IndyCar's Three-Week Break
Easter is kind of the final week of the offseason. It just so happens to come about a month after the season has started.
There is mo major motorsports on in the United States. It is a death sentence for any race that tries to make it work. People do not go out on Easter. It is not Thanksgiving where stadiums will be full for football games or Christmas where the NBA can have a half-dozen games fill from noon to midnight. Nothing draws on Easter. I am surprised Major League Baseball doesn't just give all the players the day instead of having 15 games in mostly empty stadiums.
NASCAR takes off. IndyCar takes off. IMSA is off. Supercross is off. The word of the day is off. There have been times when Formula One or MotoGP have run on the holiday but those are different animals, international series and most of the time when either run on Easter it is in a country where the holiday is not prominently celebrated, such as Bahrain or China. It is win-win for those series. The race can take place and not have to worry about a lack of spectators, the global audience gets a race including those in European countries celebrating the holiday and the only losers are the teams who have to spend the holiday on the road away from family. The loss of a few thousand people is countered balanced with the victory of a couple hundred million people.
The North American series can't roll those dice and in this case it is an off week for IndyCar. Unlike other years though next week will also be an off week for IndyCar and the week after that as well and IndyCar is staring into three consecutive weeks on the couch.
Three-week breaks are not new to IndyCar. The last two seasons had a three-week break between St. Petersburg and the second round of the season. It is simple as the three-week break moved back a month but it is not quite as easy as that. IndyCar wasn't trying to keep a spring break in place for the teams. Other factors led to this extended period off.
For starters, there was Easter, a traditional off week. In other years, Barber would be the final weekend of April but this year Talladega hosts NASCAR the final weekend of April. Instead of committing event suicide and going head-to-head IndyCar moved that race up to the start of the month ahead of Long Beach. The weekend after that is the start of May and the May schedule is kind of set with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500 qualifying and the Indianapolis 500 for three consecutive weekends starting the day before Mother's Day and ending the day before Memorial Day.
It was kind of the perfect storm for April but is it something that can be avoided in years to come?
We covered some issues with the start of the 2020 schedule last month when looking at what NASCAR's schedule change means for IndyCar. Depending on when IndyCar's spring races fall, the three-week break should be avoided. St. Petersburg is penciled in for March 15th. It is a matter of figuring out when Austin falls depending on Sebring and whether or not Austin wants to go head-to-head with the NASCAR race at Texas on March 29th. Long Beach or Barber will likely be April 5th with other race taking placing April 19th. April 12th will be off for Easter. April 26th and May 3rd will be off and then the Grand Prix of Indianapolis kicks off the festivities from the Circle City on May 9th. No three-week break but I know enough people think two consecutive off weeks is one too many and will want another race squeezed between whatever takes place on April 19th and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Another race could fit but think about the schedule from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis onward. There might not be a race between that and the Indianapolis 500 but the teams are at the racetrack every single day from the first practice day on the racetrack through the 500-mile race. After that is a doubleheader at Belle Isle and the week after that is Texas. IndyCar is busy for five consecutive weeks. The teams do not need an extra race on May 3rd. The teams do not need the travel. The teams do not need extra nights working on a race car.
That leaves April 26th as the only option and it depends what falls on April 19th. If it is Long Beach, what are your western options? If it is Barber, the door is a little more open to adding race as there are more options in the region, whether it be the Southern United States or the Midwest.
The problem is there is no track floating out there that could fill a late-April date. We could speculate wildly about IndyCar going to Atlanta, Kentucky, Phoenix (even though IndyCar just did that in the same time slot and we saw how that worked out), Fontana (even though it would likely be a back-to-back with Long Beach and it would either hurt Long Beach or Long Beach would still be a smashing success and the following week, 45 minutes east IndyCar wouldn't be able to draw half the Sunday crowd) or Homestead but none of those are likely at the table.
I am sure some of you are thinking that is where IndyCar could squeeze a return trip to Motegi but that would be a nightmare. It was bad enough when teams had to go from Motegi to Kansas in back-to-back weeks. Though the series might already be on the West Coast, going from Long Beach to Motegi would be brutal, especially for teams that would have to turn cars around from street course to oval set ups and everyone would have fingers crossed for no crash damage because would trip into the barriers could mean an entire team isn't getting on that plane to Japan.
