2014 IndyCar Schedule Update #10

Hitting the double digit mark on the 2014 schedule updates. It looks like Thursday October 17th, the 2014 IndyCar schedule will be announced.

From the October 8th edition of Trackside with Curt Cavin and Kevin Lee, Cavin said most of the schedule was in place and it would look similar to 2013 with a few dates flipping around.

Cavin said Barber moving from the second round of the season to the third round was likely and he said Houston appears will remain a doubleheader and be moving to late June and possibly become night races. Moving Houston to June would raise questions about the position of Milwaukee and Iowa as June has been a very busy month for IndyCar.

Cavin also said Austin appears likely to be added to the IndyCar schedule for 2015.

Here is a mock 2014 schedule (Confirmed dates in bold):

St. Petersburg: March 28-30th.
Long Beach: April 13th.
Barber: April 27th
IMS road course: May 10th.
Indianapolis 500: May 25.
Belle Isle: May 30-June 1st.
Texas: June 7th.
Milwaukee: June 14th.
Iowa: June 22nd.
Houston: June 27-29th (holding out the possibility of night races due to summer heat).
Pocono: July 6th
Toronto: July 19-20th.
Mid-Ohio: August 1-3rd.
Sonoma August 24th.
Fontana: August 30-31 or September 1st (depends if it is a Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday night, Monday or Monday night).

With this schedule, Barber now fills the gap between Long Beach and the IMS road course. My one concern is moving Barber too close to the NASCAR race at Talladega. Should Barber move to April 27th and NASCAR's schedule remain the same, Barber would be the week before Talladega. I'm not sure that is a good thing.

Moving Houston to late-June and keeping the schedule before that date as it is would create a seven consecutive week, nine race stretch. I don't see that happening. There were talks of IndyCar at Iowa running with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The Trucks ran this year the weekend IndyCar was at Toronto but since Toronto will be pushed back for 2014 it opens up that weekend but I have said before, it would be smart for IndyCar to take that weekend off because it is the weekend of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final. Say what you want about soccer in America but the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final had 15,545,000 viewers on ABC and I only expect that number to go up in 2014.

Could Iowa be run on a Saturday night? Maybe and then there isn't a conflict with the World Cup Final. Or as I've suggested before, a race could be lead-in to the World Cup Final broadcast. Could Iowa move to the weekend between Toronto and Mid-Ohio? That is usually Brickyard 400 weekend and IndyCar tries to avoid scheduling a race that weekend. The Nationwide Series ran at Iowa the same weekend IndyCar was at Mid-Ohio this year. Could we see some dates shift for IndyCar, Truck and Nationwide to allow for a IndyCar-Truck doubleheader at the beginning of August? Maybe. For now though I will put Iowa in-between Pocono and Toronto.

One-other note: Still no word on Brazil. Should that race return, it appears it will see a date change due to the addition of the IMS road course race.

One final mock schedule:

St. Petersburg: March 28-30th.
Long Beach: April 13th.
Barber: April 27th
IMS road course: May 10th.
Indianapolis 500: May 25.
Belle Isle: May 30-June 1st.
Texas: June 7th.
Milwaukee: June 14th.
Houston: June 27-29th (holding out the possibility of night races due to summer heat).
Pocono: July 6th.
Iowa: July 12-13 (holding out the possibility for a Saturday night race).
Toronto: July 19-20th.
Mid-Ohio: August 1-3rd.
Sonoma August 24th.
Fontana: August 30-31 or September 1st (depends if it is a Saturday night, Sunday, Sunday night, Monday or Monday night).

The good news is we are getting closer and closer from the schedule being released and these updates coming to an end.