The NTT IndyCar Series has announced a date for the first running on the new Grand Prix of Arlington street event, which will take place in one year’s time.

It was previously announced that the new event would take place in early 2026, but the race weekend has now been solidified as taking place 13-15 March.

The event looks set to have a typical road course weekend format, which includes cars on track for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Drivers will navigate a 2.73-mile street course that weaves around the Dallas Cowboys NFL stadium and the Texas Rangers baseball venue, which sit next to each other squarely between the large cities of Dallas and Fort Worth.

A layout for the track was previously announced, with slick promotion materials showing off the backdrop that will be recognizable to a wide range of sports fans in the US.

“As someone who calls this area ‘home,’ I’m super excited to see the NTT IndyCar Series coming to DFW,” said Santino Ferrucci, a Dallas-area resident.

“The course layout is really unique and will let us reach top speeds, making the racing incredibly exciting for all the fans.”

The race being placed on the third weekend of March means that it is likely to be the second race on the 2026 IndyCar schedule, two weeks after the normal timeframe for the series’ traditional first round on the streets of St. Petersburg.

The street course also effectively takes over from the Texas Motor Speedway oval, which is only 23 miles away and lost its IndyCar race dates beginning with the 2024 season.

Other race dates on the 2026 IndyCar calendar have not yet been confirmed, although it is almost certain that the 110th Indianapolis 500 will take place on May 24, 2026, Memorial Day weekend.

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Michael Cannon, AJ Foyt Racing’s revered engineer and technical director, is leaving the team after two successful IndyCar seasons.

Cannon is a highly respected engineer that has been a presence in the IndyCar paddock for nearly 40 years.

He has worked with many different teams in that time, and has led some of the series’ best drivers to championship success.

The team confirmed Cannon’s departure on Tuesday, with Team President Larry Foyt providing some details to RACER.

“We’re certainly going to miss Mike [Cannon] and it was really awesome working with him,” Foyt said. “I tried to get him for many years, so I’m really sorry that it’s not going to continue.

“As far as the [Technical Director], we’re not in a huge hurry to fill that role. I think with everything that’s working with Penske that we’re fine, and we’ve got enough engineers in the building to do everything we’re hoping to do.”

Cannon oversaw multiple changes within the Foyt organization, including helping create a technical partnership with Team Penske.

The alliance allowed the smaller organization to pull in expertise from the well-funded Team Penske in multiple different areas, and in return a superior knowledge of the current shock and damper package was transferred back.

AJ Foyt Racing has used the alliance along with Cannon’s leadership to help gain better results than it has for many years.

Santino Ferrucci helped that cause further when he joined the team in 2023, the same year Cannon came on board.

Ferrucci gelled well with the organization and earned a podium finish in his first Indy 500 with Foyt, then completed a consistent season this year that saw him earn 11 podiums and a statement pole award.

With Foyt having the best season it has had in over 20 years, the loss of one of the major architects of that success will be felt immediately.

The news of Cannon’s departure was unexpected, and the veteran engineer has not yet made public his future plans.

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AJ Foyt Racing has announced that Santino Ferrucci will continue racing for the team during the 2025 IndyCar season and beyond.

Ferrucci joined the historic team at the start of the 2023 season, and the pairing has been successful for both driver and team.

This year in particular has been kind to the #14 entry with Ferrucci earning 10 top 10 finishes in the first 16 races of the year.

He also earned the team’s first pole position in over a decade with a stunning qualifying run at Portland last month, and looks set to end the season inside the top 10 in points.

“I think Larry’s done a great job building the team so they are now in a position to win an Indy 500 and compete for championships,” Ferrucci said.

“Everybody that’s there is what made this team’s amazing turnaround. We’ve all put a lot of time, energy and hard work into this program and I really want to see it through, not just as the driver but on a personal level too.”

Before the most recent couple years, Ferrucci has struggled to find a consistent home in IndyCar. He first drove in the series in 2018 for Dale Coyne Racing, and spent a couple years acting as a reserve driver for whichever team needed a seat filled for a single race.

His pairing with AJ Foyt Racing, helped along by a strong personal relationship with the team’s namesake A.J. Foyt, has boosted morale in the shop considerably and given the squad hope of continued consistent results going forward.

“I’m thrilled to continue with Santino in the number 14 car,” said Team President Larry Foyt.

