First Impressions: Arlington 2026

1. After missing out on the final round of qualifying yesterday for the Grand Prix of Arlington, Kyle Kirkwood looked poised to move forward, but with how difficult competition can be in IndyCar, sacrificing four or five spots on the grid can be too much to overcome for victory. He was always going to head forward, and with Álex Palou starting second, Palou was going to be the final boss Kirkwood would have to beat. In Kirkwood's case, seventh was not too much. 

After the final pit cycle, Palou led Kirkwood and Kirkwood had just come off his third slow pit stop of the race. However, despite the woes with tire changers, Kirkwood had the fastest car today, and with 21 laps remaining on the final stint, there was plenty of time for Kirkwood to close the two-second gap to Palou. It happened in no time, and it looked inevitable Kirkwood would get the top spot. He took the lead with plenty of laps to spare with a bold move to the inside of turn 14, reminiscent of what Andretti Global's Indy Lights driver Max Taylor pulled off to win the junior series race earlier in the day. Like Taylor, Kirkwood took the lead and then drove into the distance.

A late restart added a wrinkle, but Kirkwood's victory was never in doubt, thanks to Nolan Siegel running into the back of Romain Grosjean, but even before then, it was unlikely Palou or anyone else was going to surpass Kirkwood's pace in a 2.73-mile sprint to the finish. 

This is the type of start to the season Kirkwood needed, especially after how 2025 ended with no top five finishes in the second half of the season. Three consecutive top five finishes has Kirkwood in the championship lead. 

There are still plenty of areas where this team must improve. The qualifying pace was there in Arlington after two shoddy weekends, but the team botched the strategy and it was all due to poor communication and Kirkwood not knowing he was supposed to run a third lap on his final run. It wasn't the end of the world, but starting seventh versus potentially starting on pole position is a big setback. We have seen fast cars have to start in the middle of the top ten and then have to settle for a podium finish. It is also a point lost. Pole position pays a point, and we have seen championships decided by less. 

Then there was the pit stop problem. I cannot remember the last time a team had three sloppy pit stops under green flag conditions on a street course and won it. The team did Kirkwood no favors today, and Andretti Global has a history of this (see a handful of races Colton Herta lost due to poor pit stops). The team can celebrate but the debrief tomorrow will likely highlight where this race was nearly lost. It was a good day, but far from great.

2. Álex Palou was second-best today. So what? Palou was second-best to Kirkwood last year in the third race of the season. Who won the championship? 

We know Palou will be fine. The pressure will be on Kirkwood. Palou is going to probably finish in the top five in ten more races this year. Can Kirkwood keep up? This year, Kirkwood leaves the third race with a 24-point championship lead on the rest of the field. Is that going to be enough to hold off Palou? Probably not. 

Palou ran well today. He looked like he was toying with Marcus Ericsson on the first stint. It felt like Palou was just waiting to take the lead during the pit cycle. That is what happened. Palou was stuck behind Will Power during second-third of the race as Power ran a two-stop strategy and dragged out the alternate tires as long as he could. It worked. While Palou did take the lead as Power lost time with a slow pit stop, Palou being stuck behind Power allowed Kirkwood to close in and it allowed Kirkwood to win the race as the deficit was not as great as it could have been.

What Palou needed was to take the lead from Power on the track and run about five or six laps in the lead to open a gap that would have been too much for Kirkwood to overcome. It wasn't anything Palou did wrong. Power deserves praise for how he drove on the alternate tire. It sounded like Palou ran with extra downforce today, and on the long straightaways that was the difference and allowed Kirkwood to come out on top. 

Oh well. Palou is likely going to win in two weeks at Barber Motorsports Park. How is Kirkwood going to do? 

3. Will Power was the only driver to pull off the two-stop strategy and running a 22-lap stint and a 24-lap stint on the alternate tire allowed him to finish third. It was a bold strategy for a car starting fourth, and after the first stint, it felt dicey that it would work. Stretching one stint is manageable, but there was a reason no other team attempted to stretch two stints. To be honest, no one stratevch these tires like Power did. Power had the setup that allowed it and he didn't lose significant time. I was surprised he held onto the lead when Palou was in his wake. 

Power had his own slow stop. Without it, Power possibly comes out ahead of Palou and Kirkwood. I doubt that because both those drivers ran three laps longer. Power exited the pit lane behind Patricio O'Ward, which cost him time. Then he ran wide in a corner and that allowed David Malukas through when Malukas still had to make his final pit stop. Power still ran well today and he got a good result when he had one get away from him last week. Third is a great day for this group.

4. Even though he started on pole position, there was no expectation that Marcus Ericsson was going to win this race. I didn't even think Ericsson would be in contention for the podium. He really wasn't, but he remained in the top five. He had good pace in the opening stint, but he clearly did not have a race-winning car. He lost spots on the first pit stop, as was the case for every Andretti driver today, but Ericsson did not slip further than that.

After last season, Ericsson just needs good days. Being the third-best Andretti driver in a race doesn't sound great, but when it is third-out-of-three and you finish fourth, that is nearly a perfect day for the team, especially when the team was woeful across the board on the pit lane. The three drivers bailed out the organization today. It isn't often that every driver bailed out a performance of every pit crew. It is usually the other way around. 

