{"id":206187,"date":"2026-03-16T00:07:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/206187\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T00:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T00:07:07","slug":"indycars-java-house-grand-prix-of-arlington-delights-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/206187\/","title":{"rendered":"IndyCar\u2019s Java House Grand Prix of Arlington delights crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ARLINGTON<\/p>\n<p>Fans were gripping fences all Sunday morning as the sounds of racecars serenaded the tens of thousands who flocked to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/spt-columns-blogs\/mac-engel\/article315040872.html\">IndyCar\u2019s<\/a> inaugural <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gparlington.com\/\">Java House Grand Prix of Arlington.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kyle Kirkwood won the race, conducted through the entertainment district around Globe Life Field and AT&amp;T Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Jay Strong moved to the Metroplex from New York and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/f1miamigp.com\/?srsltid=AfmBOooa4G041u-RYkU-P9nBsi4j06xWIAkD8MISoahZwZRZxMfZ1UZH\">had attended Formula One\u2019s Miami Grand Prix<\/a> in the past, which made him interested in seeing the race. After experiencing it, he said he hopes to bring his kids in the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPretty nice. Yeah, they did a good job out here,\u201d Strong said. \u201cSo now we\u2019ll bring them next year. I just came out with some friends, so we just checked it out the first year. Now we can tell them. They got a lot of events for the kids, the game, video games and a couple of different things I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event was free for kids under 12 years old, for general admission, and also had autograph sessions for fans with IndyCar drivers as well as a fan zone with activities ranging from photo booths to even Texas Rangers-themed games to play.<\/p>\n<p>Strong joked that the race was at home in Texas and was the second favorite he had attended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe like fast driving down here, so it\u2019s fitting,\u201d Strong said.<\/p>\n<p>Not all fans were race aficionados. Kirk Nembhard was attending his first race, and the Mansfield resident was impressed by how the event was run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFantastic. Easy to get in. All the shuttles that helped you get to the where you needed to go. Very well-organized and really enjoyed it,\u201d Nembhard said. \u201cJust the spectacle of it all. I live in Mansfield, so Arlington is my next-door backyard, so I wanted to see, and I\u2019ve been down to AT&amp;T Stadium several times. Wanted to see how they would do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a spectacle. It\u2019s fantastic. I would definitely come again. It\u2019s great,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Austin resident Elizabeth Caserta said she came to support her brother, an engineer with Chevrolet\u2019s engine company. She said she has attended races all over Texas and said the openness of the Grand Prix of Arlington was special.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, it\u2019s huge,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a ton of things around. I feel like the way that they\u2019ve set it up is just really cool. I was recently at the [IndyCar season opener in St. Petersburg, Florida], and this one just feels a lot bigger. I think they did a really nice job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Caserta was also a fan off the other offerings besides the races.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that that\u2019s, like, one of the fun parts,\u201d she said. \u201cWe like to go see my brother and see what they\u2019re doing and stuff. But then as soon as the race starts, we get to, like, sit in front of one of the TVs, walk around, get food, look at the shops and see the other things that are going on.<\/p>\n<p>Caserta has been to races in Austin and the Texas Motor Speedway and talked about her love for Texas auto racing and how happy she was that Arlington was now involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very excited that they got to come to Arlington,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been to the Texas Motor Speedway. I feel like it\u2019s such a cool event, like everything bigger in Texas. It\u2019s just, it\u2019s been really cool to see, just even to be at the Cowboy Stadium and stuff like that, see the Texas A&amp;M team with some of the drivers and stuff like that. So I think it\u2019s been like a cool collaboration, especially living in Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"summary gray\">This story was originally published March 15, 2026 at 1:32 PM.<\/p>\n<p>        Related Stories from  Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/profile\/270854627\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773619627_734_MUG_Lawrence Dow.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Lawrence Dow\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/profile\/270854627\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lawrence Dow<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n<p>            Lawrence Dow is a digital sports reporter from Philadelphia. He graduated with a master\u2019s degree in journalism from USC. He\u2019s passionate about movies and is always looking for a great book. He covers the Texas Rangers and other sports.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON Fans were gripping fences all Sunday morning as the sounds of racecars serenaded the tens of thousands&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[81020,81022,116,118,117,81021,72698,81019],"class_list":["post-206187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-arlington-race-fans","tag-att-stadium-racing","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-globe-life-field-event","tag-grand-prix-of-arlington","tag-indycar-arlington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206187","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=206187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}