All through his profession as a enterprise chief and essentially the most profitable workforce proprietor in main auto racing historical past, Roger Penske has been hailed as an innovator.
Satirically, in 2024, Penske and his workers that function IndyCar needed to fend off criticism by some members of the IndyCar paddock for not being extra aggressive in advertising and marketing the collection. They believed as an alternative of swinging for the fences, Penske and IndyCar had been extra excited by transferring the runner into scoring place with a bunt.
Penske typically countered that rationale by his report of success in enterprise which is a really measured method that reveals over 60 years of regular success and development.
On October 7, Penske and his workers at IndyCar stepped as much as the plate, took a giant swing and knocked it out of the ballpark with the announcement of the Grand Prix of Arlington in 2026.
It despatched the critics reeling with a stroll to the mound to usher in a reduction pitcher.
It is likely to be one of the crucial vital strikes Penske has made since he bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar from the Hulman George Household on November 4, 2019.
The rationale it’s so vital is the advertising and marketing partnership which are a part of the Grand Prix of Arlington.
It contains one of the crucial iconic sporting franchises on the earth, the Dallas Cowboys of the Nationwide Soccer League, one of the crucial profitable groups in Main League Baseball, the 2023 World Collection Champion Texas Rangers, and the Penske Company and its Penske Leisure firm that manages and operates IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Cowboys, the Rangers and REV Leisure, are companions with Penske Leisure within the new road race that may happen in March 2026. The two.73-mile short-term road course will race round each AT&T Stadium, the audacious and spectacular dwelling of the Cowboys, and one in all MLB’s most interesting stadiums, Globe Life Area, dwelling of the Rangers.
A key a part of the race course footprint can be Texas Dwell! It’s an leisure district shared by each stadiums that makes this metropolis of 400,000 in between Dallas and Fort Value, Texas one of the crucial vibrant areas within the DFW Metroplex.
Extra importantly, the Grand Prix of Arlington can have the full-strength of the advertising and marketing experience of the Cowboys and the Rangers. That opens a brand new avenue for doubtlessly new IndyCar followers who’ve by no means been to a race however are season-ticket holders for the Cowboys and/or the Rangers.
If he needed, the 87-year-old Penske might circle the bases and tip his cap, if he wore one, after bringing collectively an possession group with this a lot horsepower to IndyCar’s latest race.
Within the course of, Penske additionally proved to his critics that he didn’t change into a billionaire by making unhealthy choices and spending cash unwisely with no assured return on funding, as some former IndyCar Collection house owners reminiscent of Michael Andretti advocated earlier this 12 months.
“Effectively, look, as I all the time say, if you’re over the goal, they need to shoot at you,” Penske informed NBCSports.com in an unique interview on the IndyCar Victory Lap Awards Ceremony on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on September 30. “I believe that we have got a whole lot of nice issues going right here at IndyCar. Folks had been up within the seats at our tracks. So many good issues taking place.
“However we’re centered on 2025 now.”
The 2025 season begins on March 2 with the annual Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg adopted by a protracted break earlier than the following race at The Thermal Membership in Thermal, California on March 23.
That break within the motion received’t be a problem in 2026 when the Grand Prix of Arlington is added to the schedule with a date someday in March.
The brand new race was formally introduced on Monday, October 7. A public celebration was held the next day at Texas Dwell!
It featured longtime Texas Rangers public deal with announcer Chuck Morgan, Arlington Mayor Professional Tem Barbara Odom-Wesley, Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones, Texas Rangers proprietor Ray Davis and Rangers CEO Neil Leibman, and Penske.
Additionally on stage on the celebration was former Dallas Cowboys nice and member of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer DeMarcus Ware, and 14-time All-Star, 13-time Gold Glove winner and member of the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Fame Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez.
They joined two-time NTT IndyCar Collection champion and back-to-back Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden of Workforce Penske and three-time IndyCar Collection Champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing.
For Penske, the occasion was a full circle second due to his earlier relationships with each Ray Davis and Jerry Jones.
