IndyCar heads into its final race knowing the dates and locations for next season. The 2020 NTT IndyCar Series calendar was released on Sunday afternoon during the pre-race show for the Grand Prix of Portland.
While the number of races remains the same, there is a new but familiar location on the schedule and a few date shifts.
Every time a new calendar is released it draws a lot of attention from all corners of a motorsports series, from fans to drivers, crews to writers, everyone is interested in where the future will take them. Sometimes it is nice to have the comfort of familiar locations, other times you are excited for a trip to a new place and then there is the timing of all of it. Will it be hectic, weekly road trips or will it be spaced out and allow for time at home?
This is our chance to look over the 2020 season, what is different, what is the same, why changes were made and what is possible beyond 2020.
The Calendar
St. Petersburg remains the season opener for IndyCar and the 2020 season will kickoff on March 15th. The series will have two weeks off before it heads to Barber on April 5th. Easter will be an off week on April 12th but the Grand Prix of Long Beach will follow on April 19th.
The first change in the 2020 schedule sees Austin take place on April 26th, about a month later than IndyCar's inaugural trip this year. After a week off, the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be on Saturday May 9th. Indianapolis 500 qualifying should take place the following week with the 104th Indianapolis 500 scheduled for May 24th.
Belle Isle will have its doubleheader on May 30th and May 31st with Texas following on June 6th before the long-awaited off week.
Road America will be on June 21st with IndyCar's first race at Richmond since 2009 scheduled for Saturday June 27th. IndyCar will have Independence Day weekend off and then head to Canada and Toronto on July 12th. Iowa will follow on July 18th.
After Iowa, IndyCar will take four weeks off, mostly because of NBC's commitments to coverage of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games from Tokyo. IndyCar will return on August 16th at Mid-Ohio, a shift for the race from late-July due to the Olympics. The following week IndyCar will be at Gateway on Saturday August 22nd.
IndyCar will get an off week at the end of August before its Labor Day weekend event at Portland on September 6th. The season finale will take place at Laguna Seca on September 20th.
With the schedule laid out, let's go over some of the changes:
The Austin Shift
Austin moves a tad back in the schedule and this is due to other motorsports series.
NASCAR announced its 2020 calendars back in April and the first Texas race weekend for NASCAR moved to March 29th, the final weekend of the month and the same weekend the IndyCar race took place in 2019. IndyCar could have created a back-to-back with St. Petersburg and Austin with Austin on March 22nd but the 2020 12 Hours of Sebring is scheduled for March 21st. This would have created a conflict for drivers who compete in the IMSA endurance races. Early April was taken as Austin hosts MotoGP on April 5th.
The series and the track decided, with all the other pieces on the board, that the best date was April 26th and I think both sides came to best solution.
Running either date in March would get people angry. People would be pissed if the race was the same weekend as Sebring and people would be pissed if the race was head-to-head with the NASCAR race a couple hours up the road, something Austin and Texas cannot avoid with the United States Grand Prix and the autumn NASCAR date.
Only five IndyCar drivers ran at Sebring this year, two of which (Sébastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon) were in the lame duck Ford GT program, so it is not a matter of half the IndyCar grid being in conflict. IMSA would be fine if it had to replace three drivers, although I have a feeling Team Penske and Honda Performance Development swayed IndyCar because the Acura program employs Alexander Rossi and Simon Pagenaud. The other IndyCar driver at Sebring this year was Colton Herta at RLL Team BMW.
I think it is good for IndyCar not to go head-to-head with Sebring. It is better to not run at Austin when NASCAR is in Texas and this late-April date fills a gap that existed in the 2019 schedule. This year IndyCar had a month between Long Beach and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. There is still two weeks between St. Petersburg and Barber but that is fine. A two-week break isn't the end of the world and those two weekends in March and busy NCAA tournament weekends. IndyCar doesn't have to worry possibly about going head-to-head with Indiana, Butler, Purdue, Notre Dame or a number of Midwestern schools that exist in IndyCar country.
