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An Arlington Street Race Won’t Save IndyCar From the Court of Public Opinion

IndyCar’s announcement on Monday (Oct. 7) that the Grand Prix of Arlington would be held in 2026 was the latest in what seems to many to be a never-ending string of questionable decisions by America’s premier open-wheel series. Whether the current direction of the series is objectively right or wrong, IndyCar seems to be falling further and further out of favor with its fanbase.

Tuesday featured a celebration ceremony at the Texas Live! Entertainment Complex where Texas Rangers executive Chuck Morgan, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the omnipresent Roger Penske, defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou and defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden, among others, expressed their enthusiasm about the event.

Most anticipated from this ceremony was the reveal of the track layout, which features a double-sided pitlane as seen at the current Detroit street circuit, and which looks rather similar to the Miami International Autodrome which hosts Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix.

The 14-turn, 2.73-mile street circuit is situated near AT&T Stadium and GlobeLife Field, reflecting the joint venture between Penske, the Rangers and the Cowboys which has given rise to the 2026 race. This marks the NTT IndyCar Series’ first return to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) since Texas Motor Speedway (TMS), which most recently hosted the PPG 375, dropped off the schedule for 2024 and 2025.

Texas’ removal from the schedule was, remains, and will continue to be nothing short of unpopular. And, to be frank, IndyCar has no choice but to play a bit of damage control as it looks to get back into the DFW market.

While many fans and observers will understandably be quick to point fingers at the leadership of INDYCAR and Penske Entertainment, respectively, the story of TMS’ fall off the calendar is less straightforward than the ups and downs of recent memories suggest.

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IndyCar Running Arlington Grand Prix in 2026

Two weeks back, Nathan Brown of The Indianapolis Star posted a hefty tweet detailing a stalemate of interests between INDYCAR and Speedway Motorsports, commonly known as SMI. Speedway Motorsports owns several major racetracks in the United States, including Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlott Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway and Texas Super Speedway.

According to Brown, TMS’ removal from the 2024 and 2025 schedule resulted from a deadly blend of differing scheduling desires and difficulties working out a manageable broadcast schedule with FOX, IndyCar’s new TV partner starting in 2025.

If SMI wouldn’t accommodate a spring date for the series, and FOX could not or would not work out a nighttime broadcast to get drivers out of the heat of a summer afternoon in Texas, Brown’s point that it takes “two to tango” is perfectly valid. But what consolation can that be to the fanbase that has, rightly so or not, continuously expressed disappointment in IndyCar leadership?

From the choppy rollout of the hybrid power unit, to Mark Miles’ tone-deaf comments on the marketability of Pato O’Ward, to the much-lambasted charter system, IndyCar has made as many headlines off the track as it has on the track — not a great look for a series that can genuinely and rightfully boast having the best on-track racing product in all of motorsport.

With the flow of this year’s news cycle in mind, fans have a right to be skeptical about seeing yet another street circuit on the IndyCar calendar. Not because events have progressed to a point that every decision coming from Penske down can meritoriously be discarded without consideration, but because street circuits themselves have very little staying power if we are judging the future by the past.

The last street race in Texas, the Grand Prix of Houston, lasted only two years in post-reunification appearances in 2013 and 2014. The Sao Paulo Indy lasted only four seasons from 2010 to 2013 while Baltimore’s street race ran from 2011 to 2013. Even more recently, the Music City Grand Prix was relocated from its home on the streets of downtown Nashville to the Nashville Superspeedway, to the delight of IndyCar fans.

Some street circuit events like the Grand Prix of Boston (2016) and China’s Indy Qingdao 600 (2012) never lived beyond the provisional calendar, being called off after the beginning of their respective seasons.

These races all fell for legitimate, and perhaps unavoidable, reasons.

