Let's Run Two

I was mentioned during the week that the Izod IndyCar Series is considering running doubleheaders at road and street course events. The planned format would be practice and qualifying on Friday with a race Saturday and a race Sunday. Immediately though a few problems came to mind. One being television. Would a network show each race live or one race taped delayed before the second one? Another problem would be people choosing one race over the other. Maybe a family decides Saturday over Sunday and the goal to get people in both days fails.

What if they scheduled doubleheaders the way they did the Twin 275's at Texas last year. But instead of a half hour of empty race track, run the Lights race and package it as one large television window like NBC Sports Net was doing previously. Example: Run the first IndyCar race at 12:30pm, that race takes about an hour. Then at 1:45pm run the Lights, that race could be over in 45 minutes and by 2:45pm the final race can begin. I would be for an inversion of the top ten from race one to decide the grid for race two. As for points, I would not mind if they awarded full points for each race or if they gave away half points.

Also, if we are doing doubleheaders on road and street courses then we can definitely do heat races and/or twin races on all ovals except Indianapolis. Iowa has the format set perfectly. Milwaukee can also run heats. I would like to see the Twin 275's at Texas but if they choose to do heat races and run one 550KM race, I am fine with that. Fontana can do heats before their five hundred mile race.

But with heat races should come points. I suggested  giving 12 points for winning the third heat race, 8 for second, 7 for third, 6 for fourth, 5 for fifth, 4 for sixth, 3 for seventh, 2 for eighth and either a point for the winners of the first two heat races or, if they are allowed to transfer to the final heat, 1 point for ninth and tenth position. This gives the fans more racing at the track and on TV. A fan shows up to Sonoma, sees an IndyCar race, then the Lights before the IndyCar main event or a fan at home turns on his TV, sees the IndyCar race, leaves the Lights race on and then the main event. Will this happen? Maybe, maybe not but it's just some brainstorming.