A late-April date might be better for Austin. Spring will be fully in bloom. The weather should be nicer. The shift isn't a massive change. This isn't a race moving from March to July. I think Austin will be alright for year.
Richmond
This is the one swap on the calendar; Richmond in, Pocono out.
I know this is the one change that has people the most riled up. A lot of people wanted Pocono to stay on and wanted Richmond to be an addition to the calendar, not a swap. I get it.
A lot of people are unhappy with how IndyCar handled the situation with Pocono when Pocono publicly expressed interest in having an IndyCar race and it was a race that was showing growth in attendance and had sponsor backing.
You are going to have to get over the loss of Pocono. It sucks. It's not the end of the world. Most importantly, it has not been ruled out permanently going forward.
It could be a case of each side taking a year off and coming back together for 2021. IndyCar is trying to balance its schedule. Pocono is going through a change with its two NASCAR weekends become one weekend with a Cup Series doubleheader. I think each side is taking a moment to regroup and maybe find a better place. My concern in that case is all momentum made in 2019 in terms of attendance will be lost because there will not be a race in 2020 but we will have to wait and see.
Richmond will be back and it is an enticing ticket. Tickets are already on sale starting at $30. The most expensive ticket as of now is $44. Not a bad deal. We will still have to wait and see on paddock pass price but this seems to be a fan friendly event.
The race will be held in late-June, the same time frame when IndyCar ran at Richmond from 2001-2009. This weekend works out for IndyCar. This was a period of two consecutive off weeks in 2019. It takes a race out of late August and with Mid-Ohio moving back a few weeks due to the Olympics IndyCar was looking at four consecutive weekends of racing from Mid-Ohio to Gateway to Richmond (which would not have worked because NASCAR is at Daytona on the finale Saturday night of August in 2020) and Portland.
This IndyCar schedule addresses the long stretches of races. The 2019 season had three periods of three consecutive weekends at the racetrack or more. The 2020 season decreases that to one period, the five weeks to end spring with constant track action from the Grand Prix of Indianapolis through Texas. In addition to this second quarter from hell, IndyCar will have four other back-to-backs (Long Beach/Austin, Road America/Richmond, Toronto/Iowa and Mid-Ohio/Gateway).
The teams will also get a month off from mid-July to mid-August so hopefully the mood will be more relaxed in 2020.
The Road America/Richmond back-to-back does pose a concern for IndyCar as this will be the first time the DW12 chassis has run at the track and IndyCar has a spotty record on short oval success in recent years. The series never got Phoenix right and Gateway has been good but great on track but the crowd has masked that. Both Phoenix and Gateway had extensive testing in the lead up to the first race. Even Pocono had a lot of testing before IndyCar returned in 2013.
I am curious what IndyCar's plan for Richmond will be. Teams are going to hate testing during that off week after Texas but I have a feeling that will be the case. IndyCar does not give the teams a lot of track time and we see that have its limitations. It seems like the one thing that hurt Phoenix was the lack of a second lane developing and it is the same problem at Gateway.
IndyCar is doing something that I am in favor of and that is next year at Richmond practice will be held on Friday night, during race time and then qualifying will be before the race on Saturday. That Friday practice will be two hours. I would like to see Friday be more of a test day and the teams get a three-hour period of track time and just let the drivers run and hopefully get the track to a place where two lanes will be developed or on the verge of completely developed when it comes time to race on Saturday.
That is asking a lot but after seeing where the series got it wrong at Phoenix I think IndyCar has to try something different.
Olympic Break
People are going to be mad that IndyCar is taking a month off for the Olympics but this is part of the game. IndyCar got in bed with NBC, something 99% of the fan base wanted. This is a relationship. With relationships come compromises.
There is going to be no room for IndyCar on NBC or NBCSN for three weeks. You might not like there not being a race for a month but you would also be upset if IndyCar was relegated to CNBC because it decided to race during the Olympics. The first year of this television deal has almost half the IndyCar races on network television and the rest on NBCSN. IndyCar did not get bumped to CNBC with a re-broadcasting on NBCSN after a NASCAR race in 2019. That is a plus for IndyCar.
