Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
Oh goody. Another race.
2026 IndyCar News / Misc.
- Thread starter Charlie Spencer
- Start date
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
While it's just another dumb street race, it's too good of an opportunity to pass up.
You will have a very difficult time convincing me NASCAR would turn down Trump.
Let's face it, he isn't going to watch regardless. So many of his appearances at sporting events (many, not all) wind up with him leaving not long after the start, while paying fans are still struggling to get past the increased security his presence requires. He doesn't like watching sports, he likes being the center of pre-event attention.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
This has a lot to do with FOX being an equity holder in the series and leveraging their relationships to create big events (Arlington is similar at a much smaller scale), as well as Penske and Trump having a cordial relationship of some kind.
Some of the pomp and circumstance certainly won’t be to my and our liking, but it’s a huge platform for the series and an honor to be a centerpiece of the America250 campaign. From what the course is rumored to be, it should provide some really spectacular shots as well.
A huge plus is that it’s been reported as a proper 18th race, so it’s purely additive and won’t take one of the Milwaukee races away.
virtualbalboa
driver of corey day bandwagon since 2022
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2023
- Messages
- 1,645
- Points
- 223
Nah. What happened is that Fox bought a piece of Indycar and they want to use their relationship with Trump to promote it. They don't own a piece of NASCAR and certainly don't care what happens after their race package ends in the first half of 2026.
LibertyU24
Team Owner
I cant wait for it. I cant believe anyone would be upset about it.
HoneyBadger
Big Amber Glenn Fan
For context: Roger Penske started his racing career at Marlboro Raceway.
donthaveanickname
Team Owner
This is huge news for the sport. Even if it's just a one-off IndyCar will be getting the most attention in decades.
Cynical me suspects that's only because they don't have enough time to put together a ticket system.
Mispeedway15
Team Owner
- Joined
- May 22, 2016
- Messages
- 5,290
- Points
- 793
I wonder what streets they want to use? If you did around the Washington Monument over to the Lincoln Memorial in a clockwise way that would be a terrific course. You have a natural bus stop chicane from the Tidal Basin, essentially a hairpin around the Lincoln Memorial and then a nice pure straight back to the Monument.
France does it with the bicycle race, I’m fine with it here
Nitro Dude
Hauler Driver and Cylinder Head Maintenance
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
I don’t think it’s outlandish to say it would’ve presented an existential threat had Honda decided to leave. It was critical to lock both manufacturers into renewals. More great news for the series and the teams.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
This combo was a lot of fun in 2021:
I recall him being a bit of a loose cannon, but I'm regularly mistaken.
Doc Austin
Back From The Dead
No, you have that part right.
donthaveanickname
Team Owner
If you watched his first full F1 season you'll realize how much he's calmed down.
40 isn't too old for a return to IndyCar and it's great that Hauger has an experienced teammate to learn from.
This is easily DCR's best driver combination since Santucci/Palou.
Tsunoda to IndyCar wasn't gonna happen as long as he still has a dream of returning to F1 but it still sucks that Linus doesn't have a ride.
Any news on Prema?
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
Iirc, his three podiums that year were the most for DCR in a single season since Justin Wilson. He overachieved there and I don’t think it was until he was full-time with Andretti where the weight of expectations led him to really fall back to his old ways of mistakes and over aggression. It should be a pretty interesting pairing.
Reagan
Tire changer
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2024
- Messages
- 96
- Points
- 28
Here is more about this new racing center from Arrow McLaren president Kevin Thimjon.
Inside Arrow McLaren’s New $30M Racing Center: The Facts, Figures, and Philosophy
An exclusive tour of Arrow McLaren’s new $30M Racing Center in Indianapolis. See the shop floor, gym, and offices built to win an IndyCar championship.
www.fanamp.com
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
Everyone seems to be consistent in reporting that whatever new name and shape Prema takes the form of, it won’t debut until Long Beach, and it’ll probably be a one-car program with Ilott.
There seems to be interest in buying the team up and down the Road to Indy ladder, so I’d probably be looking for someone like HMD to take the step up. Exclusive Autosport has also been mentioned as a prospective buyer. There was some interest from the NASCAR garage but that seems to have died down.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
No streaming coverage, but live timing is available for the official spring training test at Phoenix:
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
They trialed this at the Indy GP last year but will take it to the street courses this season:
Yeah, I never liked tire requirements. I'd prefer offering the different compounds but leaving it up the teams to decide which ones they want to use and how many sets.
It's not going to run me off, though.
Went for a stroll through the GP of Arlington ...
I haven't bought tickets yet and i'?m not sure I will. Like many things, I think I'll wait for year 2 for the bugs to get worked out.
I haven't bought tickets yet and i'?m not sure I will. Like many things, I think I'll wait for year 2 for the bugs to get worked out.
More photos
Last set of photos
virtualbalboa
driver of corey day bandwagon since 2022
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2023
- Messages
- 1,645
- Points
- 223
I looked at Arlington as an event to do but the cost for flights was way more than I could justify. I think the idea is pretty cool TBH. Just impossible for me to be able to say "Yeah, I'll spend $500 on a flight that cost $250 3 years ago."
I work at UT Arlington. This is right down the street from campus. There is no public transit here. I have no idea what the parking plan is ... Or any of the logistics for that matter. The tickets are priced cheap by IMHO the grandstands are in terrible places with crap views being on the inside of the track looking outward. At least at COTA you can see most of the track from Turn 1, and the view from 2/3/4/5 is panoramic.
To me, a street circuit is better for TV and not as good in person. JMO based on the layout I saw driving through.
Agreed. Most of the same sightline restrictions as a road course and harder to change vantage points.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
You’d most likely run into the same scenarios each weekend where one compound is definitively better than the other and everybody uses the same strategy, which is precisely what they’re trying to avoid. With two likely abbreviated stints on the softs, that effectively makes every race a three-stopper, which opens up pit windows and takes a lot of the dreadful fuel saving out of the equation.
Big component of this, imo, is that you have three brand new street events this year, and St. Pete has gotten stale since TV cut ten laps off of it. There was a need to find a way to get guys on different tires at different tire lives, and take the two-stop economy runs out of play for some impressionable racing.