PWC released their schedule late Sunday night after their season finale at Laguna Seca and it likely confirmed a handful of IndyCar dates for 2016.
St. Petersburg is listed as March 11-13th. Long Beach will be April 15-17th with Barber the following week April 22-24th. We already knew Road America would be June 23rd-26th and Pirelli World Challenge confirmed they would be joining the party. Mid-Ohio will be July 29-31st and Sonoma is listed as September 16-18th.
We know the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be May 14th and the Indianapolis 500 will be May 29th. Belle Isle is likely to return June 4-5th. Texas is traditionally the second Saturday in June. Toronto is slated to return to the middle of July and Boston will be Labor Day weekend, September 4, 2016.
Taking the dozen events we know, here is what the schedule looks like so far.
March 13th: St. Petersburg
April 17th: Long Beach
April 24th: Barber
May 14th: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 29th: Indianapolis 500
June 4-5th: Belle Isle
June 11th: Texas
June 26th: Road America
July 17th: Toronto
July 31st: Mid-Ohio
September 4th: Boston
September 18th: Sonoma
Milwaukee, Iowa and Pocono are all not listed but have not been ruled out, unlike Fontana, which was royally screwed over by the IndyCar brass (i.e. Mark Miles). Iowa is very likely to return but it's just a matter of when the race is held. Phoenix is/was on the radar. NOLA appears to be dropped after the lawsuit between the track and Andretti Sports Marketing.
This can't be the final IndyCar schedule. There can't be a month between St. Petersburg and Long Beach. There can't be a month between Mid-Ohio and Boston. IndyCar is going to need races and guess what? Tracks aren't lining up to host IndyCar. Kentucky ain't happening. Chicagoland ain't happening. Laguna Seca ain't happening.
IndyCar needs to fill the gaps with the races it has had for the last few years. If IndyCar wants to grow, it has to return to Milwaukee and Pocono. IndyCar is going to have to make deals with these tracks and perhaps accept their loses for a few years. The racing at these two tracks has been great and they both have drawn decent crowds.
With NBC as a partner to both IndyCar and NASCAR, they have to strategically schedule races so there are as few head-to-head situations as possible. Pocono should be the Sunday after the NASCAR Saturday night race at Bristol and that appears it will be the weekend of August 27-28th.
With Toronto moving back to July, it appears that the Milwaukee-Iowa back-to-back could be broken up but there is a chance it could remain intact. The weekends of July 3rd and 10th are open but both of those weekends feature Saturday night races, which would cause a head-to-head with Iowa. Iowa has been run on Sunday before but I think it should remain as a Saturday night race. The other issue is Road America is June 26th. Road America has talked about co-promoting the Milwaukee race and it could make sense to run Milwaukee July 3rd as it would keep IndyCar in-state for two weeks and there could be a full marketing assault on Wisconsin and it would occur on a holiday weekend and could draw more people up to Milwaukee for the weekend.
Iowa gets tricky. Since Mid-Ohio will be July 31st as there is an extra weekend in July in 2016, that leaves two possible weekends in July: the 9-10th and the 23-24th. We already covered why the weekend of July 9-10th wouldn't work but July 23-24th causes a conflict there is a chance Brickyard 400 weekend and IndyCar has normally not run weekend of the Brickyard 400. Since Iowa would be a night race, it could work out that the NASCAR Grand National Series at Indianapolis could lead into the IndyCar Iowa race and could actually make for a cool doubleheader for NBCSN.
Here is what the calendar would look like with those three races added.
March 13th: St. Petersburg
April 17th: Long Beach
April 24th: Barber
May 14th: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 29th: Indianapolis 500
June 4-5th: Belle Isle
June 11th: Texas
June 26th: Road America
July 3rd: Milwaukee
July 17th: Toronto
July 23rd: Iowa
July 31st: Mid-Ohio
August 28th: Pocono
September 4th: Boston
September 18th: Sonoma
IndyCar fans, I want you to brace yourself: There is chance IndyCar will be off for three consecutive weeks in August as NBC will be swamped with Summer Olympic coverage from Rio de Janeiro. Where would there be room for an IndyCar race? There would be no room for an early afternoon race and there is no room for a night race. Perhaps IndyCar runs on one of those three weekends but I highly doubt it. In 2012, the IndyCar race from Mid-Ohio was shown on ABC but I doubt ABC has any interest in showing an IndyCar race after Belle Isle weekend. IndyCar might have three weeks off but there would be three weeks of racing leading into that time off and IndyCar would have been on track in five of the previous six weekend.s
The next issue is the start of the season. March 27th is Easter. There will be no race that weekend. Phoenix was reportedly interested in running Saturday April 2nd. IndyCar is going to need something because it makes zero sense to have a month off between the first and second races of the season. Let's just put Phoenix April 2nd for now because it is the only thing we have.
March 13th: St. Petersburg
April 2nd: Phoenix
April 17th: Long Beach
April 24th: Barber
May 14th: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 29th: Indianapolis 500
June 4-5th: Belle Isle
June 11th: Texas
June 26th: Road America
July 3rd: Milwaukee
July 17th: Toronto
July 23rd: Iowa
July 31st: Mid-Ohio
August 28th: Pocono
September 4th: Boston
September 18th: Sonoma
Another rumor has been Mexico City could host the season opener at the end of February. I don't think Mexico City will happen because Mark Miles' track record adding new international races has been complete crap and IndyCar would need at least one Mexican driver on the grid if it hopes to draw a respectable crowd and I don't think there is a Mexican driver on the radar unless Adrián Fernández is making a comeback (He is only 50).
That would be a 17-race schedule, one more than 2015. That would be 16 race weekends, one more than 2015. IndyCar would have Phoenix cancel out the loss of Fontana and Road America would cancel out the loss of NOLA and Boston would be the new addition to the schedule. IndyCar needs slight growth. As nice it would have been to keep both Fontana and NOLA while also adding Road America, Boston and Phoenix, but that is not the world we live in. This is the best we can hope for and hopefully it happens because if IndyCar doesn't return to Milwaukee and Pocono, I can't imagine what the 2016 schedule will look like.