“We have really gelled over the last two seasons and he’s a big part of our recent success. This continuity is great for the team and I believe the pairing of Ferrucci and Malukas next season is a powerful combination for AJ Foyt Racing.”

Ferrucci will be paired with David Malukas for next season, with the two drivers racing alongside each other for the first time in their careers.

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Saturday was qualifying day for IndyCar at Portland International Raceway, and all 28 drivers climbed behind the wheel to see how fast they could go around the 1.96-mile course.

Santino Ferrucci earned a shock IndyCar pole, completing his lap in 58.2046 seconds. Nobody else was able to get within a tenth of a second, and he celebrated heartily as he climbed from his car on pit lane.

Will Power set the second fastest time, just missing out on extending his own pole record. He starts in a good position to take the championship fight to Alex Palou, even though the points leader will start just behind in third.

READ MORE: IndyCar Portland – Full Qualifying Report

Multiple drivers were unexpectedly slow on Saturday, with Scott McLaughlin, David Malukas, and Alexander Rossi all getting eliminated in the first round.

With the grid set, attention now turns to Sunday’s race, which consists of 110 laps around the Portland road course.

The post IndyCar Portland – Qualifying Results appeared first on Motorsport Week.

The NTT IndyCar Series completed a knockout qualifying session Portland International Raceway on Saturday afternoon to determine the order for Sunday’s race.

When all three rounds had been completed, the series had a brand new pole winner by the name of Santino Ferrucci.

The 26-year-old placed his #14 AJ Foyt Racing entry at the top of the grid with a lap of 58.2046, a full tenth of a second ahead of Will Power during a weekend where margins have been measured in thousandths of a second.

READ MORE: IndyCar Portland – Full Qualifying Results

His performance was so dominant that he actually set two separate laps that each would have been fast enough to earn the top spot.

Ferrucci earned his first ever IndyCar pole and also gave AJ Foyt Racing its first pole since Belle Isle in 2014 when Takuma Sato was at the head of the field.

Power was not able to increase his record pole number on account of Ferrucci’s pace, but still earned a position on the front row with his lap and congratulated the newest pole winner as he climbed from the car.

AJ Foyt Racing and Team Penske have a technical alliance, and both seem to be benefitting nicely from the arrangement.

The championship leader Alex Palou very nearly struck disaster during his first push lap in the second round, but he managed to save his car from damage by coming to a stop in the grass just as he touched the tire barriers at Turn 12.

He recovered to advance to the Firestone Fast 6 and qualified in the third position, just ahead of Christian Lundgaard.

Kyle Kirkwood and Graham Rahal rounded out the final round, although Rahal has a grid penalty and will start from the 12th position.

Josef Newgarden very nearly advanced to the final round, but was just below the cut line in the incredibly close field.

He was just a shade slower than his team-mate Will Power, which ended up being below the cut line.

Scott McLaughlin suffered a surprise elimination in the first round, earning the 14th starting position despite leading both practice sessions to this point.

McLaughlin was obviously disappointed after he climbed from his car, and related that it was simply his inability to find a clear space on track that caused his unexpected elimination.

David Malukas and Alexander Rossi were also eliminated in the first round after both were at the top of the field during the early sessions.

Rossi qualified 18th and Malukas qualified 19th, though the young Meyer Shank Racing driver will start even further down on account of his engine penalty.

The other two Arrow McLaren drivers also struggled to find pace around the track, with Pato O’Ward and Nolan Siegel qualifying 23rd and 24th respectively.

There is a short final practice session later in the day, followed by a 110-lap tilt around PIR Sunday at noon Pacific Time.

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Santino Ferrucci was part of the most dramatic accident from this weekend’s IndyCar race from Toronto, flying through the air after colliding with Pato O’Ward.

O’Ward spun on lap 73 and stalled on the racing line just around the first corner of the track. The concrete barriers lining the course meant that he was unsighted to the rest of the field as they came storming past at full racing speed.

Three separate cars impacted the stationary #5 entry, with Ferrucci launching over the top of the car and into the fencing before landing back on the track upside down.

Ferrucci was unhurt in the incident, and maintained that he had no warning at all there was a stationary car on the racing line.

“First off, very, very thankful to IndyCar and the medical team,” Ferrucci told NBC after being cleared from the medical center.

“The cars are so safe, and to have a scary accident like that and just to walk away fine. The cars are so safe. To have a scary accident like that, and just to walk away fine.