5. Patricio O'Ward had another quiet day lead to a fifth-place finish. O'Ward was in the top five the entire race, but he was never a factor. He was never pushing Palou or the Andretti drivers. Fifth is right for him today. It is a third consecutive top five finish to start the season. These are good results. These are the results a driver needs if he wants to defeat Palou for the championship.

We know O'Ward can win races on a variety of disciplines, and he can be consistent throughout the season. He feels like a bigger threat to Palou than Kirkwood at this moment. This is a good start and we know O'Ward will find his own as we get on ovals and run some more familiar tracks.

6. David Malukas was moved up to sixth after Felix Rosenqvist was penalized for jumping the only restart, which we will cover in a moment, but Malukas had spent much of that final stint in sixth. He was in the top ten all day. He was the top Penske finisher in his third start with the team. It is good. He still doesn't have a top five finish on a road or street course and didn't look to be a threat for one today, but he got a sixth-place finish when he probably should have finished sixth. It is better than being seventh.

7. Moving up to seventh was Christian Lundgaard after the penalty for Rosenqvist. Lundgaard overcame a spin at the start when he was hit from behind. He earned this result and he looked strong despite the setback. He was still starting 18th today. Even without the contact, this is likely as good as it would have been. It is still a good recovery after a bad qualifying result.

8. Scott Dixon did the first four laps on the alternate tire and then did 11 laps on the alternate tire and satisfied the two-stint alternate tire requirement before the top three finishers even made their first pit stops. Dixon was on a four-stopper and he turned it into an eighth-place finish. He even had a set of new alternate tires for the final 11 laps. 

I think there is some surprise more teams didn't try this strategy. A few tried it, but I think the alternate tire did better than expected, and instead of teams being desperate to get off them in less than ten laps, teams could go 15 laps, or in Power's case, a full fuel stint. Dixon had to employ this strategy because he started 20th. Qualifying results are what this team must work on.

9. Alexander Rossi started tenth and he finished ninth. Rossi didn't do anything notable in this race. If anything, he caught a break that his Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Christian Rasmussen broke down four laps to the finish and there was an attempted restart, which immediately caused an accident and led to Felix Rosenqvist receiving a 14-spot penalty. Rossi was gifted a position, as was everyone that finished seventh to 20th. 

10. One Meyer Shank Racing driver's misfortune is another Meyer Shank Racing driver's reward, as Rosenqvist's penalty lifted Marcus Armstrong to tenth though Armstrong was probably one of the ten best drivers today. He might have been even better than that. Armstrong had to stop immediate at the start of the race due to a tire puncture. It set him back, but he was on a charge for this entire race. He was basically forced to the Scott Dixon strategy, except Armstrong had to end on the primary tire. He was pushing for tenth before the cautions at the end of the race. Without those, I think Armstrong was going to finish tenth. Even if he ended 11th, that would have been a fine result considering how his race started.

11. An argument can be made that Kirkwood, Armstrong or Scott McLaughlin had the best drive today. McLaughlin started last and he was a force in the first stint. He ran two quick stints on the alternate tire in the middle of the race. He was on the verge of the top ten at that point, and then his race stalled out. Once Armstrong was on fresher tires, McLaughlin had to play defense. Eleventh is a good day for McLaughlin. He might have had the best Penske car.

12. Let's breeze through the order: Caio Collet was 12th, the top rookie. Collet didn't do anything flashy, but he was hanging with Rossi, Armstrong and McLaughlin. That is a good race for Collet. 

Louis Foster was 13th after starting 13th. Foster ran the final three stints on the alternate tire. That isn't a bad strategy because all three of those were new sets but what must Foster do to get a top ten finish? Twenty starts and still no top ten finishes in his IndyCar career. That isn't good.

Rinus VeeKay was 14th. That is fine. There will be plenty of these races where VeeKay is 14th or 15th and that is the best Juncos Hollinger Racing was going to do. He did seven laps on his opening stint on the alternate tire. Then he did 20 laps on the alternate tire on the next stint. The team was committed to the strategy but adjusted when it saw Power running longer. The bed was made though.

13. Josef Newgarden probably should have been in the top ten, but exiting pit lane Newgarden had contact with David Malukas in turn three and it cost him a bunch of spots. It was innocuous, but it spun Newgarden sideways and it took him a while to get pointed forward. It felt like it was only going to cost him five or six spots and he would just outside the top ten. Instead, he was barely inside the top twenty. I feel like this screwed up the team's strategy because he went onto a used set of primary tire after that and then finished on a new alternate set. It got him a few spots, but it did not lead to a quick recovery.

14. Dennis Hauger was 16th. He did nothing special, but it was good he completed laps. 

Santino Ferrucci was a little fortunate to make the second round of qualifying yesterday. Ferrucci slid backward during the race. His car wasn't that great and he finished 17th. 

Graham Rahal had a rough weekend on a street course. That isn't new. The pace was not there. He started 24th and finished 18th. It could have been worse.

Kyffin Simpson hit his own tire on his first pit stop, and it ricochetted into Scott Dixon's crew as Dixon made a pit stop. It didn't really slow Dixon's crew down, but it was a hazard Simpson caused. It led to a penalty, and he never overcame that. He ended up finishing 19th and was a non-factor all race.

