I hate schedule talk because it is mostly pure, uninformed speculation and in the world of IndyCar, yearning for returns to Road America, Michigan, Cleveland, Laguna Seca, Portland, Phoenix, Richmond, Loudon and a debut at Austin. Every now and then you have to think out loud and figure out what could happen for the best, especially as Houston is stuck in June, Pocono is clinging on by their fingernails and international races appear to be on the horizon.
Let's start with what we know:
IndyCar announced St. Petersburg would return and run March 27-29, 2015.
Long Beach is set for April 17-19, 2015.
Indianapolis Star's Curt Cavin reported the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be May 10, 2015, which is Mother's Day. This year the race was the Saturday prior to Mother's Day. I have a feeling it will still be that Saturday and it was a minor error.
Indianapolis 500 will be May 24th.
The Belle Isle doubleheader will be the weekend after the Indianapolis 500, May 30th and 31st.
Toronto is looking for a new date as The Queen City will host the 2015 Pan American Games, July 10-25, 2015.
Then there is the chance of Dubai sometime in February and Brasilia happening on March 8, 2015.
Tentatively:
Sometime in February: Dubai
March 8: Brasilia (should track upgrades be made and the check come through).
March 15: Nothing
March 22: Nothing
March 29: St. Petersburg
April 5: Easter. Never race on Easter. See Las Vegas 2007.
April 12: Nothing.
April 19: Long Beach
April 26: Nothing.
May 3: Nothing.
May 9 or 10: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 16 & 17: Indianapolis 500 qualifying.
May 24: Indianapolis 500
May 30 & 31: Belle Isle
According to Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage on Twitter, he and Mark Miles shook hands on a deal for IndyCar to return in June 2015. Let's pencil that in for it's traditional Saturday night, almost a fortnight after the Indianapolis 500, June 6, 2015.
Now here is where pure, willy-nilly, flinging it at the wall takes over.
This year, IndyCar took two weeks off after Texas before heading to Houston. There is no reason why Houston is in June. They mind as well race on the surface of the sun that weekend. Houston can't run in March because of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Why not move Houston to the week before or after Long Beach? What would that mean for Barber? Put Barber the weekend not taken by Houston, simple as that. I would keep the Barber date consistent and run it the final weekend in April and slide Houston the week prior to Long Beach. Now sliding Houston the week before Long Beach would put it the week after the first NASCAR weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. I'm not sure if this would cause any problems but with the markets being so far apart, I don't think the back-to-back weekends would hurt either race.
What would moving Houston to April mean for June? I like the week off after Texas. It allows drivers to theoretically run the 24 Hours of Le Mans and gives the teams off after five races over five weeks. The following weekend is where Toronto could be slotted. It would be two weeks off after the Canadian Grand Prix which could cause some attendance issues. Maybe keep the two weeks off after Texas (especially if Formula One is running in New Jersey after Montreal) and have the Toronto doubleheader a week later in hopes to alleviate any schedule overcrowding. Either or could work.
After going to Pocono two consecutive year I have reached this conclusion: The race may have to move back a week for the best of the event. Of course that is if it returns, which it should. I think the traffic nightmare that is Interstate 80 on 4th of July weekend makes people less likely to attend. Move it back a week and you may avoid the problem. My only concern with Pocono is you have no wiggle room. NASCAR runs the first Sunday in June and first Sunday in August. The IndyCar weekend is perfectly, smack dap in the middle. You can only move it one week one way or the other.
Moving Pocono back would cause problems for Iowa, which is a IndyCar-NASCAR Camping World Truck Series doubleheader. If the track and the two sides want to keep the pairing together, moving back a week may be a bad idea. The Truck series runs Eldora twelve days after Iowa. Move it back a week and you give the teams five days to turn their Trucks around for the dirt. Don't get me wrong, the Truck series has short gaps (there are four days between Michigan and Bristol) but would they be willing to agree with the move? Bright side: Moving Iowa back a week would have it land on the traditional mid-summer NASCAR Cup Series off weekend. Win-win in my opinion.
With theoretically Pocono and Iowa shifting back a week, what would that mean for the 4th of July weekend? NASCAR's long tradition of the Firecracker 400 is surviving the test of time but IndyCar has yet to find it's Independence Day weekend hot spot. In the days of the IRL, Kansas was too hot (they moved that race to April and how did that work?). Watkins Glen seemed like a natural fit but it wasn't and not having sports cars left fans with little on-track action. Now Pocono struggles, according to track president Brandon Igdalsky. I believe IndyCar shouldn't take Independence Day weekend off. With the NASCAR race on Saturday night (barring rain as we saw this year), it leaves a wide open Sunday that IndyCar has to take advantage of.
But where to go Independence Day weekend? I'm not sure there are any races currently on the schedule that should move to that weekend. As my mind wanders I think Road America or Michigan would be a good ideas. Road America might not include IMSA though, which would be a great doubleheader but maybe IndyCar could make it their weekend with the three Mazda Road to Indy series in tow along with Pirelli World Challenge. Or another 500-miler at Michigan. Of course both options currently are things of fiction but let's leave it on the wall and think about it at a later date.
Keep the week off at the end of July and we are on to August, which appears to be staying the same. Mid-Ohio has been that first weekend of August for a while. Take the following week off as MotoGP heads to the Speedway and the Speedway never likes when an IndyCar event goes head-to-head with one of their events. On to Milwaukee for it's post Wisconsin State Fair weekend. Let's see how this year's race does as it is the first Milwaukee race in August since Tom Sneva won the Tony Bettenhausen 200 in 1982.
Unlike this year, 2015 will likely not feature three consecutive races to close out the season. Labor Day is September 7 and with the only remaining races being Sonoma and Fontana, an idle week will occur. I would suggest having an off week after Milwaukee, giving the teams a break before back-to-back California races to close out the season.
A hypothetical 2015 schedule at a glance:
Sometime in February: Dubai
March 8: Brasilia (should track upgrades be made and the check come through).
March 29: St. Petersburg
April 5: Easter. Never race on Easter. See Las Vegas 2007.
April 11 & 12: Houston
April 19: Long Beach
April 26: Barber
May 9 or 10: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 16 & 17: Indianapolis 500 qualifying
May 24: Indianapolis 500
May 30 & 31: Belle Isle
June 6: Texas
June 20 & 21 or June 27 & 28: Toronto
July 5: In a perfect world, either Road America or Michigan but we don't live in a perfect world now do we?
July 12: Pocono
July 18: Iowa
August 2: Mid-Ohio
August 16: Milwaukee
August 30: Sonoma
September 5: Fontana
I don't see New Orleans happening in 2015. Too many infrastructure upgrades needed and not enough time but maybe for 2016 as long as it isn't in June.
This wouldn't be an option for 2015 but I've been wondering if the season should open at Fontana, the Sunday after the Super Bowl. It would move the race to a much friendlier time of the year in terms of weather for spectators. A 500-miler would be a great way to kickoff the season. And if it were to transition to February, it would occur a little more than five months after running Labor Day weekend, plenty time between runnings and the race would occur six weeks before the NASCAR race, plenty of time between both events to coexist.
This is just the first of what will be close to a dozen 2015 schedule related posts. It's a summer traditional unlike any other.
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