“Ray Davis, we return when he was promoting us carburetors for our NASCAR automobiles, so we’ve got a protracted historical past of understanding about carburetors,” Penske quipped. “However Ray, actually your workforce and with Neil to return collectively to have this occur is an actual pleasure. You’ve got received a first-class group.
“We’re so thrilled to have our model subsequent 12 months model and subsequent to Jerry Jones is right here on this nice alternative.”
Penske recalled a second from a number of a long time in the past when he needed to converse in entrance of NFL Homeowners in an try and land the Tremendous Bowl for Detroit.
Penske was the chief of the Tremendous Bowl Committee for Detroit and was profitable within the NFL granting Detroit because the host metropolis for Tremendous Bowl XL, which was held at Ford Area on February 5, 2006.
“Jerry what can I say in the case of our friendship?” Penske mentioned. “Let’s return 22 years, and I used to be standing up at a mic like this, attempting to pitch Jerry Jones to convey the Tremendous Bowl to Detroit 22 years in the past. And right here I’m immediately thanking Jerry and his household for giving us this chance to return right here and race at Arlington.
“It is magic.”
Due to his skill see the advertising and marketing prowess that Jones, the Cowboys, Davis and the Rangers convey to IndyCar for Grand Prix of Arlington creates an incredible second for Penske’s collection.
“It is a possibility for us to showcase our sport all over the world and positively to convey the perfect racing to Arlington,” Penske mentioned. “However to me, Neil Leibman, together with your help and everybody else right here, it is actually one thing.
“I take a look at this as a possibility coming collectively.
“No place in the USA can we race to have this sort of a neighborhood, a various neighborhood, but additionally sports activities followers, as we do with the Grand Prix of Arlington.
“As my son Greg says, we’ll have a whole lot of friends come into Arlington, so thanks for the chance.
“It is an actual pleasure to be right here, thanks.”
Jones is maybe the NFL’s most public and upfront house owners who has been profitable in turning the Dallas Cowboys from “America’s Workforce” into one of the crucial recognizable skilled sports activities groups on the earth.
When the NFL’s “Worldwide Collection” options the Cowboys, the fan help for the workforce in international locations exterior of the USA is spectacular.
Jones has all the time thought large, and massive pondering is one thing that may assist IndyCar broaden its fanbase.
“I actually do not assume I might have dreamed as large as our creativeness was that we may very well be sitting right here once we joined Arlington and all the good residents of Arlington to construct AT&T Stadium,” Jones mentioned. “I do not assume I ever might have imagined that we might be sitting on the stage immediately with these former nice athletes, and I hate to name them former.
“I am going to let you know this proper now, DeMarcus Ware, we’d like you out right here this subsequent weekend. And when you’ve got three or 4 snaps in you on the proper time, we might be prepared for you, for positive.
“However I could not have imagined sitting right here immediately, with Roger Penske, one in all my true position fashions about find out how to contain sports activities, if you’ll, and the basics of sports activities and contain it in a means that it really works, and it does the enterprise that we see that’s concerned in sports activities immediately. I could not have imagined it, Roger, to be sitting right here with you.”
It didn’t take Jones lengthy to pledge his full help to Penske and the Grand Prix of Arlington, which brings IndyCar Collection racing again to the DFW space because the PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 2, 2023.
That was the ultimate IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway, which had hosted the collection yearly since June 1996.
“We jumped, the Dallas Cowboys jumped, to be with the Rangers and Ray Davis,” Jones admitted. “We jumped to be with the good metropolis of Arlington. We jumped to get an opportunity to be part of this nice occasion.
“That stadium was constructed, our stadium subsequent door was constructed, actually not for the 100,000 that sit in it on Sundays. It was constructed for the 30 million those that watch it when our Michaels and the good John Madden would say, ‘People, you should be right here. We should see this place. You should be part of it.’
“Now, that is going to occur right here in Arlington, due to you, Roger, due to your nice workforce, due to the work and the coordination that we have got right here. Most of all, thanks, the consultant of our followers and the individuals that basically help this. It is a labor of affection.
