Mulling Doubleheaders

We have had four days to really think about the doubleheaders on the schedule. The fans seem split on where they stand and those who are not in favor have legitimate points of why doubleheaders are not a good idea.

1. They are all on street courses. Other than Toronto, the other two are big question marks. Detroit makes sense from the marketing side with large support from GM, but the racing has never been fantastic. Even with the longer course used during the CART days, the racing was barely any better than it was today. Houston was never a great track and it has been quiet on any possible layout change. Toronto, while yes having some dull races, has produced a good show at times.

2. It is just away to get 19 races. That may be but it is not like doubleheaders have never been done before. USAC did them at Mosport, IRP, Mont-Tremblant, as well on the ovals of Trenton, Michigan and Langhorne.

3. Fans may pick one day over the other and the attendance will overall be down. That is another possibility but if they keep Saturday prices lower than Sunday and a reasonable two day price, I think attendance could be up overall.

4. Creates a greater unbalanced between ovals and street and road course races. Can't argue there but we do have more ovals than less year. Yes only by one, but six is more than five. There seems to be a lot of ovals the series, fans and drivers want being talked to. Phoenix, Michigan, Kentucky, Richmond. The gap could be closing in the next year.

There are plenty of reasons to be for doubleheaders.

1. It is more racing, what real race fan is against more racing?

2. Both Detroit races are going to be on ABC. That is only a plus (unless the track comes apart and the races are moved to ESPN News). Detroit is in the middle of ABC's stretch of six of seven races, hopefully two race on one weekend can get people interested for Texas just six days later.

3. It is different and gives fans reasons to show up on Saturday as well as Sunday. IndyCar needs something different.

4. This goes with three but it may help the Saturday crowd and if the promoters can make more money than that is good for IndyCar. Also, what a way to make new fans. Two races in two days. Twice the party. As long as the price is right of course.

There are still a few questions about the doubleheaders.

1. How is the grid for race two going to be set? Inverting the top 10 doesn't seem popular, nobody wants one qualifying session determining both grids, or two separate qualifying sessions. Fastest lap from race one is being brought up but I would hate to be the guy taken out early and has to start at the back in race two, possibly because someone ran over them from behind in race one.

2. What will the race length be? Detroit was scheduled for 90 laps, Toronto 85 laps and Houston was scheduled for 100 laps during the CART years. Are we going to see two races at those lengths or will we see two races at let's say at 75 percent of the normal distance? These races aren't going to short sprints with only one pit stop or a sprint on Saturday, feature on Sunday. These races are going to be the same distance but that distance isn't currently known.

3. How much will this cost the teams? Even if these races are 75 percent of the normal distance, the teams are going to be putting a lot of miles on the engines. I'd hate to see a team dominate race one, have a really good race two going and have an engine failure. Also, I'd hate to see a team have an accident race one and miss race two.

Plenty of time for these questions to be answered and plenty of time to decide whether doubleheaders are the right or wrong thing to do.