inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington<\/a>, where drivers will race through the city\u2019s entertainment district this weekend.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cI get to drive at 240 miles per hour and race on the streets of Arlington.\u201d<\/p>\n
But before climbing into a race car, Dixon made a different kind of pitstop \u2014 visiting a classroom at Child Care Associates in Arlington. The driver of the No. 9 car read to the preschoolers and asked them to count along as they followed the racing-themed story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gotta count, OK?\u201d Dixon told the class. \u201cAll lined up, 10 in a row \u2014 who\u2019s ready to count?\u201d<\/p>\n
The visit is part of PNC Grow Up Great, a $500 million initiative focused on early childhood education and school readiness.<\/p>\n
The students eagerly joined in. \u201c1, 2, 3, 4!\u201d the children shouted as the class counted together. After story time, Dixon showed the children the equipment he wears on race day \u2014 including his fire suit, gloves and fire-resistant racing shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like pajamas, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Dixon joked as he showed them the suit. The children eagerly tried on his gloves.<\/p>\n
Some of the young fans were already thinking about their own racing future. \u201c<\/p>\n
You have to be 16 to be in a race car,\u201d one child said matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n
During the visit, Dixon pointed to a model of the orange and blue car he\u2019ll race this weekend. And as the class clapped and cheered, the driver summed up the story with a laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the moral of the story is the No. 9 car won,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s my number.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IndyCar champion Scott Dixon visited an Arlington preschool, reading to kids and sharing racing gear as the city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-201975","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\/201975","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=201975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}