IndyCar drivers delighted by new Arlington street course

The new street course that runs through the parking lots, ring roads, and arteries of Arlington that connect the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium and the Texas Rangers' home field had an entertaining debut on Friday.

IndyCar's latest addition to its schedule has plenty of big bumps in high-speed places, an absence of grip throughout the sprawling 2.7-mile circuit — standard fare for new street circuits — and a blend of fast turns, slow turns, and sharp turns among the sweeping bends and long brake zones.

And what did some of IndyCar’s finest drivers think of the layout, where they’ll compete for 70 laps on Sunday at the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington?

"That is instantly my most favorite street circuit ever," said Friday’s quickest, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who owns countless combined street course wins across Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, as well as IndyCar.

"It's such a blast. It's just an absolute ball to drive. I'm like a little kid again. It's hands down the best street circuit personally that I've driven on. So far it's got a huge straight, bumpy straight, very hard to test your brake point into Turn 10 there. Then there are so many corners that are technical, but then also daring.”

The Team Penske veteran’s No. 3 Chevy was nearly matched for speed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No. 10 Honda, and both had the same views on the circuit.

“Love it,” Palou said. “Yeah, it's insane. It's super fun to drive. It's just a lot more fun than I thought, just how the car feels. There's so many different corners. Like, there's corners that you can attack so much, and you feel like a superhero. There's other corners where you need to back off because the grip is very different. Very bumpy. A lot more bumpy than I thought, which makes it super challenging, but super fun. Super fun.”

Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist was also among the fastest drivers on Friday and met the wall with the rear of his No. 60 Honda on the way to posting the fifth-best lap.

“The track is a little rougher than we expected,” Rosenqvist said of the sizable undulations. “Good fun, though. They did a great job on the layout.”

Graham Rahal, whose first IndyCar win was produced on the streets of St. Petersburg in 2008, was duly impressed by Arlington.

"I love the track; it was super fun for me,” the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver said after running 11th. “It’s bumpy on the back straight, but it’s not that bumpy everywhere else. It’s just bumpy in the wrong spots at times, like into the brake zones. I actually don’t mind that challenge, I just wish we had a little more in the race car to manage that better.”

Rahal’s rookie teammate, ex-Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher, has driven on many street courses, but most of those were highly manicured and almost as smooth as purebred road courses. The Swiss-born German was wide-eyed at the bucking surface that left his No. 47 Honda 21st on the day.

“If I thought St. Pete was bumpy, this is a whole new story of bumpiness,” he said. “We’re shaking through pretty well; it was pretty incredible. There are lots of things to clean up on our side. It was good to get a first taste of what the track is like, but we have a lot of work to do.”