15. And we make it to Felix Rosenqvist! Rosenqvist was in for a solid top ten finish, and that is where he spent the entire race. However, in IndyCar's attempt for a restart with one lap to go, Rosenqvist saw an opportunity to get a spot. Unfortunately, Rosenqvist passed David Malukas before the restart line after the exit of turn 14. About five seconds later, Nolan Siegel plowed into the back of Romain Grosjean, and last ditch sprint was over in a blink. 

Rosenqvist passed Malukas before the restart line. Absolutely. It should not have been a 14-spot penalty and relegated him from what should have been seventh to 20th. Redress the positions. Move Malukas back to sixth and place Rosenqvist in seventh. If Rosenqvist had made this move and put Malukas into the tires and cost Malukas more positions beyond one, then yes, send Rosenqvist to the back of the order. That didn't happen.

IndyCar rushed to have a restart. Kirkwood was not behind the pace car when he started two laps to go. Cars were still on the long straightaway even when Kirkwood reached the pace car. Anyone watching knew there was going to be an accident in an attempt to run one more lap when the race result was already decided. There was too much bite in this penalty. We have seen far worse on-track contact not lead to such a penalty. Flip the spots but penalizing Rosenqvist 14 spots is like giving a prison sentence for jaywalking while vehicular homicide gets overlooked.

16. As for the lapped cars. Sting Ray Robb was 21st and did nothing. Mick Schumacher wasn't have a great race, and when he spun after a pit stop after a slight touch from Josef Newgarden, nearly a mirror image to what happened to Newgarden on the previous pit cycle, it was a gut-punch at the end of a tough day. These have been three challenging circuits for Schumacher to start his IndyCar career. He should feel better at Barber.

It appears Nolan Siegel plowed into the back of Romain Grosjean. Neither driver had a great race prior to that. Siegel just rubbed salt in both their wounds. Grosjean is likely not pleased. Siegel is another race closer to his dismal.

Does Siegel make it to the Indianapolis 500? Think about it! Would Arrow McLaren be better off with someone else in that car? McLaren has Patricio O'Ward, Christian Lundgaard was respectable last year, and it added Ryan Hunter-Reay. It has three contenders. It very well could find a fourth. There is no way you can believe in Siegel at this point. 

17. Christian Rasmussen was not having a great day either prior to his car breaking down with four laps remaining. Throw in his Phoenix result, and the first three races look worse than they actually have been for Rasmussen. 

Could we have just ignored his parked car with three to go? Rasmussen was stopped, but turns one through three were pretty slow. He wasn't in a position where he could easily be hit. If he was hit, it would have been another car spinning at 60 mph. He was right at pit exit. 

This is why IndyCar should have virtual safety car. If they could attempt to make a restart with one lap to go in this scenario, it could have virtual safety car, slow the field down and just pushed Rasmussen aside. It was basically what IndyCar did except it packed up the field and gave Siegel an easier target to hit. 

There could even be a modified virtual safety car. IndyCar could slow the section of the course where the car is stopped, in this case it could have been from the exit of turn 14 through turn three and the rest of the course could have been open for racing. That is essentially what Code 60 is in a handful of sports car championships. 

We have been talking about virtual safety car for over a decade, and IndyCar has made zero effort to adopt it even if it would help the series and allow for more green flag racing and less of a hassle with fully slowing down the field. It isn't happening. Though IndyCar did just attempted single-car runs for the final round of qualifying, so maybe it is possible. We will see it in 2035. 

18. It was a good race and a good weekend for Arlington. Where were all these people for the final five years of the Texas Motor Speedway event? Again, Texas Motor Speedway didn't go away because of the racing... it partially went away because of the racing (Do you remember how bad the high-line was those last few years?) It mostly went away because no one was there. Did no one show up because it was an oval? Because of the start time? Because of the lack of promotion? Some combination? 

Either way, it is another case of IndyCar returning to a market and immediately seeing a massive crowd in a new location. We saw it a decade ago when Road America returned. All of a sudden 50,000 people were there on race day when Milwaukee struggled to get 15,000. All that changed was where the race was held and who was promoting it. 

A great effort was put into Arlington. The race was good, and a crowd showed up. That is all you need. No one was complaining about cost, yet. Let's give it another year. Street courses do not last long. The tide can turn quickly. However, it was a strong start, and IndyCar should be racing in the state of Texas. This was the best option. 

19. And now we get an off-week. 

This was a fun start to the start. We saw the best driver in IndyCar beat down the field when it didn't look like it was going to happen, we saw a thrilling oval race that went to the closing laps, and we saw a high-speed street race where the winner worked his way forward from the middle of the top ten in a race that was practically caution-free until the very end. 

That is a pretty solid start to the season. Take a breather before heading to Barber. 

Morning Warm-Up: Arlington 2026

For the first time in his IndyCar career, Marcus Ericsson will start on pole position as Ericsson had the fastest lap at 94.3562 seconds in the final round of qualifying for the Grand Prix of Arlington. At 117 races, this is the fourth-longest wait for a first career pole position in IndyCar history. This is the eighth time in IndyCar history a driver has taken over 100 races to get his first pole position. It is Ericsson's first pole position in any series since June 29, 2013 when he started first for the GP2 feature race from Silverstone. Ericsson's last three top ten finishes have come on street courses. Unfortunately, he has 16 finishes outside the top ten in that time span. It has been 52 starts since Ericsson's most recent victory at the 2023 St. Petersburg season opener.

