IndyCar will not be going to Richmond this year, but we are reviewing the nine IndyCar races held at the track from 2001 to 2009. Yesterday, we took a look at the second-third of races from 2004 to 2006. There were a pair of new track records, two lanes for passing and Scott Dixon lambasted from Mike Hull.
The final part will cover 2007 to 2009, the end of The Split and the boom of reunification. We will see Newman/Haas Racing back on the grid with Team Penske, Chip Ganassi Racing and more. There are a few names that popped up and then didn't stick around. We also have to face the possible disappointment of an IndyCar return. Before we get to all that, we go back to 2007, the time before reunification and one final skimpy IRL field.
2007
Andretti Green Racing swept the front row with Dario Franchitti on pole position with Tony Kanaan starting second.
Coming to the green flag, Sam Hornish, Jr. spun out of fifth position but he went into the grass and did not have any cataclysmic damage and continued. On the lap four restart, Franchitti maintained the lead with Tomas Scheckter utilizing the high line to pass Danica Patrick in turns one and two and using the same line on Scott Sharp in turns three and four.
Franchitti lapped Milka Duno on lap 13 and he was on the back of Hornish about 11 laps later before lapping him on lap 26. Kanaan was about 1.7 seconds behind Franchitti, but with traffic the lead closed to under a second. Franchitti was doing a good job lapping cars and did open his lead up to 2.1 seconds over Kanaan.
There was a debris caution on lap 61 and during pit stops, Kanaan jumped ahead of Franchitti to take the lead. The lead was short lived for Kanaan with Franchitti retaking the top spot into turn one on the restart.
This was a rather uneventful event in terms of incidents and passing was limited. There were good battles in the back half of the top ten. Scheckter made a couple more passes. Ed Carpenter battled with Buddy Rice and Danica Patrick. Rice was actually a mover. He went from ninth to sixth over a 30-lap period from lap 90 to lap 127 and his pass for sixth was on Hélio Castroneves.
Jeff Simmons got in the marbles on lap 155, sending him into the wall and bringing out the third caution. This brought the leaders in under caution for their final stops. Franchitti kept the lead with Kanaan in second.
At some point during the restart, Kanaan dropped from second to fourth behind Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon but it was missed on the broadcast. Dixon remained close to Franchitti, about eight-tenths back. The issue was the lapped car of Hornish was between the leaders and was a buffer. Eventually, Hornish got out of the way. Once clear of Hornish, Dixon closed in a bit on Franchitti and Wheldon closed in on Dixon for third.
While carving through lapped traffic, Dixon and Wheldon had to split Kosuke Matsuura into turn one. The next lap, Matsuura made contact with Hornish and brought out the caution. It was a quick yellow. Matsuura never got into the barrier, there was no debris on the circuit and both cars continued. Matsuura slowed up in the marbles to keep it out of the barrier, but it was a quick trigger yellow and probably didn't justify it.
This set up a seven-lap sprint. Franchitti got the jump on the restart and neither Dixon nor Wheldon made a challenge for the top spot. Franchitti took victory after leading 242 of 250 laps, including the final 179 laps. Kanaan was fourth and Rice rounded out the top five.
How was the crowd?
It was another packed house. Marty Reid even said, "We think there was at least 60,000 here tonight," at the end of the broadcast.
Did they mention a USAC Silver Crown race happening before the IndyCar race and needing some number of laps to pick up that rubber and lay down Firestone rubber?
Yep. They said the Hoosier rubber would make it harder for to find grip early in the race.
Signs of the Time:
Teams were not allowed to keep engines in backup cars and this was the first season such regulation in place.
Hélio Castroneves pied Brian Barnhart in the face during the drivers' meeting because it was Barnhart's birthday.
Reid brought up Scott Sharp was only $190,000 away from $10 million in winnings in his career. I know that isn't all of Sharp's money, but he probably got a nice cut of it. We haven't talked about winnings like that really since 2007 or 2008. I can't tell you what any active driver has in career earnings. I doubt a great majority have gotten to $10 million.