“I never saw Pato [O’Ward]. At the start of the race, I had the steering wheel bent trying to avoid Pato, and we were just left hand up, right hand down.

“When I came through there [on lap 73], I never saw Pietro [Fittipaldi] clip him. Nothing on the spotters. There was no yellows, no nothing. I didn’t know to check up.

“Super unfortunate. Trying to take care of equipment, trying to have a recovery day. Just a bummer, but we’re going into a couple of ovals. We’ll recover there and go for some wins.”

Ferrucci is the second AJ Foyt driver in as many races to put the structural integrity of the Aeroscreen to the test, with significant damage seen to the top of the protective device.

His critique of the lack of warning was corroborated by other drivers, who also were caught off guard by the stopped car at the exit of Turn 1.

There was approximately 4.5 seconds between the time O’Ward came to a stop on track and when Ferrucci collided with him.

Even if a full safety car message could not be sent out in that time, there was likely time enough for a corner worker to have waved a local yellow flag in order to give drivers some warning that there was an incident ahead.

TV angles were not fully conclusive in showing if a yellow flag was being displayed in a time and location that would have allowed drivers to see and react to the information.

O’Ward, who shared a picture of an ice pack on his knee after the incident, was also at a loss as to why he had a field full of cars racing towards him while he sat helplessly on the track.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” O’Ward said after being released by IndyCar’s medical team. “I had rear locking, spun and that’s pretty much the end of that.

“I’m so surprised IndyCar didn’t call a yellow. You’re just calling for a massive shunt. They had a solid five seconds to call a yellow and tell everybody that was coming. I’m glad everybody else that was in it is fine. Sorry for the team.”

In all, six cars were involved in the accident, five of which had to retire on the spot.

The teams involved will be thankful they have four weeks to order replacement parts and make all the repairs necessary before the next event at World Wide Technology Raceway August 17.

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AJ Foyt Racing announced Wednesday that it is bringing its popular American flag livery back for this year’s Indy 500.

The bold livery has been used for the past two years, and will once again feature on the team’s #14 entry for the 108th running of the great event.

Foyt is partnering with the Homes For Our Troops for the campaign, and is helping to raise money for the organization that builds homes and provides services to US military veterans.

The partnership raised over $3 million last year, and the goal for this season is to break the $4 million mark.

“We are proud to be carrying the beautiful patriotic livery for Homes For Our Troops and ABC Supply on the No. 14 Chevrolet in this year’s Indianapolis 500,” said Larry Foyt.

“Finishing third last year has set the bar high for us, but we believe the team and Santino Ferrucci will be challenging for the win again.

“It is exciting to be part of this campaign to raise awareness and funds to support Homes For Our Troops, which has made such a positive difference in the lives of America’s severely injured post-9/11 Veterans.”

HFOT has built and donated 379 specially adapted custom homes for severely injured post-9/11 Veterans nationwide, providing a valuable service to those in need.

This year will be the third straight year ABC Supply and HFOT have worked together on an Indy 500-based fundraising campaign, with larger donation sums seen each year.

Santino Ferrucci will once again pilot the patriotic car, and will look to repeat his strong performance that earned him a third place finish last season.

Donations for the Homes For Our Troops campaign can be made at www.hfotusa.org/donate.

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Six of IndyCar’s smaller teams got their first chance to sample the series’ soon-to-be-implemented hybrid power system over the past couple days.

Drivers from Meyer Shank Racing, Juncos Hollinger Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, AJ Foyt Racing, and Ed Carpenter racing were all finally able to take the new components on track Thursday and Friday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

None of these teams had been able to test the hybrid system before this week, as all of the development and initial on track testing had been done by teams with more resources available.

Those larger teams had logged more than 21,000 miles of testing since October 2022, driving on all types of tracks and following procedures mostly prescribed by Honda, Chevy, and IndyCar officials.

“It is fairly similar,” said Rinus VeeKay after taking his first laps with the hybrid in his ECR Chevy. “There are just a lot more buttons I need to press, and a lot more stuff I need to go through.

“Usually, I have a clue about knowing what we’re doing, but this is all new so I’m still learning. I hated that I could not give the team much feedback on what we need to do.

“It’s nice to get started with the hybrid. It’s definitely a lot of new stuff for all of us as a team to digest and run through. Pretty good learning so far. We got more running in than I thought with the cool temperatures, but a good start.”

