2020 IndyCar Schedule Third Revision: Or is it the Fourth?

Memorial Day came and went, and we continue waiting on the first IndyCar race of the 2020 season to take place. Last week saw another set of slash marks and carrots squeezing in races to an already inky schedule.

With the city of Toronto revoking all permits for large public events through the end of September, the Toronto race was officially cancelled and the return to Richmond will be delayed another year, as that race was also axed from the calendar.

Road America will slide back from June 21 to the July 11-12th weekend, where Toronto was originally scheduled, and the 4.048-mile road course will host a doubleheader, the third on the 2020 calendar joining Iowa and Laguna Seca.

Texas remains the season opener on June 6, but the second round will be the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on July 4. The race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will lead off a stretch of five races in 14 days. The Road America and Iowa doubleheaders will take place on the following two weekends.

Everything from there on remains intact. Mid-Ohio will be August 9 ahead of the Indianapolis 500 on August 23 with Gateway following on August 30. Portland remains September 13, a week before the Laguna Seca doubleheader on September 19-20th. The Harvest Grand Prix on an IMS road course will be the penultimate round on October 3 and St. Petersburg concludes the 2020 season on October 25.

I think we're done after this, right?

There is no level of certainty for anything that happens this year and, should IndyCar be able to commence this season, there is no guarantee future amendments will not be made.

This revised schedule is the shortest of them yet, down to 14 races. No plans have been made for an additional race in place of the lost Richmond race. I do get the feeling that any future amendments involving rescheduled races will take place at existing rounds. It remains hard to envision IndyCar adding a race weekend somewhere else should any future races fall into trouble.

We are not out of the woods and we are never going to be in the clear until the calendar flips over to 2021. Oregon has banned large public gatherings through the end of September, jeopardizing the Portland race. While California is making strides, and Governor Gavin Newsom stated California could be ready for sporting events behind closed doors starting in early June. Let's remain cautious on Laguna Seca taking place.

Hacked to bits already, plans E, F, G and H are all up in the bullpen for anymore schedule alterations but the number of possible paths for the 2020 IndyCar schedule are dwindling.

We are down to 11 race weekends and running out of possible doubleheader weekends if needed. Three events already adopted an extra race. Texas released its schedule for a one-day show and we are under a fortnight until that event, so that is off the table for a doubleheader. With the Grand Prix of Indianapolis occurring on a NASCAR weekend I would say that weekend is booked solid and there is no room for another IndyCar race. The Indianapolis 500 is off the table and with Harvest Grand Prix scheduled to run with the Intercontinental GT Challenge's Indianapolis 8 Hour that can be crossed off as well.

Mid-Ohio, Gateway, Portland and St. Petersburg remain as possible doubleheader destinations.

I do not see any current IndyCar tracks taking on an additional weekend. It is one thing for the tracks to add another race to a scheduled weekend but for IndyCar to return a month or two later for an additional race seems off the table. With the economic fluidness, teams may lack the budget for another trip two states over, especially if it means renting another round of hotel rooms, and possibly a dozen plane tickets. The only track where a pop-up race was possible is Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and that has already added an IndyCar race, though it does have many possible layouts.

With the upheaval that has already taken place, IndyCar is not going to add race weekends and additional costs for teams if it doesn't have to and it is not going to head to a new track blue with no testing and no clue what to expect.

Whatever alterations that come next will force IndyCar to make the most of what is has. It will also depend on when hiccups arise. If Portland announces it is unable to take place before the end of June, another doubleheader could be established in time. If Portland falls off the schedule at the start of August that will likely mean one fewer race contested in the 2020 season.

Every event will be tentative until it is run. We are not sure what race weekends will look like. Texas will be a one-day show but what the remaining weekends will look like will be a mystery. Will every non-doubleheader be a one-day show? Could we see NASCAR-like weekends with no practice, no qualifying, set the field via entrant points and then have an invert set the grid for the second race of a doubleheader? How much Indianapolis 500 practice will there be? Will there still be Carb Day? It is scheduled to happen but when push comes to shove, we will see. There are a lot of moving pieces and the inclusion of the Road to Indy series complicates it a little more.

Unlike NASCAR, IndyCar and the Road to Indy cannot spread its races out over three or four days. Indianapolis is the only track that can be used as a replacement on a whim. It cannot make up its schedule on a monthly basis. There are not a half-dozen tracks within a day's drive that can fill the schedule with midweek races. This is already a season of loss and we are only going to see more, not less, over the remainder of the year. We must be thankful for what we get, how little it may be.