The guys who raced in CART (Kanaan, Dixon, Castroneves, etc.) probably got there or got close but what has two-time champion Josef Newgarden earned? What about Will Power? Simon Pagenaud? Ryan Hunter-Reay? Motorsports was once a sport where earnings were shared and used to garner attention, similar to golf. Now it is verboten. The only race we get a breakdown for is the Indianapolis 500. We know the champion gets $1 million but any money we hear about is minuscule in the motorsports world. We hear about $10,000 for pole position, a $30,000 victory bonus but that is puny. We know that doesn't cover the bills. It is almost better if that wasn't out there.
During the race there were multiple promotions for the Mont-Tremblant Champ Car race the next day, because ESPN was showing both series in 2007. I know I have asked this before, but do we miss that? Do we miss having two open-wheel races at two great tracks on consecutive days?
We can all agree the split was bad but it was a time when you could see Richmond and Mont-Tremblant on the same weekend. We got Cleveland, Michigan, Texas, Montreal, Road America, Kentucky, Watkins Glen, Toronto and Surfers Paradise, albeit in two separate championships but we got all of it. We got close to 30 races a year. That wasn't the best because all the best teams and drivers weren't at Indianapolis. You had two separate fields with 18-20 cars tops and each series wasn't getting the best drivers. There was no pipeline for junior series graduates. Drivers left for sports cars and NASCAR. It was rough.
As special as it was, it was bad.
Speaking of the split, the next race was Watkins Glen and the way the broadcast spoke about it and all the road course had a foreign feel. It was treated like a complete unknown. At this point in the IRL, majority of the field came from road course backgrounds. It sounded poor to treat road courses in such a way. It shouldn't have been a surprise that any of Franchitti, Dixon, Kanaan or Castroneves were good on road courses. That was their bread and butter.
Broadcasting Gems:
Reid kept referring to Richmond as the "action track." I never recall that being a thing for Richmond. Kokomo? Yes. Richmond? No.
Under the Simmons caution, the broadcast cut to a 30/30 update on what else happened in the sports world during pit stops! We come back to see what happened in replay and nothing was explained during the replay. Show the pit stops live and then do the 30/30 update after the pit stops.
In case you were wondering what the order of the post-race interviews were, it was Ashley Judd, Dario Franchitti, Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon.
2008
This was the first 300-lap Richmond race and it was also the first Richmond race post-reunification. It saw 26 cars enter, a record number for the event.
Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti swept the front row for Andretti Green Racing, the second consecutive front row sweep for the team. This race was choppy from the start.
Ryan Hunter-Reay spun coming to the green flag exiting turn four, just like Sam Hornish, Jr. the year before. Hunter-Reay continued with no problems.
On lap nine, Will Power got into the turn four wall after the car snapped right on him when making a correction. Lap 30, A.J. Foyt IV spun in turn two after contact with John Andretti. Ed Carpenter suffered right front damage after hitting a piece of debris off of Foyt's car.
Of the first 38 laps, 12 were green. In that time, Hélio Castroneves had made some passes. Castroneves had started 18th and he made three passes in six laps, first on John Andretti into turn one on lap 21, then Foyt four laps later into turn one and then on lap 26, going high on Bruno Junqueira in turn three and four before completing the pass into turn one.
On the lap 39 restart, Castroneves overtook his teammate Ryan Briscoe on the outside of turn two and he did the same move on the following lap on Oriol Servià.
The other mover in the race was Jaime Camara! Camara had stopped under the Foyt caution to get fresh tires and he passed Townsend Bell after getting a run on the high side of turns three and four. He used momentum off of turn two to slice under Briscoe into turn three on the following lap. He nearly got Servià but had the air taken off his front wing and had to lift to keep it out of the wall.
When the caution came out on lap 68 for debris the leaders stopped, but Camara and Danica Patrick stayed out. We would hit another patch of caution laps with only one green flag lap in a 38-lap span and Camara held the lead this entire time.
There were two separate incidents on the lap 79 restart. Buddy Rice spun exiting turn four but continued. Behind all that, cars stacked up in turn three with Briscoe running into the back of Darren Manning. Vitor Meira and Junqueira were collected in this incident. Meira was able to continue, Briscoe and Manning had to get significant repairs and Junqueira was done.