The smaller teams on the grid have been waiting for the better part of a year to get their chance to try out the new system, and were beginning to feel they were being put at a disadvantage because of the disparity in track time.

Drivers that have had multiple days with the new system insist that they were not able to gain much of an advantage, but drivers such as Christian Lundgaard were not convinced of that fact.

This week’s running was a step towards bringing the field onto a more level playing field, and the engine manufacturers went out of their way to brief the teams and drivers with all of the knowledge that had been gained from the other teams’ running.

“Chevy took their time and came to every team and sat us down,” explained Santino Ferrucci. “They had a full explanation. They got through and answered all our questions.

“It’s one of those things where they’re very positive about moving this forward, and then today, working through all of the systems. How to do the brake, on-throttle, off-throttle, the way that we’re saving and how we can use it throughout the lap.

“They’ve been incredibly open about it, and it’s been such an easy adaptation as a driver to move into this and be working in it. I’m not fully comfortable with it, but I am very much enjoying it, and can’t wait until we have it in the series full time.

“You’re really using it as a balancing tool, and the energy they’re giving you for a lap, it’s a lot of work to be using it every lap, depleting it and reusing it, you’re very busy mentally driving the car, not just physically anymore.

“So I think the races are now very long, very difficult, and adding this step is going to add to driver fatigue and you’re going to have to train extra hard on everything that you do. It just needs to become second nature.”

The smaller teams completed approximately 2,000 miles of running with the new hybrid system over the two days of testing, and are likely to have more test days dedicated to their testing programs in the near future.

The hybrid components are still scheduled to be introduced mid-season, sometime after the Indianapolis 500, although a specific race weekend has not yet been identified.

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AJ Foyt Racing has announced that it has retained the driving services of Santino Ferrucci for the 2024 IndyCar season, bringing the 25-year-old back for a second full season with the team.

Ferrucci will continue to drive the #14 Sexton Properties Chevy in what will be his fourth full IndyCar season after first joining the series in 2018.

 “I’m super stoked to be back with the team,” said Ferrucci. “It’s really good to start building some continuity with everybody and I think it’s going to improve our results.

“My expectations for the year are to come out of the gate a lot more prepared than we were last year; working with Penske things are hopefully going to be a lot smoother and I’m looking forward to being back at the Indy 500 again.”

Ferrucci’s best finish in 2023 was a third place finish at the Indianapolis 500, an event that saw AJ Foyt Racing secure its best performance in multiple years.

The chassis from that event have been kept aside, even at the expense of not bringing a backup car to the season’s other oval rounds, as the team looks to repeat that performance this upcoming May.

“I’m very happy to have Santino back,” said Team President Larry Foyt. “We worked well together, and he brings a good energy to the team.

“Obviously, we have our eyes set on the Indy 500, but we also had some good pace in other races but didn’t get the results. Together we are focused on moving up in the championship standings and I believe we can achieve that.”

Ferrucci will race alongside sophomore driver Sting Ray Robb, and the team has no plans to run a third car. This comes despite Benjamin Pedersen’s comment on social media last month that implied he would still be driving for the team the upcoming season.

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IndyCar has announced that three drivers will receive grid drops for the Sunday’s season finale race at Laguna Seca.

Each entry was in violation of the series’ engine use rule, which limits the number of engines that can be used over the course of the season.

Agustin Canapino was the first to receive the grid drop, with his Juncos Hollinger Racing team opting to fit a sixth engine before the race weekend got underway.

Juri Vips will also start lower than the qualified after RLL opted to change his Honda motor after Friday’s practice.

Following an engine failure in Saturday morning’s practice session that left his car smoking on the side of the track, Santino Ferrucci will also have to take a grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

All three drivers will start six positions further back than they qualified, with IndyCar’s standard engine use rules being applied in all cases.

After the penalties, Vips will line up from the 13th grid position, Ferrucci from 17th, and Canapino will line up 19th.

A few drivers will get a grid boost on account of the reordering, with Graham Rahal and Colton Herta benefitting the most.

Both drivers will jump past all three penalized men, and will start from 11th and 12th respectively despite qualifying 14th and 15th.

Engines are typically detuned by Honda and Chevy to help them last the required number of races before failure.

With each of the three penalized drivers only needing their power plant to last a single weekend, expect them to have a bit more pace than usual on the straights for Sunday’s race.

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