It's official. The 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season will begin Sunday March 8th in Brasilia, Brazil and end Sunday August 30th in Sonoma, California and feature a total seventeen races.
Three weeks later, IndyCar will head to St. Petersburg, Florida for their traditional early-spring visit to the street course. After a week off for Easter, the series will run three consecutive weekend and will start with making their debut at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana. The week after being in the Bayou, IndyCar heads to the second-longest staple on the schedule, Long Beach for what should be another race with Chamber of Commerce weather. IndyCar will head back down to Dixie the week after that to the gorgeous Barber Motorsports Park to close out the month of April.
The month of May once again features the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend with Indianapolis 500 qualifying taking place the following weekend. The 99th Indianapolis 500 will run on May 24, 2015. Belle Isle closes out the month of May with a doubleheader on May 30-31st.
Texas returns in June in for their Saturday night extravaganza. The following week IndyCar heads to Toronto. The race is moved up one month because of the Pan American Games taking place in the city in July 2015. Due to the June date, Toronto will not be a doubleheader in 2014 but that does not rule out the possibility of Toronto being a doubleheader in 2016.
After a week off, Fontana will be on Saturday June 27th, it's fourth different date in four years. The series will take 4th of July weekend off but will be running at Milwaukee the following Sunday, Milwaukee's third different date in three years. Iowa will run the Saturday night after Milawukee.
After a week off, IndyCar heads to Mid-Ohio for their traditional first weekend of August date. The series will then take two weeks off before heading to their final two races, taking place on different sides of the country. On Sunday August 23rd, IndyCar will run their final oval race of the 2014 season at Pocono Raceway. The following Sunday the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series season finale will take place at Sonoma Raceway on August 30th, a week before Labor Day. It will be the first time an IndyCar season has ended on a road course since the 2007 Champ Car Series season ended at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Let's break this down.
There are 129 days until the first race of the 2015 IndyCar season. There will be 189 days between IndyCar races.
That "international series" is just one race in Brazil. It's a start but after it appeared the series eyed the Middle East, it fell short of being a "series."
One less race than 2014 but that is due to Toronto not being a doubleheader. That's no big deal. If all venues from 2015 make it to 2016 (which would be a miracle because IndyCar always loses a race season-to-season) and Toronto returns to being a doubleheader then we are back to eighteen.
I don't see how date equity is moving Fontana to their fourth different date in as many years and Milwaukee to their third different date in as many years but IndyCar is much smarter than I am so if they say so.
The good news is there are new venues. Along with Brasilia is New Orleans and with Andretti Sports Marketing running it, I feel the race is in good hands.
I understand what IndyCar did with their final two races. Pocono is the weekend of NASCAR's night race at Bristol and Sonoma is when NASCAR is off. It makes sense but the Sonoma season finale is the day after the NASCAR Xfinity Series is at Road America and the Truck Series is at Mosport the same day so there will be competition.
IndyCar is dropping the ball not racing on the June weekend NASCAR is off. June 21st will feature no races as the Truck Series is at Iowa that Friday night and the Xfinity Series is at Chicago that Saturday night.
With Pocono off 4th of July weekend, it's now on them to draw a better crowd. Otherwise, 2015 might be the last time IndyCar visits the state of Pennsylvania for quite sometime. To be honest, their should be a race 4th of July weekend. Just because it didn't work at Pocono and Watkins Glen before that doesn't mean no IndyCar race will work on that weekend.
The 2015 schedule could have been worse. IndyCar could have lost Pocono and Fontana and Milwaukee and then the season would be over by July. I can't see ending by Labor Day weekend being the long term answer. I think the increase in television ratings had more to do with consistently racing week-in and week-out from the start to the end of the season. End in October, fill the month of September with European races if they can't find domestic race as Formula One heads to Asia after Monza. There has to be a better answer than cramming every race into six months and then waiting half a year for the next race. Start earlier, end later and spread the races around.
The 2015 season is far from perfect but it isn't a disaster. However, it looks like 2015 will be another transition year for IndyCar with hopes of better in 2016. I guess that is something to look forward to.
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