This is only once every four years. In 2021, Mid-Ohio will like move up two or three weeks and we will be fine until 2024.
The four-week break is not one to get upset about.
In Terms of Television
Not only do we know the dates and locations for all 17 IndyCar races in 2020 but we know the television channel as well! Plan accordingly!
It is no change from 2019. The eight races that were broadcasted on NBC in 2019 will be broadcasted on NBC in 2020 and those races are the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500, two Belle Isle races, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Portland and Laguna Seca.
Should it be a concern that there were no changes?
Not really. Spring is a busy period for NBC with golf, the end of the Premier League season and the NHL, especially the NHL playoffs in April. These weekends are available and IndyCar is getting eight races on network television. That is great for the series.
Is it a bad thing that there were no changes?
A network time slot is valuable. It means more exposure to a race sponsor. I am sure the tracks that are NBCSN races would love to be on NBC but for some tracks that is not going to happen. The three short track races are all night races. Texas is a night race, actually I am now realizing the Indianapolis 500 is the only oval race that is not a night race, interesting.
Night races are not going to get a network time slot. Those races disqualify themselves in a sense.
Toronto is not going to be on network NBC because Toronto is not a U.S. market. It does not register in the ratings. There is no chance of that race getting a local bump.
There really is not a lot of room for change unless Texas, Richmond, Iowa or Gateway decides to race Sunday afternoon and I don't think any of those three tracks are interested. I would love for another oval race or two to get a network slot. When you look at some of the races that were held at Texas, Fontana, Iowa and Pocono in recent years those deserve to be on national television. Some of IndyCar's best races this decade were on ovals but were stuck to cable mostly because of the previous television deal. When you look back at a race like Fontana in 2015, Iowa in 2015 or 2016, Pocono 2014, 2016 or 2017 or Texas in 2016, those are races IndyCar should want on national television.
Unless one of these tracks bite the bullet and make a change or an oval is added and wants a day race the oval races will be kept to cable.
What about IndyCar/NASCAR Head-to-Heads?
Good question! Let's give you a quick synopsis (IndyCar/NASCAR):
March 15th: St. Petersburg and Atlanta (Direct head-to-head).
April 5th: Barber and Bristol (Semi-head-to-head. Barber is a race that starts later in the day. A 4:00 p.m. ET start for Barber means it will likely be starting when Bristol is in the closing laps).
April 19th: Long Beach and Richmond (Semi-head-to-head. Same as Barber and Bristol).
April 26th: Austin and Talladega (Likely direct head-to-head. Austin started at 1:30 p.m. ET this year and the spring Talladega race started at 2:00 p.m. ET. Most likely Austin will end during the Talladega race).
May 9th: Grand Prix of Indianapolis and Martinsville (No conflict. The IMS road course race will be over before the Martinsville night race begins).
May 24th: Indianapolis and Charlotte (No conflict. You know how that works).
May 31st: Belle Isle and Kansas (Direct head-to-head. Not entirely sure but it seems the most likely).
All those NASCAR races will be broadcasted on Fox. Obviously, Fox isn't worried about IndyCar but the NBC portion of the schedule should be favorable.
June 21st: Road America and Chicagoland (I expect no conflict. Road America starts early, 12:30 p.m. ET. The NASCAR race at Chicagoland wasn't scheduled to go green until 3:30 p.m. ET. The IndyCar race should be done well before the NASCAR race begins).
June 27th: Richmond and Pocono (This is NASCAR's doubleheader weekend. Pocono doesn't have lights. I expect this to be a case of Pocono ends around 6:30 p.m. ET, maybe closer to 7:00 p.m. ET and leads into IndyCar from Richmond, even more of a reason for IndyCar not to fuck around and get it right at Richmond the first time)
August 16th: Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen (Semi-head-to-head. I wish this one could be avoid but Mid-Ohio started at 4:00 p.m. ET this year on NBC. Mid-Ohio will be on NBC again. I have a feeling Watkins Glen will be on NBCSN. That doesn't mean going head-to-head is a good thing and I would be ok if IndyCar started Mid-Ohio at 1:00 p.m. ET that way the race could be completed and the NASCAR race could start at 3:30 p.m. ET. People could watch both instead of having to choose).