Álex Palou takes second on the grid after coming 0.4618 seconds shy of Ericsson's time. This is the 21st time in his career Palou is starting on the front row, however, he has only won from the second starting position once previously. It came last season at Road America. Palou has finished in the top five of the third race of the season every year in his career. His finishes in the third race of the season are third, fourth, third, fifth, fifth and second. 

Patricio O’Ward will start third, and O'Ward was 0.0273 seconds off making the front row. O'Ward was the only Chevrolet to make the Fast Six. This is his tenth consecutive race starting in the top ten. He is looking for his third consecutive top five finish. He has never had three consecutive top five finishes to open a season. With his fourth-place finish at Phoenix, O'Ward now has 50 top five finishes in his career and 70 top ten finishes.

Will Power has his best starting position of the season in fourth position. This is Power's first race staring in the top ten this season. After finishing 22nd and 16th in the first two races, Power is on the verge of his first season without a top ten finish in the first three races since 2017. Only one of Power's last 17 victories has come on a street course. That was Belle Isle in 2022. He has not won one of the first three races in a season since he won the 2014 season opener.

Felix Rosenqvist will lead an all-Meyer Shank Racing row three. Rosenqvist has finished 12th in the first two races of the season. It is the first time Rosenqvist has finished in the same position in consecutive races since he was tenth at Barber Motorsports Park and Long Beach in 2019, his third and fourth starts in IndyCar. Rosenqvist has not had a top five finish since he was runner-up at Road America, ten races ago.

Marcus Armstrong is on the outside of his teammate Rosenqvist. This is Armstrong's best start of the season, and it is his sixth consecutive time at least making the second round of qualifying on a street course. He has always made it out of the first round on a street course while driving for Meyer Shank Racing. Despite this, his best street course finish with the team is sixth, and he has failed to finish in the top ten in four of five street course starts at MSR.

Kyle Kirkwood fell 0.0415 seconds short of making it to the final round of qualifying, and Kirkwood will start seventh at Arlington. This is his 11th consecutive race without a top five start. Kirkwood was fastest in each practice session ahead of qualifying. He did win from eighth on the streets of Nashville in 2023. In the third race of the season, Kirkwood has finished tenth, first, tenth and first over his first four IndyCar seasons. 

Christian Rasmussen matches his career-best starting position of eighth, and it is his best starting position on a street course. He started eighth at Mid-Ohio in 2024. This is only the fourth time in the Dane's career he is starting in the top ten. Last week, Rasmussen led 69 laps at Phoenix. Entering that race, he had led only 46 laps in his career. Twenty-one of those laps were at Detroit last year, the only time he has led a street race.

David Malukas is the top Team Penske starter in ninth. This extends Malukas' top ten start streak to seven consecutive races. Two drivers had their first career Team Penske victory come in their their start with the team. Al Unser, Jr. did it in 1994 at Long Beach and Josef Newgarden did it in 2017 at Barber Motorsports Park. Malukas has led six laps in his career on a road or street course. He has never led more than two laps in a single road/street race. 

Alexander Rossi takes tenth on the grid. Rossi only started in the top ten once on a street course last season. He has four top ten finishes in his last five starts. He started sixth and finished sixth last week at Phoenix. Rossi has not had a top five finish on a street course since he was fifth at Detroit in 2024. He has not won on a street course since Long Beach in 2019.

Josef Newgarden overcame an accident in Saturday morning practice to qualify 11th. With a seventh at St. Petersburg and a victory at Phoenix, Newgarden could open a season with three consecutive top ten finishes for the first time since 2019 when he had four top five finishes to open the season. That is also Newgarden's most recent championship season. He has won previously from 11th on the grid. That was in 2015 at Toronto, his second career victory.

Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top twelve, however, this is Ferrucci's eighth consecutive race starting outside the top ten. Ferrucci has not completed a lap in a street course race since he finished second at Detroit last June. He missed the Toronto race after an accident in warm-up and the team could not get the car repaired in time for the race. At St. Petersburg, Ferrucci was collected in the opening lap accident and his car did not make it beyond the fourth corner.

Louis Foster fell short on getting out of group one in round one by 0.0972 seconds, and Foster will start 13th. Foster enters this weekend for his 20th start, and he has yet to score his first career top ten finish. Nine drivers have taken 20 starts or more to get their first career top ten finish in IndyCar history. Kyffin Simpson had his first career top ten finish come last year in his 20th start, which was also the third race of the season. 

Speaking of Kyffin Simpson, he missed out on advancing to the second round of qualifying by 0.0496 seconds, and he will join Foster on row two. At Toronto last year, Simpson went from 13th to third. He also went from 19th to fifth at Detroit and 17th to tenth at Long Beach. Simpson is looking for his second consecutive top ten finish after he was tenth at Phoenix last week.

Romain Grosjean takes 15th on the grid. This is the third time Grosjean will start 15th in his career, however, the first two times each came at Portland in 2022 and 2023. In both of those races, he finished worse than 15th. Due to a clutch issue, Grosjean was unable to start the Phoenix race. Two of his six career podium finishes have come on street courses, both of those were runner-up finishes at Long Beach.

Caio Collet has his best career starting position in 16th. Collet started 24th and 23rd in his first two races. This is the first time he has been the top starting rookie this season. In his two seasons Indy Lights, Collet never won a street course race. He had three podium finishes in four street course starts.