On the one green flag lap, Kanaan passed Patrick for second on the lap 91 restart. Castroneves made it three-wide but he backed out of it and that allowed Marco Andretti to take the spot from Castroneves. Behind those passes, John Andretti ran into Meira entering turn one, as Meira was taking it pretty easy while Andretti had a full head of steam.
In the first third of the race, seven cars were out. Patrick and Bell made pit stops under caution on lap 103 but Camara stayed out and continued to lead.
Kanaan challenged Camara into turn one on the lap 107 restart but did not make it stick. Camara ran the high line and was keeping Kanaan at bay, so much so, Marco Andretti would pass Kanaan into turn one on lap 114. Two laps later, Andretti made the same move on the inside of Camara for the lead. Camara had one counterattack on lap 118, looking to the inside of Andretti into turn three but he had to lift and lost significant ground.
Andretti opened up a four-second lead with second to sixth covered by two seconds.
At lap 133, Graham Rahal spun in turn four on his own. He basically took the turn too hot. This brought everyone but Andretti to pit lane. Andretti wanted to keep track position and the team was hoping to stretch it and do it on one more stop. E.J. Viso and Patrick also stayed out.
Kanaan was first off pit road ahead of Wheldon, Castroneves and Camara. After the restart, Kanaan moved up to third and Castroneves and Camara picked cars off pretty consistently. Both got Wheldon on lap 142 and then both got Patrick on the next lap. Castroneves was able to take third from Kanaan into turn one on lap 145.
On the same lap Castroneves moved into third, Mario Moraes dove inside of Ryan Hunter-Reay into turn three and the move didn't stick. Moraes made contact with Hunter-Reay, knocking both cars were out of the race. At halfway, 11 of 26 starters were out and 31 of 96 laps from lap 68 to lap 163 were under green flag conditions.
Scott Dixon stopped under the Hunter-Reay/Moraes caution because Mike Hull looked at the radar and believed rain was 30 minutes away and did not think the race would go the distance.
The race restarted on lap 164 and Kanaan moved into second ahead of Viso while Castroneves made the same move the following lap. Camara would use the high side in turn two to pass Viso the following lap. Viso was on older tires and kept dropping. He would lose another position to Servià.
Andretti continued to lead with Kanaan remaining about six-tenths back but this strategy was not playing into Andretti's hand. Andretti was going to be forced to stop under green and lose at least a lap. He would need the race to remain green until the rest of the leaders stopped to retake the lead. On lap 206, after a 134-lap stint Andretti stopped and went a lap down in 11th.
Kanaan held a 3.6-second lead over Castroneves at this point and Camara's dream race ended up lap 218 when he spun exiting turn four while in third. Camara's wonderful night was over, Andretti's strategy had backfired, and Kanaan held the advantage. The leaders made their final stops and Kanaan came out in first.
Over the final 72 laps, Kanaan did not face much pressure and continually increased his lead over the stint. There was some movement with Dixon moving into fourth ahead of Servià but with 25 laps to go Kanaan held a five-second lead.
Kanaan took the victory ahead of Castroneves with Dixon passing Wheldon on the final lap for third. In the victory lane interview, Kanaan said he thought Andretti had just as strong of a car as his. Andretti ended up ninth, one lap down after letting Kanaan through in the closing laps.
How was the crowd?
At the top of the broadcast, Marty Reid said it was about 60,000 in attendance. It looked pretty good. I am always hesitant to put a number on attendance, but it wasn't sparse.
Did they mention a USAC Silver Crown race happening before the IndyCar race and needing some number of laps to pick up that rubber and lay down Firestone rubber?
You betcha!
Signs of the Time:
Max Angelelli and Wayne Taylor gave the command to start engines. This race was the SunTrust Indy Challenge and Angelelli and Taylor drove the #10 SunTrust Wayne Taylor Racing Pontiac in Grand-Am. It is not often you see active professional race car drivers give the command to start engines before another professional motor race.
