{"id":200349,"date":"2026-03-11T20:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200349\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:54:07","slug":"indycars-grand-prix-of-arlington-rolls-out-fan-fest-practice-ahead-of-sundays-inaugural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200349\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar&#8217;s Grand Prix of Arlington Rolls Out Fan Fest, Practice Ahead of Sunday&#8217;s Inaugural"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The streets around AT&amp;T Stadium and Globe Life Field are being lined with nearly 3,000 concrete barriers this week, the infrastructure of a wager that open-wheel racing can take permanent root in Arlington&#8217;s entertainment district. The inaugural <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gparlington.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Java House Grand Prix of Arlington<\/a>, a joint venture between Penske Entertainment, the Dallas Cowboys, and REV Entertainment, opens fan festivities today at Texas Live! before NTT IndyCar Series practice begins Friday on a 2.73-mile street circuit. &#8220;Through a truly remarkable and innovative partnership, we&#8217;re going to build racing&#8217;s next global spectacle,&#8221; said Roger Penske, chairman of Penske Corporation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indycar.com\/Schedule\/2026\/Arlington\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in the event&#8217;s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The event will feature GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning artist T-Pain as the entertainment headliner of the Good Ranchers Concert Series, along with DJ Disco Lines at the controls.<\/p>\n<p>The City of Arlington permitted the course design without taxpayer expense for the resurfacing work, which relied on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arlingtontx.gov\/News-Articles\/2025\/September\/City-of-Arlington-Surveys-Sidewalk-Conditions-with-LiDAR-Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LiDAR surface mapping<\/a> and diamond grinding to prepare municipal roads for cars capable of 180 miles per hour. &#8220;The Grand Prix covered the cost of the resurfacing \u2014 at no expense to taxpayers,&#8221; confirmed Grand Prix General Manager Jeff Miller in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmagazine.com\/publications\/d-ceo\/2026\/the-power-of-play\/grand-prix-of-arlington-early-look\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a briefing with D CEO Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Race weekend expects approximately 75,000 spectators from 45 states and eight countries, with Sunday&#8217;s main event broadcast nationally on FOX. Hall of Famers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballhof.com\/players\/demarcus-ware\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DeMarcus Ware<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/baseballhall.org\/hall-of-famers\/rodriguez-ivan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ivan &#8220;Pudge&#8221; Rodriguez<\/a> will give the command to start engines. &#8220;This race will become a bucket list race on the series,&#8221; Miller said.<\/p>\n<p>The last street race in the DFW area, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfaa.com\/video\/news\/local\/looking-back-at-wfaas-coverage-of-the-only-time-dallas-has-hosted-a-formula-one-race-back-in-1984\/287-6fbc327c-1794-453d-ae8f-a8fd361e0244\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a notorious 1984 Formula 1 event at Fair Park<\/a>, ended in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dmagazine.com\/publications\/d-magazine\/1985\/july\/grand-prix-grand-scam-grand-jury\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a class-action lawsuit<\/a> and ongoing scandal after melting tires and blown engines. Champion driver Nigel Mansell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6W6OswDJZJ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">infamously passed out<\/a> in Dallas\u2019 100-degree heat while trying to push his car across the finish line after a gearbox failure. Brazilian legend Aryton Senna, fresh out of the lower-tier Formula 3, crashed on lap 47. Keke Rosberg won the race from the eighth spot, after only eight cars finished the race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The streets around AT&amp;T Stadium and Globe Life Field are being lined with nearly 3,000 concrete barriers this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-200349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}