Mick Schumacher will start the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington from 17th. Schumacher started fourth last week at Phoenix, his maiden oval start, but he ended up finish 18th, two laps down. He is still looking for his first lead lap finish in IndyCar.

For the third consecutive time this season, Christian Lundgaard is starting outside the top ten as Lundgaard takes 18th on the grid. This is the fifth time in the last ten races the Dane is starting outside the top fifteen. Only once last season did Lundgaard go consecutive races without a top ten finish. He was 14th at Gateway and 24th at Road America. Lundgaard was 13th last week at Phoenix.

Dennis Hauger starts directly behind his fellow 2026 rookie Schumacher in 19th. Hauger won in both his street course starts in Indy Lights. Both of those starts came from pole position. Hauger led three laps at Phoenix during a pit cycle, the first laps led in his career.

Scott Dixon rolls off from 20th on the grid, his worst starting position of the season. This is the 22nd time in the last 37 races Dixon is starting outside the top ten. Without a top five finish in his last five starts, this is Dixon's longest top five finish drought since 2004-05 when he went 27 starts between top five finishes from fifth at Motegi in 2004 to his 2005 Watkins Glen victory.

Rinus VeeKay is starting 21st. At St. Petersburg, VeeKay went from 19th to ninth. Six of his last eight top ten finishes have come after starting outside the top ten. VeeKay has never finished in the top ten in the third race of the season. His finishes in the third race of the season are 13th, 20th, 13th, 26th, 17th and 19th. 

Nolan Siegel starts 22nd for the second time this season. Siegel started 22nd at St. Petersburg, but finished 20th, two laps down. He has finished 20th in each of the first two races this season. Siegel has finished outside the top fifteen in eight consecutive starts. He has failed to finish on the lead lap in the last four races. In seven career street course starts, his only lead lap finish was at Long Beach last year.

Sting Ray Robb was the slowest driver in group one of qualifying, and Robb will start 23rd, directly behind his Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate. This snaps a streak of five consecutive top twenty start for Robb. Robb has finished 21st in the first two races. It is the second consecutive season he has opened the season with consecutive results outside the top twenty. 

Graham Rahal's qualifying run left him 24th on the grid. This is the 13th time in the last 15 street course races Rahal is starting outside the top ten. Both his top ten starts in this stretch were at Toronto. A top ten finish this weekend will be the 150th of his IndyCar career. He has finished in the top ten at Toronto the last three seasons. His most recent street course top ten finish that was other than Toronto was sixth at St. Petersburg in 2023.

After clipping the barrier and drawing a red flag in the second group in round one, Scott McLaughlin will start last in 25th. This is the fifth time since the start of last season McLaughlin is starting outside the top twenty. In three of the four races he started outside the top twenty last season, McLaughlin ended up finishing outside the top twenty. In his three previous races in the state of Texas, McLaughlin has an average finish of 3.333. He was twice runner-up at Texas Motor Speedway and sixth in his other start.

Fox’s coverage of the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington begins at 11:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 12:17 p.m. ET. The race start was moved up an hour due to anticipated high winds in the Arlington area in the afternoon. Wind gusts are expected up to 40 mph. The race is scheduled for 70 laps.

Track Walk: Arlington 2026

The third round of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season sees a new event as for the first time the Grand Prix of Arlington will take place. Cutting through the streets and parking lots around the stadiums for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers, IndyCar will run 70 laps on the 2.73-mile course, the longest street course for modern IndyCar since running on the 2.795-mile Surfers Paradise course on the Gold Coast of Australia. The course will be comprised of 14 corners, nine right-hand corners and five left-handers. This is IndyCar's first trip to Texas since it last visited Texas Motor Speedway in 2023. Arlington will become eighth venue in the Lone Star State to host an IndyCar round.

Coverage

Time: Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday March 15 with green flag scheduled for 1:17 p.m. ET.
Channel: Fox
Announcers: Will Buxton, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will be in the booth. Kevin Lee, Georgia Henneberry and Jack Harvey will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule

Friday:

First Practice: 4:05 p.m. ET (75 minutes)

Saturday:

Second Practice: 9:35 a.m. ET (75 minutes)
Qualifying: 2:35 p.m. ET 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:05 a.m. ET (30 minutes)
Race: 1:17 p.m. ET (70 laps)

Newgarden's Need For a Good Day on the Streets

Josef Newgarden is not only the most recent winner of a Texas IndyCar race, he is also the most recent IndyCar winner. After taking tires under the final caution in the Phoenix race last Saturday, Newgarden drove through the top ten to take his first victory of the season with only eight laps led. It was the 33rd victory in Newgarden's career, and eight laps led are his fewest in a victory since he won his first Indianapolis 500 in 2023 leading only five circuits. His Phoenix triumph gave Newgarden the championship lead for the first time since after his 2022 Long Beach victory.

However, that Long Beach victory remains Newgarden's most recent street course win, and Newgarden's last ten victories have come on ovals. His most recent non-oval victory was at Road America in 2022. 