Scott Dixon called Danica Patrick a menace after the Iowa race the week before due to some questionable driving. I had no recollection of that but the quote from Dixon in the Des Moines Register was as follows:
"She's a menace. It might be just me, but it's tough when you get drivers that don't stay where they should be."
Dixon felt Patrick had gotten away with a few blocks at Iowa. Scott Goodyear described Dixon's accusation as slanderous.
I just wanted to give you a feel for the post-reunification field:
Conquest Racing had Jaime Camara and Enrique Bernoldi as its two drivers. Camara replaced Franck Perera at Kansas. Bernoldi had a practice accident in turn four at Richmond. He ran the first six laps under caution and then pulled in because of a handling concern. This didn't appear to be some B.S. "handling" retirement. Bernoldi was signaling a concern to the team in the pit box. Alex Tagliani replaced Bernoldi for the final two races and the non-championship Surfers Paradise round. This was the only season Camara, Bernoldi and Perera drove in IndyCar.
I am still not sure how Mario Moraes went from 14th in the 2007 British Formula Three championship to IndyCar at 19 years old but Moares' check cleared with Dale Coyne and that is all that matters. His best finish in 2008 was seventh at Watkins Glen and he was 21st in the championship. He moved to KV Racing the next two years, had a few flashes in the pan, most notably three consecutive top five finishes in 2009 at Sonoma, Chicago and Motegi. He made his final IndyCar start at 21 years, nine months and 12 days old on October 2, 2010 at Homestead and he has not been heard from in any major professional series since.
Oh! They still allowed Marty Roth on track and he was dangerously slow. He was 49 years old at the time! His best finish in 21 starts was 13th at Nashville in 2008. He never finished on the lead lap. He immaculately started four Indianapolis 500s, three of which ended in accidents. The guy is going to turn 60 this December and I wonder what he is up to.
Broadcasting Gems:
From watching the first eight Richmond race, this was a time when the broadcast did not share the fuel window and pit strategies with the viewers, and that lack of information contributed to a worse broadcast.
It felt like this was a time when the broadcast was just watching cars going around in circles and anytime a pit stop happened it wasn't explained. It was accepted that everyone knew pit stops would occur, but you didn't know why that stop was happening when it was happening.
With 22 laps to go, Reid speculated Kanaan's gap over second was growing because some cars were saving fuel. Jack Arute in the pit lane said no, everyone was good to go on fuel. Did anyone know the fuel window? You should know if a car makes a stop after a certain lap, they should be good to the end. Yet, here we were in 2008 and the lead commentator is theorizing cars are saving fuel. That most basic strategically element should be clear.
The fuel window is a simple thing to know. When shared it makes the audience smarter, lets them know what to watch for and helps viewers follow along.
For the last decade I am glad this has been taken more seriously, expanded upon and engrained into a broadcast. Any race today that doesn't mention fuel window or tire life would be an amateur broadcast. It was annoying to watch because it made the people calling the race seem out of touch.
2009
Richmond's last time on the IndyCar schedule was Versus' first time broadcasting the race. Chip Ganassi Racing swept the front row with Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon. Team Penske swept row two with Hélio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.
The race started with Jaques Lazier spinning all by himself in turn one and when I say all by himself, I mean he started dead last and the field was already ten car lengths clear when he lost it.
After the restart on lap 8, Tomas Scheckter again explored the high side but lost a spot to Marco Andretti on exit of turn two. Ed Carpenter, Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon nearly went three-wide into one, but Kanaan lifted.
By lap 27, the leaders were catching the rear of the field and a few laps later Briscoe spun exiting turn two, backing it into the wall on the straightaway. He said he had been battling understeer and the transition of the banking caught him out.
This caution led to different strategies. Everyone but Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick made a pit stop. Franchitti would pass Patrick on the restart, starting from on the outside of turn two and completing the move on the outside into turn three. On the same restart, Marco Andretti tried to make the high line work battling with Graham Rahal but slight contact between the two caused Andretti to lose momentum and allowed E.J. Viso to pass Andretti into turn one.