“The Dallas Cowboys are honored to hitch Roger Penske and be a part of the Texas Rangers within the metropolis of Arlington and convey IndyCar Racing, crying round these streets out right here and going to city round an important sports activities capital of this nation.”
Because the CEO of the Rangers, Leibman performs a key position on this occasion via an organization the workforce created often called REV Leisure.
“When REV Leisure was created, it was purported to be an leisure division of the Texas Rangers. It was launched for that goal.
“Now we get to see its imaginative and prescient.
“Its imaginative and prescient was to convey the perfect and largest occasions to Arlington for its followers, for them to get pleasure from occasions, concert events, sporting occasions, and all different alternatives. I can consider no different imaginative and prescient that might be represented higher than bringing the Indy Grand Prix of Arlington race right here in Texas. We’re so wanting ahead to it.
“I really imagine this race and remodel our Arlington Leisure District into one thing spectacular, one thing so spectacular that the world will come and watch.
“Mayor, we’re wanting ahead to collaborating. We sit up for working with our companions to creating this a profitable occasion.
“And I, for one, can not wait till March of 2026 to observe the race.”
Along with racing round AT&T Stadium and Globe Life Area, there are another fascinating features to the course format, that was unveiled at Texas Dwell!
The Streets of Arlington circuit is the longest road course on the schedule that includes the longest straightaway (0.9-mile) of the season.
Speeds are anticipated to succeed in over 180 mph earlier than testing the drivers into the right-hander of Flip 10.
The two.73-mile, 14 flip format additionally options sweeping curves and technically difficult sectors which are each aesthetically pleasing and uniquely demanding.
Different highlights of the modern design embrace:
Two areas the place the monitor goes beneath circuit hospitality and suites.
Two coliseum-like atmospheres that includes a double-sided pit lane and a “horseshoe” like carousel of Flip 6.
There are 4 (4) engaging passing zones: Flip 1, Flip 10, Flip 12 and Flip 14.
Because the race date approaches, further metropolis enhancements are coming to the circuit.
The course is designed by longtime and well-respected circuit creator Tony Cotman.
“It is going to be quick,” Palou mentioned. “I am prepared. I am pumped I believe all people right here did a tremendous job. Thanks, guys, for making it attainable.
“It is a disgrace that we’re not beginning like subsequent week I might be able to race it you mentioned 180 miles an hour I believe it may be somewhat bit extra that straight okay be nearly a mile lengthy so I am excited.
“It is going to be an important occasion and hopefully all people’s right here to get pleasure from it in March 2026.”
Newgarden believes the Grand Prix of Arlington has the potential to change into one of many iconic occasions on the IndyCar Collection schedule, becoming a member of such spectacles because the Indianapolis 500 and the Acura Grand Prix of Lengthy Seashore.
“It is a large deal,” Newgarden mentioned. “Roger Penske speaking concerning the alternative is what I consider once I was a younger child, and I needed to be a race automotive driver.
“I dreamed of successful iconic occasions just like the Indianapolis 500, and I believe the Grand Prix of Arlington can be a type of occasions that you just need to circle that you must win each single 12 months. So, that is it is a large alternative for us in IndyCar and actually, it is an honor for us to return race right here in Arlington.
“To be part of an iconic model just like the Cowboys and the Rangers, we need to be right here, and I believe we’ll placed on an excellent present, however extra importantly as a driver I am centered on, ‘How are we going to win it?’ as a result of I do know it should be a giant deal.
“That is what you present up for the stress to win these large occasions and like to see that it’s going to be on our calendar.”
Arlington, Texas is called the “Dream Metropolis.”
Roger Penske proved he can nonetheless dream large and continues to have a giant imaginative and prescient with the creation of this spectacular occasion.
There have been some IndyCar followers that needed IndyCar to return to Texas Motor Speedway, however when attendance dropped off the charts, Penske had a much bigger imaginative and prescient for IndyCar.
With the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones, the Texas Rangers and Ray Davis as his companions, the Grand Prix of Arlington has the potential to an iconic occasion for Penske and IndyCar.