If Newgarden has any hope of claiming his third championship, he will need to succeed on road and street courses, places where his form has dipped over the last few seasons. In 2024, while he was first on the road at St. Petersburg, he was disqualified after his team was found to have violated push-to-pass regulations. He did have three top five finishes on road and street courses, but did not win again. Newgarden had one top five finish on road and street courses last season, and that was third in the St. Petersburg season opener. In the other three street course races held, he had an average finish of 20th.

From 2017 through 2022, Newgarden had an average finish of 6.8636 in 66 road and street course starts. Over that time, he won 12 of those races, stood on the podium 38 times, had 34 top five finishes and 53 top ten finishes. Newgarden had only three finishes outside the top twenty in those 66 starts. 

In the 34 road/street course races since 2023, Newgarden has only finished on the podium four times with eight top five finishes and 14 top ten finishes. He has finished outside the top twenty in ten of those 34 races.

Newgarden's qualifying form has not been much better. Last season, he made the Fast Six only twice, and his best tarting position was fourth. He had five total appearances in the second round of qualifying in 11 road/street course races. His last front row start for a road or street course was the 2024 St. Petersburg race where Newgarden started on pole position before being disqualified. 

Entering Arlington, Newgarden has four consecutive top ten finishes, his longest top ten finish streak since the summer of 2023 when he was fifth at Toronto, swept the Iowa races and then was fourth at Nashville. His last five-race top ten finish streak was over the final five races of 2022. In each of his championship seasons, Newgarden won at least two on road and street courses, and his average finish on that discipline in those seasons was 4.818 and 6.5 respectively.

With his victory last week at Phoenix, it was the 12th consecutive season where Newgarden has won a race. That is the third-longest streak in IndyCar history behind only Scott Dixon's active 21-season streak and Will Power's 16-season streak from 2007 to 2022.

Palou's Unfamiliar Place

While Newgarden was in a familiar place when the Phoenix race was over, victory lane, Álex Palou left the desert in a different spot than we are used to seeing him. His accident from contact with Rinus VeeKay left Palou 24th in the final result, and Palou lost the championship lead for the first time since after the 2024 Road America race. The Catalan driver had held the championship lead since he won the Laguna Seca race on June 23, 2004. It was a streak of 621 consecutive days. 

Phoenix was the first time Palou had retired from a race since Detroit last June when David Malukas bumped Palou into the barrier in turn one. It was only his sixth retirement in 86 races with Chip Ganassi Racing. Twenty-one laps completed are Palou's fewest completed in a race since the second race of the 2020 Mid-Ohio doubleheader, where he was caught in an opening lap accident and only completed two laps over that race. 

Palou did not drop far in the standings. He is still fifth in the championship and he is only 19 points behind Newgarden. Palou has been ranked in the top five of the championship for 52 consecutive races, and he just made his 100th start at Phoenix last week. He has been ranked in the top five of the championship after 82 of his 100 career starts. After 59 of those races, he has been ranked in the top three of the championship. He has led the championship after 54 races, and he has led the championship after at least one race in each of the last six seasons.

While Arlington will be an unknown for everyone, Palou should find comfort fairly quickly. He has won at least one street course race in three of the last four seasons, including this season as he has already won at St. Petersburg. He has finished on the podium at all six street courses he has contested in his IndyCar career. In 25 street course starts, Palou has 11 podium finishes and 15 top five finishes. He was on the podium in eight of 12 road/street course races last season, and he has scored the most points on road and street courses in four of the last five seasons. 

Palou has not been outside the top five of the championship since the 2023 season opener when he was eighth in the championship after finishing eighth at St. Petersburg. He has never been outside the top ten of the championship while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. He ended the 2020 season 16th in the championship while driving for Dale Coyne Racing. 

Entering Phoenix, Palou had 18 consecutive top ten finishes. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top ten since the final two races of the 2024 season. He has not had consecutive finishes outside the top fifteen since 2021 when he was 27th in the August race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and 20th at Gateway. Palou has never had consecutive finishes outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career. 

Unappreciated Starts

Through two races, two names have gotten a fair amount of the attention, and we have covered them above. Newgarden and Palou aren't the only two drivers to have good starts this season.

Two drivers have started the season with a pair of top five finishes. Those drivers would be Kyle Kirkwood and Patricio O'Ward.

Kirkwood's finishes of fourth and second have him second in the championship on 73 points, five behind Newgarden. This pair of finishes is the first time Kirkwood has had consecutive top five finishes since last June when he won at Detroit and Gateway and then was fourth at Road America. Kirkwood has finished in the top ten in the last ten street course races dating back to his Nashville street course victory in 2023, and that includes four top five finishes in the last five street course races with his worst finish over that span being sixth. Four of Kirkwood's five career victories have come on street courses. 

O'Ward was fifth in St. Petersburg and fourth in Phoenix. This places O'Ward fourth in the championship on 63 points. Dating back to last season, he has eight top five finishes in the last ten races, and nine top five finishes in the last 12 races. O'Ward ended the street course portion of last season with a victory at Toronto. It was his second consecutive season in which he scored a victory on a street course. 

Sandwiched between Kirkwood and O'Ward in the championship is Scott McLaughlin. While he was not in the top five at Phoenix, that eighth combined with his runner-up finish at St. Petersburg has McLaughlin on 66 points. He had three consecutive podium finishes prior to Phoenix, but his streak of top ten finishes continues and it is now up to six consecutive races, his longest streak since he ended the 2024 season with five consecutive top ten results and then opened the 2025 season with a fourth at St. Petersburg. 