Houston fell off the calendar because “INDYCAR and officials from the Grand Prix of Houston were unable to define a workable date” to run the event in 2015. Sao Paulo was removed from the schedule after 2013 when the promoter cited scheduled street maintenance as an impediment to the event. INDYCAR filed suit against the race’s promoter for failing to find a suitable venue for the event and the two parties settled in 2014. Baltimore was canceled after scheduling conflicts and unstable sponsorship made the event unfeasible for 2014 and 2015. Lastly, Nasvhille’s street circuit days were brought to an end by scheduled construction on the Tennessee Titans’ new stadium, though there are plans to return the race to the streets of Nasvhille in due time.

It goes without saying that street races are different beasts to manage than events held on permanent racetracks. Local governments are often heavily involved in the financing and execution of these events which offsets many costs to the series. However, public opinion is often a toss-up and sponsorship can become volatile. Likewise, erecting and dissembling street circuits presents a significant disruption to business and traffic in urban settings.

One point needs to be emphasized in all of this, and perhaps I would have been better off mentioning it sooner: IndyCar has to please its sponsors. This is non-negotiable.

Racing is the most expensive sport in the world when measured dollar-by-dollar. Teams and series invest hellish amounts of money in building cars, transporting personnel and equipment, conducting year-round maintenance, and so on. Organizers likewise run up massive bills maintaining racetracks, if not building and tearing them down one weekend of each year.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Detroit Grand Prix’s new home sits directly below the Renaissance Center which houses the headquarters of Chevrolet’s parent company General Motors.

Guess what is headquartered in Plano, Texas, just 40 minutes from Arlington. The HQ of NTT DATA North America. Better yet, NTT North America CEO Eric Clark was present at Tuesday’s ceremony.

Really, it should be nowhere near surprising that INDYCAR moved quickly to get the series back into the market where its title sponsor bases its North America operations. This makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. Imagine NASCAR not hosting a race in the vicinity of Charlotte, North Carolina, or Daytona, Florida.

But, and it pains me to ask this, who cares? If the rumblings of IndyCar Twitter are any indication, not the fans.

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Whatever one may think about this development, the DFW area has a population of eight million and is a massive market for IndyCar. The series would be somewhere between remiss and muddleheaded were it not to return to that area. However, the political and financial mechanisms at work behind the scenes mean very little to the fans, whose voices have almost unanimously called for the series to return to Texas Motor Speedway where they seemed to have finally produced a winning formula for action-packed racing in 2023.

Whether INDYCAR and SMI will reconcile their differences and settle on an agreeable race date remains to be seen, but a solution ought to be found quickly because history does not offer a strong prognosis for the Grand Prix of Arlington. What about the location and delivery of this event suggests it could become the next Long Beach or St. Petersburg.

Pragmatically, it means nothing that SMI and FOX may well have tied INDYCAR’s hands. It means nothing that the series is making a smart business decision to return to the DFW area in less-than-perfect terms rather than abandoning the market altogether. It means nothing that IndyCar’s on-track product remains the best in the world.

For all the blame that may not belong to IndyCar and Penske for the current state of the series, it seems that the IndyCar fans consider themselves the real losers in all of this, and public opinion can be a deep hole to climb out of.

About the author

Alex is the IndyCar Content Director at Frontstretch, having initially joined as an entry-level contributor in 2021. He also serves as Managing Director of The Asia Cable, a publication focused on the international affairs and politics of the Asia-Pacific region which he co-founded in 2023. With previous experience in China, Japan and Poland, Alex is particularly passionate about the international realm of motorsport and the politics that make the wheels turn - literally - behind the scenes.

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TiminPayson

Once again Roger screws American open wheel racing.

Jeremy

Except if you read the article you’d see losing TMS wasn’t 100% on Roger. I don’t like the hybrid drivetrain nor how/when it was launched. It adds nothing to the on track product, but I get that racing has long been a technological proving ground for advances that make their way to the mass market. There was the cheating scandal. The switch to FOX (God, I really hope they don’t ruin the Indy broadcasts like they have NA$CAR). I’m also not sold on the charter system. So yes, several big misses (or messes?) under Roger’s watch, but losing TMS isn’t one to be blamed solely on him.