the potential for gusts of 40 mph or more.
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