David Malukas' third-place finish at Phoenix has lifted him with sixth in the championship on 56 points, three behind Palou. Phoenix was the fourth podium finish for Malukas in his IndyCar career, and it was his sixth top five finish. All of those results have come on ovals. He has yet to finish in the top five on a road or street course. Last season, his best street course finish was ninth. In 16 street course starts, his average finish is 16.375.

Phoenix was not the greatest race for Christian Lundgaard, as Lundgaard started 17th and finished 13th in a race where he spent majority of the race outside the top ten. The Dane did lead eight laps, but those were all during a pit cycle. However, Lundgaard was third at St. Petersburg and he is placed seventh in the championship with 54 points. He does have three podium finishes in the last six races. 

Seldom mentioned, Marcus Armstrong is eighth in the championship after the first two races with 50 points, but he was fifth at Phoenix, Armstrong's seventh top five finish in his career, but it was his second career top five finish on an oval. He as third in the second Iowa race last season. Armstrong was 11th at St. Petersburg after starting seventh. While he had 11 top ten finishes last season, only one of those was on a street course. He was sixth at Detroit. 

Inaugural Race

While the 2026 IndyCar calendar has a few new events compared to the 2025 season, Arlington is an inaugural event, never contested before. It is actually the second consecutive season IndyCar has an inaugural event. Last year, it raced at Thermal Club located in Thermal, California for the first time, one year after the circuit held an exhibition event. Álex Palou won both the exhibition race and the lone championship race at Thermal.

IndyCar has had a few new tracks in recent seasons. 

Though not original, the new Detroit street course is different from the Renaissance Center course CART used from 1989 to 1991. Palou also won that inaugural event when IndyCar returned to downtown Detroit in 2023. Prior to that, IndyCar raced on the street of Nashville for the first time in 2021. In a chaotic affair, it was Marcus Ericsson taking the victory despite contact that lifted the Swede's front tires off the ground at one point. 

For those observant readers, you will realize the last three inaugural races in IndyCar history have been victories for Chip Ganassi Racing. 

The last inaugural event that Chip Ganassi Racing did not win was IndyCar's only race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. That is famously remembered for Colton Herta's first career victory only a week prior to his 19th birthday and it was Herta's third career IndyCar start. 

There have been only two other inaugural IndyCar events during the DW12-era. Prior to Austin, it was NOLA Motorsports Park, which saw an infamous race where weather disrupted the weekend and saw a clunky race in which 26 of 47 laps were run under caution. James Hinchcliffe took the victory. 

The only other inaugural event since 2012 was the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis in 2014. The first race on the IMS road course is remembered for an accident at the start as IndyCar was experimenting with standing starts at a few races. Sebastián Saavedra had started on pole position, but he stalled and collected Carlos Muñoz and Mikhail Alehsin. Simon Pagenaud took the victory in the first Grand Prix of Indianapolis for Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports. 

If you have remained observant you will realize that none of the last six inaugural events have seen a Team Penske victory. Don't worry, you don't have to go back any further than that because the next most recent inaugural race was the Grand Prix of Baltimore, and Will Power won that for Penske. 

There have been three other inaugural tracks since reunification in 2008, plus one event that saw a new circuit layout used while competing on the same property of an existing race. IndyCar made maiden trips to São Paulo and Barber Motorsports Park, it ran the Twin Ring Motegi road course in 2011 after damage to the oval from the Tōhoku earthquake required the change. Then there was Edmonton, which adopted a new circuit layout in 2011. 

Team Penske won three of those four events. Power won at São Paulo and the inaugural race on the second Edmonton layout. Hélio Castroneves won the inaugural Barber race. The only non-Penske victory was Motegi where Scott Dixon came home in first at Motegi, which happened after the first Baltimore race, meaning Team Penske has not won the last seven inaugural races in IndyCar.

If you have remained observant, you will notice a fair number of this inaugural events did not last long. Thermal, Austin and NOLA all lasted only one year. Motegi was only going to be one year as the 2011 race was already declared to be the last race of the event prior to the damage on the oval. Baltimore and Nashville each only made it three years. São Paulo got a fourth edition. Barber, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Detroit all currently remain on the schedule. 

Road to Indy

Two Road to Indy series, one of which will be opening its 2026 season, will join IndyCar for the inaugural Grand Prix of Arlington.

For Indy Lights, this will be the second round of the season. Nikita Johnson took victory in St. Petersburg leading all 42 laps. It was Johnson's first career victory in his fourth Indy Lights start. He had not run an Indy Lights race since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend last season. It was the first Indy Lights victory for Cape Motorsports powered by ECR.

Max Taylor was second from pole position at St. Petersburg while Tymek Kucharczyk was third on podium on his debut, and Kucharczyk was the best finishing HMD Motorsports driver in the opener. Sebastian Murray and Lochie Hughes rounded out the top five making it three Andretti Global drivers in the top five along with Taylor. 

Myles Rowe and Josh Pierson were sixth and seventh ahead of Salvador de Alba while Juan Manuel Correa was ninth. Three rookies took the next three spots in the finishing order. Alessandro de Tullio rounded out the top ten ahead of Jack Beeton and Max Garcia.