There is mo major motorsports on in the United States. It is a death sentence for any race that tries to make it work. People do not go out on Easter. It is not Thanksgiving where stadiums will be full for football games or Christmas where the NBA can have a half-dozen games fill from noon to midnight. Nothing draws on Easter. I am surprised Major League Baseball doesn't just give all the players the day instead of having 15 games in mostly empty stadiums.
NASCAR takes off. IndyCar takes off. IMSA is off. Supercross is off. The word of the day is off. There have been times when Formula One or MotoGP have run on the holiday but those are different animals, international series and most of the time when either run on Easter it is in a country where the holiday is not prominently celebrated, such as Bahrain or China. It is win-win for those series. The race can take place and not have to worry about a lack of spectators, the global audience gets a race including those in European countries celebrating the holiday and the only losers are the teams who have to spend the holiday on the road away from family. The loss of a few thousand people is countered balanced with the victory of a couple hundred million people.
The North American series can't roll those dice and in this case it is an off week for IndyCar. Unlike other years though next week will also be an off week for IndyCar and the week after that as well and IndyCar is staring into three consecutive weeks on the couch.
Three-week breaks are not new to IndyCar. The last two seasons had a three-week break between St. Petersburg and the second round of the season. It is simple as the three-week break moved back a month but it is not quite as easy as that. IndyCar wasn't trying to keep a spring break in place for the teams. Other factors led to this extended period off.
For starters, there was Easter, a traditional off week. In other years, Barber would be the final weekend of April but this year Talladega hosts NASCAR the final weekend of April. Instead of committing event suicide and going head-to-head IndyCar moved that race up to the start of the month ahead of Long Beach. The weekend after that is the start of May and the May schedule is kind of set with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500 qualifying and the Indianapolis 500 for three consecutive weekends starting the day before Mother's Day and ending the day before Memorial Day.
It was kind of the perfect storm for April but is it something that can be avoided in years to come?
We covered some issues with the start of the 2020 schedule last month when looking at what NASCAR's schedule change means for IndyCar. Depending on when IndyCar's spring races fall, the three-week break should be avoided. St. Petersburg is penciled in for March 15th. It is a matter of figuring out when Austin falls depending on Sebring and whether or not Austin wants to go head-to-head with the NASCAR race at Texas on March 29th. Long Beach or Barber will likely be April 5th with other race taking placing April 19th. April 12th will be off for Easter. April 26th and May 3rd will be off and then the Grand Prix of Indianapolis kicks off the festivities from the Circle City on May 9th. No three-week break but I know enough people think two consecutive off weeks is one too many and will want another race squeezed between whatever takes place on April 19th and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Another race could fit but think about the schedule from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis onward. There might not be a race between that and the Indianapolis 500 but the teams are at the racetrack every single day from the first practice day on the racetrack through the 500-mile race. After that is a doubleheader at Belle Isle and the week after that is Texas. IndyCar is busy for five consecutive weeks. The teams do not need an extra race on May 3rd. The teams do not need the travel. The teams do not need extra nights working on a race car.
That leaves April 26th as the only option and it depends what falls on April 19th. If it is Long Beach, what are your western options? If it is Barber, the door is a little more open to adding race as there are more options in the region, whether it be the Southern United States or the Midwest.
The problem is there is no track floating out there that could fill a late-April date. We could speculate wildly about IndyCar going to Atlanta, Kentucky, Phoenix (even though IndyCar just did that in the same time slot and we saw how that worked out), Fontana (even though it would likely be a back-to-back with Long Beach and it would either hurt Long Beach or Long Beach would still be a smashing success and the following week, 45 minutes east IndyCar wouldn't be able to draw half the Sunday crowd) or Homestead but none of those are likely at the table.