September 6th: Portland and Darlington (We just did this. Portland ends before Darlington begins).
It is still more conflicts than people would like. Some are unavoidable. I think IndyCar, NASCAR and NBC all do a great job coordinating and working together. There is next to nothing that can be done with Fox's portion of the NASCAR season.
The Richmond spring race was a Saturday night race but it moves to a day race in 2020 because Martinsville becomes a night race. That could have been one conflict avoided. Atlanta is moving back a few weeks and instead of having St. Petersburg on the same day as NASCAR at Phoenix or Fontana, the two series will be racing simultaneously in neighboring states.
Only so much can be done and people are going to get angry because that is how people are, they get mad over everything and they treat IndyCar and NASCAR running at the same time as some crime against humanity. No one likes it but it happens.
What is Next in the Short Term?
Trying to figure out the Indy Lights and Road to Indy schedule.
The only new player is Richmond and the biggest question is whether or not Indy Lights and/or Indy Pro 2000 join IndyCar at the 0.75-mile oval. Although, Richmond Raceway president Dennis Bickmeier says he does not expect any additional races for the Richmond IndyCar race weekend.
One thing to keep in mind is how few back-to-backs the junior series do. In 2019, the only back-to-back for Indy Lights and Indy Pro 2000 was Gateway and Portland. Indy Lights had six weeks off between Austin and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000 had two months off between St. Petersburg and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Looking at the schedule, with the number of back-to-backs you can do some deductive reasoning to figure out the schedule. All three Road to Indy series are going to Road America and Toronto. That means I doubt U.S. F2000 nor Indy Pro 2000 will be at Richmond or Iowa.
Does Indy Lights want to run a third oval race? That will really decide whether or not the series goes to Richmond or Iowa. The one reason why Indy Lights, and possibly Indy Pro 2000, might run at Richmond or Iowa is Indy Lights could be forced out of Gateway.
Next year, Gateway will host the NASCAR Truck Series and IndyCar on the same weekend. IndyCar and the Truck series do not run as many companion weekends as the series once did but recent years show when Trucks run with IndyCar the Road to Indy series are not there. I am not sure if that is because of garage space or sanctioning fees but Indy Lights has not gone to Texas and when IndyCar and the Trucks ran together at Iowa in 2014, none of the Road to Indy series went to Iowa.
It could come down to space. Gateway accommodated 22 IndyCars, eight Indy Lights cars, 12 Indy Pro 2000 cars and 19 NASCAR K&N East and West Series cars this year. That is 61 race cars. This year's Gateway Truck race had 32 entries. Can Gateway hold 93 race cars? That seems like a lot. The NASCAR K&N Series is going through a transition as NASCAR purchased ARCA and 2020 will be when the series are basically merged so that might mean that race goes away and Trucks come in but a NASCAR national series might be a different animal. NASCAR might have a regulation that the Truck series can race with IndyCar and the Firestone tires but it cannot race with Firestone tires and the Cooper Tires Indy Lights and Indy Pro 2000 use. I do not know.
Gateway has something good going and with the NASCAR race on Friday there is no reason Saturday could not be filled with racing like it was in 2019. There were four races on Saturday this year at Gateway starting with Indy Pro 2000 early in the afternoon and the IndyCar race didn't start until sunset. I cannot imagine Gateway giving that up but if Gateway's hand is forced that could mean Indy Lights and/or Indy Pro 2000 moving to Richmond.
I wish Indy Lights was a true support series and was with IndyCar more times than not.