Indy Lights will race at Arlington will be 27 laps or 55 minutes. The green flag is scheduled for 11:06 a.m. ET on Sunday March 15.

USF Pro 2000 will be opening its 2026 season with a doubleheader in Arlington. It is the first race weekend of the season, a doubleheader in an 18-race calendar. Twenty-one cars are entered for the season opener. 

Exclusive Autosport has four cars entered with 2025 U.S. F2000 champion Jack Jeffers leading the group with Evan Cooley and Anthony Martella and Joey Brienza. VRD Racing has Teddy Musella, second in U.S. F2000 last year, in its three-car lineup with Colan Aitken and Frankie Mossman. Jacob Douglas is the top returning driver from last year's USF Pro 2000 championship and he will be Pabst Racing. G3 Argyros will be Douglas' teammate.

Michael Costello was eighth in the championship last year and he will be back with Turn 3 Motorsport in a five-car lineup. Tyke Durst is also back as is Sebastian Manson. Leonardo Escorpioni is running this weekend as the Brazilian competes in combination with the U.S. F2000 season. Escorpioni was third in both U.S. F2000 races at St. Petersburg. Brady Colan will be in the fifth car.

Andrés Cárdenas had good pace in testing and he leads the three-car Jay Howard Driver Development powered by ECR stable with Tanner DeFabis and JT Hoskins. Christian Cameron was also one of the quickest in testing and one of three TJ Speed Motorsports drivers alongside Thomas Schrage and Leandro Juncos, son of Juncos Hollinger Racing co-owner Ricardo Juncos. Logan Adams is back with Comet/NCMP Racing. 

The first race of the USF Pro 2000 season all be at 1:25 p.m. ET on Saturday March 14. The second race will be later that day at 5:55 p.m. ET. Both races will have a 40-minute time limit.

Fast Facts

This will be the third IndyCar race on March 15 and the first since 1998 when Michael Andretti won at Homestead. 

The only other March 15 race was in 1919. Cliff Durant won a 34-lap race in Santa Monica, which was held on a 7.36-mile course. It was the 15th and final race held on the streets of Santa Monica. The first 14 races took place on a 8.417-mile course. 

Two of those Santa Monica races were the American Grand Prix, the predecessor of the United States Grand Prix. Eddie Pullen won it in 1914. Howdy Wilcox and Johnny Aitken were co-drivers that won the 1916 edition. 

This will be the first IndyCar round to use single-car runs in the final round of qualifying. Each of the six participants will have one lap in the final round of qualifying to run for pole position, starting with sixth-fastest from the previous round and ending with the fastest car. The first two rounds of qualifying remain unchanged.

If the final round of qualifying should be disrupted due to weather or conditions that significantly change the track surface, IndyCar will have the option to revert to the standard procedure of a six-minute session with all six cars competing, or it can use results from the second round of qualifying to determine the starting lineup.

An Andretti Global driver or Scott McLaughlin have combined to win the last seven pole positions on street courses. 

The pole-sitter has won only two of the last seven street course races (Colton Herta at Toronto in 2024, Kyle Kirkwood at Long Beach in 2025).

Twenty-five consecutive races have been won from a top ten starting position, 16 of those have been a top five starting position. 

Honda has won seven of the last nine street course races, and Patricio O'Ward is responsible for the two Chevrolet victories. One of those was the 2024 St. Petersburg race, where O'Ward inherited the victory after Josef Newgarden was disqualified. The other was last year at Toronto where O'Ward won from tenth.

Dating back to 2023, Honda has won 12 of 14 street course races

Team Penske has not won a street course races since Belle Isle in 2022 with Will Power, the final Belle Isle race prior to the Detroit Grand Prix moving back to the downtown location. Team Penske had won the first three street courses in the 2022 season with Scott McLaughlin winning at St. Petersburg and Josef Newgarden winning at Long Beach. 

This will be the 67 IndyCar race held in the state of Texas.

The first race held in the state of Texas was July 28, 1913 in Galveston on a five-mile beach course. Louis Disbrow won the 100-mile race. There were two more races held over the next two days, both of which were also 100 miles. Amour Ferguson won the second day with Disbrow in second. Disbrow won the third and final race.

Scott Dixon has the most victories in the state with six. Dixon won five times at Texas Motor Speedway and once on the Reliant Park street course in Houston. 

A.J. Foyt and Hélio Castroneves are tied for second in state of Texas victories with four apiece. All four of Foyt's victories were at Texas World Speedway and all four of Castroneves' victories were at Texas Motor Speedway.

Four other active drivers have victories in Texas. Josef Newgarden and Will Power have each won three times. Graham Rahal and Patricio O'Ward each have won once. 

Thirty-nine drivers have won a race in the state of Texas.

Predictions

Álex Palou is going to win from a top five starting position, and if it isn't Álex Palou it will be Kyle Kirkwood from the front row. Palou still gets the championship lead back but Josef Newgarden does finish in the top ten. Newgarden will not be the best Team Penske finisher as Scott McLaughlin takes a podium position. Christian Lundgaard bests his Arrow McLaren teammate Patricio O'Ward in both qualifying and the race. There will be an opening lap accident but it will not be in turn one, it will be in turn four. Romain Grosjean will see the green flag this weekend. Mick Schumacher rises from lat in the championship and picks ip at least three spots. Will Power gains the most spots in the championship after this race. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.