Despite having 30-lap fresher tires and tires only having a 25-30 lap sweet spot, Franchitti settled into second, remaining within three or four-tenths of Mutoh the entire run. Patrick was unchallenged in third but drifted back, falling 2.2 seconds behind her teammate Mutoh.
As the Mutoh caught the tail end of the field, Patrick and Dixon closed in. At lap 100, all 18 cars on track were still on the lead lap and five laps later Mutoh made his first stop. Franchitti put Mario Moraes a lap down two laps after taking the lead but that was the only car he lapped. It was a single-groove, processional race.
After the pit stops, Mutoh and Patrick were running about a half-second faster than the leaders and made some moves on cars with 90-lap older tires but none of the leaders experienced a greater drop off in tire life than the rest. With cars able to go about 113 laps on a tank of fuel and no significant tire drop off, there was no incentive to come a little earlier for tires.
This played into the hands of Franchitti, Dixon and Rahal. They had not stopped yet when Mike Conway got into the wall exiting turn four after running into the marbles. Franchitti did need to make an emergency splash and go before pit lane opened and this handed the lead to Dixon.
When the race restarted on lap 154, Dixon held the lead over Franchitti and Rahal while Mutoh, Patrick, Castroneves and Raphael Matos were waved around back to the lead lap. It never got easier to pass and the waved around cars still had difficulty negotiating lapped traffic while Dixon and Franchitti pulled away and remained within a second of each other.
There was no passing worth mentioning from here on. Castroneves would get into the marbles on lap 248 after checking up to miss Dan Wheldon and avoiding Scheckter, who was in the marbles and off throttle to avoid the wall. While Scheckter kept going, Castroneves ended up in the barrier and this brought out the final caution of the race.
Once again, Dixon, Franchitti and Rahal had not made their final pit stops and this allowed these three to pit without much consequence. Only Mutoh and Patrick, the two drivers to stick to a two-stop strategy, got the wave around this time.
The final restart came with 41 laps to go and there is nothing worth mentioning after this. The top five remain the top five for the rest of the race. Dixon stays about four-tenths ahead of Franchitti to the checkered flag. Dixon caught traffic but he could not lap them. It halted him but didn't make him vulnerable to Franchitti making a pass. This was not a battle between teammates but two cars running in lockstep.
Dixon took the win, Franchitti and Rahal completed the podium, Mutoh and Patrick had good nights rounding out the top five.
Franchitti apologized in his post-race interview for how bad the race was. I think that says everything. I think the only driver that was lapped on track was Moraes and everyone else that finished a lap down was because their pit stops came before cautions, the leaders had yet to stop and they were trapped off the lead lap. If this race had gone caution-free I think everyone would have finished on the lead lap or at least 15 to 16 cars would have been on the lead lap.
How was the crowd?
This was another solid crowd, and I will be honest, on crowd alone I don't understand why IndyCar left Richmond. If you went just by the crowd it was probably 45,000 or 50,000 people every year. I know Marty Reid said a few of those years it was 60,000 or more. Reid might have been exaggerating but when you look at the grandstands that are remaining at Richmond and consider its capacity is now at about 65,000 and you look at what IndyCar drew all nine years, but especially those final two or three years, if it drew the same in 2020 or 2021 the place would be at least 75% full and that would be great all things considered.
Did they mention a USAC Silver Crown race happening before the IndyCar race and needing some number of laps to pick up that rubber and lay down Firestone rubber?
Damn straight! More rubber inconsistencies.
It was also mentioned that Ed Carpenter ran the Silver Crown race at Richmond in 2002 and finished second and he was third in 2003.
Signs of the Time:
E.J. Viso had not finished the first seven races this season and, at lap 159, Bob Jenkins noted Viso was still in the race. Viso would see his first checkered flag of the season in 12th, one-lap down.
Jon Beekhuis mentioned with 12 laps to go that IndyCar knew it has been difficult to pass on ovals and was hoping to introduce new aerodynamic devices and possibly push-to-pass at the remaining oval races.
Scott Dixon and his wife Emma Davies Dixon were expecting their first child, and this was Emma's final race before giving birth.