I am sure some of you are thinking that is where IndyCar could squeeze a return trip to Motegi but that would be a nightmare. It was bad enough when teams had to go from Motegi to Kansas in back-to-back weeks. Though the series might already be on the West Coast, going from Long Beach to Motegi would be brutal, especially for teams that would have to turn cars around from street course to oval set ups and everyone would have fingers crossed for no crash damage because would trip into the barriers could mean an entire team isn't getting on that plane to Japan.
If there was anything that could have been done this year is the Grand Prix of Indianapolis could have been moved up a week to May 4th and instead of having three weeks off it would have been two weeks off, the IMS road course race and a weekend off before practice began for the Indianapolis 500. There would have been logistical issues as the mini-marathon takes place May 4th but I think string could have been pulled to swap weekend just for this year. Moving the race up would of course dulled the celebratory opening of the track for the month with a good ten days between on-track action instead of the current two days but if it was a one-year thing I think everyone would have been ok.
The three-week break likely isn't a bad thing for IndyCar. I know people fear being out of sight and out mind but maybe IndyCar has the best schedule on the planet and I do mean the best schedule in terms of racetracks but the best schedule in that it isn't too much and it leaves us waiting more every time the champion in crowded.
A lot of people want IndyCar to have more races and I am in that that boat but I also think the 17-race schedule is working for IndyCar. There is little fatigue come September. It is annoying that there is nearly six months between the last race of one year and the first race of the next but it is not annoying in the "IndyCar is doing a bad job and is being moronic" kind of way, it is annoying in the "I am going to miss it and it is a long time until it is coming back" kind of way.
It would be nice to have another two or three races but maybe IndyCar doesn't need an extra race in this time period and maybe these weeks off are what fans need even if fans do not want them. We need separation for it will only make the month of May feel even better. We see a lot of series squeezing races into every possible weekend and we get conscious that IndyCar isn't doing that. We think IndyCar is doing something wrong but the truth is IndyCar is sticking to what it knows it can do best. It knows it cannot stretch itself. It knows the limits of the teams. The current schedule works and we get to look forward to Indianapolis instead of having another race or two in the way and then having Indianapolis appear on us while gassed from other action.
We get to rest and prepare for what is an IndyCar fan's favorite time of the year. It might not be what we want but it just might be what we need.
The three-week break likely isn't a bad thing for IndyCar. I know people fear being out of sight and out mind but maybe IndyCar has the best schedule on the planet and I do mean the best schedule in terms of racetracks but the best schedule in that it isn't too much and it leaves us waiting more every time the champion in crowded.
A lot of people want IndyCar to have more races and I am in that that boat but I also think the 17-race schedule is working for IndyCar. There is little fatigue come September. It is annoying that there is nearly six months between the last race of one year and the first race of the next but it is not annoying in the "IndyCar is doing a bad job and is being moronic" kind of way, it is annoying in the "I am going to miss it and it is a long time until it is coming back" kind of way.
It would be nice to have another two or three races but maybe IndyCar doesn't need an extra race in this time period and maybe these weeks off are what fans need even if fans do not want them. We need separation for it will only make the month of May feel even better. We see a lot of series squeezing races into every possible weekend and we get conscious that IndyCar isn't doing that. We think IndyCar is doing something wrong but the truth is IndyCar is sticking to what it knows it can do best. It knows it cannot stretch itself. It knows the limits of the teams. The current schedule works and we get to look forward to Indianapolis instead of having another race or two in the way and then having Indianapolis appear on us while gassed from other action.
We get to rest and prepare for what is an IndyCar fan's favorite time of the year. It might not be what we want but it just might be what we need.
Winner From the Weekend
You know about Nick Cassidy but did you know...
Josh Elliott and Tarran MacKenzie split the British Superbike opening round from Silverstone.
British GT opens its season today with a doubleheader at Oulton Park.
British GT opens its season today with a doubleheader at Oulton Park.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One is back in Baku.
NASCAR goes to Talladega.
Formula E will be in Paris.
Blancpain GT World Challenge America has a round at Virginia International Raceway.
World Rally has Rally Argentina.
Supercross has its penultimate round in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
World Touring Car Cup will be at the Hungaroring.
