Texas Motor Speedway will return as the series and the track have signed a one year deal with the track and will make it eighteen consecutive years at the one and a half mile oval. The twist to this Texas race will be an additional twenty laps, bringing the total race distance to 600km. In 2001, CART was scheduled to run a 600km race at Texas before the race was cancelled after qualifying due to high g-loads were causing vertigo-like symptoms.
The Texas race will be run Saturday June 7th.
Robin Miller reported today that the Houston might be a single race weekend in 2014 with St. Petersburg still become a doubleheader to begin the season. No word yet on Brazil's future. It could end up before St. Petersburg, it could hold it's late-April/early-May date. That race is still up in the air. The board at Indianapolis Motor Speedway still has to approve a IndyCar road course race at the track and a decision on that race should be coming any day now. Miller also reported some talks about possible 2015 races but I will touch on that at a later date.
Mock 2014 schedule (confirmed races are bold):
St. Petersburg: March 28-30th.
Barber: April 6th.
Long Beach: April 13th.
IMS road course: May 10th.
Indianapolis 500: May 25.
Belle Isle: May 30-June 1st.
Texas: June 7th.
Milwaukee: June 14th.
Iowa: June 22nd.
Pocono: July 6th
Toronto: July 19-20th.
Mid-Ohio: August 1-3rd.
Houston: August 16-17th (holding out the possibility of a Saturday night event due to summer heat).
Sonoma August 24th.
Fontana: August 30-31 or September 1st (depends if it is a Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday night, Monday or Monday night).
No big changes other than I have reduced Houston to either a Saturday night or Sunday single race weekend. I have no idea if Houston will be a night race but it will be in the middle of summer, it has been a night race before and it would make sense not to run that race in the middle of the summer heat and humidity. There is a month long gap between Long Beach and the possible IMS road course race. No new races are being added to the IndyCar schedule, no races are moving. There will likely be a month long gap from Easter until the beginning of a May.