If things remain the same as in 2019, there will be a month between St. Petersburg and Austin two weeks until the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and another two weeks until the Freedom 100 and then there will be a month until Road America, three weeks until Toronto, a month until Mid-Ohio, a back-to-back with Gateway then two weeks until Portland and two weeks until Laguna Seca.
Indy Lights is lost. It is a series with no value to sponsors therefore it does not draw many drivers and yet everyone thinks the answer is to keep slashing cost to make it desirable for IndyCar teams to join. It is frustrating. Indy Lights should be with IndyCar more times than not, it should run most of the oval but doesn't and its biggest problem is not that it costs too much but rather only one race is on television and the rest are on a streaming platform that a couple thousand people watch.
As for Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000, expect no changes. St. Petersburg starts the season with two months off until the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, races at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Carb Night, another month off until Road America, a couple weeks off and then Toronto, a month off and then Mid-Ohio with Indy Pro 2000 going to Gateway and then every series racing at Portland and Laguna Seca.
Testing
Another short-term thing to watch for is testing schedule because we will be having the aeroscreen implementation for 2020 and IndyCar has to get this generation of it on track.
IndyCar already rescheduled the first aeroscreen test. It was supposed to occur between Portland and Laguna Seca at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Scott Dixon. The first test will not be until October at Indianapolis with Dixon and a Team Penske car. A test will immediately follow at Barber with two different drivers and a third test at a yet to be announced when with another two drivers will be sometime after Barber.
There is a lot of work that has to be done and a number of items on the checklist that has to be taken care of. It will get to run an oval and a natural-terrain road course. It cannot get a street course test, the best street course equivalent is Sebring so let's not be surprised if the test concludes at Sebring but I do wonder if IndyCar will get some wet weather testing done.
IndyCar cannot control the weather but I am sure this is a concern we would all like cleared. I am sure IndyCar and Red Bull Advanced Technology is on top of this and has an aeroscreen that can work in the wet but I think we all want to see how it works. It is more curiosity than anything else. We want to see how it works, what drivers have to say and that is what will calm everyone down.
What is Next in the Long Term?
With every schedule announcement we try and look for the gaps that exist and what it could mean for the season after and let's do the same.
Everyone looks at the big gaps because those are where potential new races could be. There are two weeks off in March, there are four weeks available between July and August. The July/August gap is misleading because of the Olympics and Mid-Ohio is going to move to the start of August in 2021. There aren't as many weeks there as people think but there are still three weeks available.
Now that Richmond is on the schedule the on-deck circle for oval waiting in the wings is vacant. I guess Pocono is still around so that could be a possible August filler, especially if the NASCAR doubleheader weekend is a hit and returns in 2021. If the NASCAR doubleheader doesn't pay off in 2020 then Pocono goes back to two NASCAR weekends. If the doubleheader works then Pocono will be ready to work with IndyCar and fill an August date.
There really are no other venues on the docket. The return to Surfers Paradise has fizzled out. Watkins Glen has gone quiet. Homestead seems dead in the water now because the NASCAR race is moving from November and it will be March 22nd next year. With this change the only way IndyCar returns to Homestead if there is IndyCar either decides to race later into the year or IndyCar decides to start in January or February and even then I am not sure Homestead would bite.
I think IndyCar has to make this schedule work for at least two or three seasons. It has to breathe some life into Iowa and find a title sponsor for that race. It needs to find a title sponsor for Portland because Portland is on a tier with Gateway, Road America, Mid-Ohio and Barber that gets a solid 40,000 people, which is a healthy crowd and the only races that do better are the Indianapolis 500 and Long Beach.
It has to make sure not to mishandle Richmond. IndyCar cannot repeat what happened with Phoenix. IndyCar cannot have another one-and-done contract with an oval where the racing struggled to be considered good and after everyone is dissatisfied because the racing is processional. In three years, IndyCar cannot be looking for another track to fill a gap because Richmond didn't pan out.
We can only take things one step at a time. We still have a race left in the 2019 season. Let's get to 2020 and see how that season starts. Once we get to Richmond then we can start looking at 2021 and beyond.
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