The city of Arlington is set to host its first-ever IndyCar Series race this weekend, but the weather is having other plans in the background. While competition is healthy, safety is always the priority. The current weather has raised some immediate safety concerns, forcing Roger Penske to make some tough calls ahead of Sunday’s event.

IndyCar submits to the weather

Apparently, the city of Arlington is expected to experience strong gusts of wind and stormy weather. Owing to this, the race was moved up from 1 p.m. ET to 12 p.m. ET. The warmup race will now take place at 9:30 a.m. ET.

According to Bob Pockrass, “The changes in INDYCAR schedule today are safety related and not competition related. The bigger gusts toward 50mph are supposed to come mid/late afternoon. Virtually everything here is a temporary structure.”

The temperature is expected to be in the 80s. Rain also doesn’t seem to have a chance. It’s the wind gusts, ranging from 25 mph to 40 mph.

Obviously, driver and personnel safety come above all else. However, the show must go on, so the best option was to bump up the timing of the race. From there, the aim was to have the race wrapped up before the storms began and put people in danger. The Java House Grand Prix of Arlington is just the third race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar series season. Broadcast for the race is expected to kick off at 11:30 a.m. ET on FOX.

It isn’t just the Roger Penske-owned series that has been affected by the schedule change though. The supporting IndyNXT Series race also faced a change in schedule with the race starting at 10:30 a.m. ET. Official reports insisted that the schedule changes were strictly in response to the unpredictable weather in Texas.

With this being a brand new track, issues relating to the track would not have been out of the realm of possibility. However, IndyCar was accurate in its report about the weather being the primary deciding factor.

How does the grid line up for the inaugural race?

4-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou is undoubtedly the favorite, since he has been in excellent form. However, he starts in 2nd place behind pole-sitter and ex-F1 driver Marcus Ericsson. Behind them are Pato O’Ward and Will Power on the second row, followed by Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong. Rounding out the Top 10 are Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Rasmussen, David Malukas, and Alexander Rossi, another F1 alumnus.

A bit further down the order, there is more F1 representation with Romain Grosjean in 15th and Mick Schumacher in 17th. Other strong contenders include 2-time champion and championship leader Josef Newgarden in 11th. 6-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon will be disappointed with 20th place on the grid. Even more disappointed will be Scott McLaughlin, who starts 25th and last on the grid, and he is 3rd in the championship standings.

When the season began at St. Petersburg, defending champion Palou clinched victory. Unfortunately, at the next race in Phoenix, he crashed out, and Newgarden earned the spoils of victory and the championship lead. What’s interesting is that the Phoenix was a NASCAR-IndyCar double-header. Newgarden’s win was the start of a great weekend for Team Penske, with Ryan Blaney roaring to victory.

All this being said, hopefully, things will go off without a hitch in the race. A storm is not something to take lightly, as even NASCAR takes storm and lightning threats very seriously. In the sense that they also either push up the race timing or they postpone the race. A prime example of this was the Clash at Bowman Gray, which was postponed all the way to Wednesday.