It was promoted on the broadcast that Dixon's victory tied with Sam Hornish, Jr. for most victories. Yeesh. I don't miss the split record book. It is technically true as a series but in terms of the vast history of IndyCar it is deception.
Broadcasting Gems:
I forgot how nonsensical the original Versus opening was. The cars turn into animals. What did that signify?
If I never have to hear "Dr. Feelgoods" again I will be a happy man.
What Should We Expect?
If Sam Hornish, Jr. and Tomas Scheckter are entered then we will have a good race. But Hornish and Scheckter are not walking through that door.
There is a chunk of Richmond races that were pretty good and then a few that were less appealing. I think the best races were 2004-2006 and the 2008 race had good moments but it was too choppy to really get a feel.
I think 2006 might be the best race of the nine and that is because of the back and forth battles, leaders having to battle traffic and guys were battling the tires. The problem with all the Richmond races is they all see one leader pull away. Hornish led the final 212 laps in the 2006 race. The racing was great behind him but no one got up and battled him and that was the case for pretty much every one of these Richmond races. There are few instances when the leader dropped back in the middle of the run because of tire fall off or because of traffic.
That is almost a theme for all IndyCar short oval races. Someone is always going to lead 100 or 150 laps. The same is true for NASCAR. NASCAR goes to a short track and someone ends leading 200 laps every time. These short track races do not see five drivers lead 50 laps or more. That almost never happens and I think it is important to realize that before Richmond returns.
In the 13 Iowa races, the most laps led totals in those races are 96, 92, 85, 69, 172, 133, 226, 247, 111, 282, 217, 229 and 245. Outside of that 2010 race, it is pretty much total domination for one driver but that driver doesn't always win. Tony Kanaan led 247 laps in 2014 and lost because he stayed out under the final caution while Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden got tires and went from seventh and eighth to first and second in the final ten laps. The following year, Newgarden led 111 laps but Hunter-Reay got the lead under the final caution and pulled away. Newgarden threw away a race in 2018. He nearly lapped the field but let his guard down for a second and James Hinchcliffe won.
I watched all these races and thought this is the perfect place for Newgarden to walk away from the field and win after leading 285 laps. If that concerns you it shouldn't because it is already happening in IndyCar.
The difference between Richmond and Iowa is track layout. Iowa has progressive banking from 12-14º, and it is worn. Tires are junk halfway through a run. IndyCar went to Richmond and the track had a series of repaves. Even at the end of IndyCar's first tenure, Richmond's surface was in pretty good shape. Tires were not garbage at the end of a run. The track has aged over the last 11 years and that could mean conditions similar to Iowa with more cars struggling over a long run than before.
Richmond doesn't race the same way as Iowa. Though Richmond has 14º banking in the turns, it is much tighter and with the way the track falls away exiting turn two, we see more accidents, whether it is someone more aggressive on the gas, contact with another car or getting into the marbles and hitting the wall. When cars back out of it, they come to what seems like a complete stop on corner exit.
Some races had a high line develop but most races you were lucky to get a lane and a half. Just because of the profile of the track I don't think the high line is inviting to drivers and you would not see a second groove develop in practice. It is similar to Gateway where you could get a second line in turns one and two but it would be tight on exit.
It should be noted Richmond uses the PJ1 traction compound for the NASCAR race and we saw what that did to the IndyCar race at Texas, so the top line might not be possible because the track is too slick. That is a wonderful feeling to know the track is already garbage before you even get there.
After nine Richmond races, green flag pit stops are still an unknown. It rarely happened and it wasn't until the 2008 race when green flag pit stops come into play, costing Marco Andretti that race. If there is a caution, drivers are going to stop. That is just how it works on ovals but we didn't see green flag stints long enough to see how green flag pit cycles determine a race.
Richmond can be a two-stop race but we rarely saw a 100-plus lap stint. If that continues then I think we will see teams make it a three-stopper because cautions will allow it. It really is going to be the only strategy that will work.
There are still a lot of unknowns and the earliest we will see how IndyCar looks at Richmond will hopefully be a year from now in June 2021. The one difference between then and now is there likely will not be a USAC Silver Crown race hours prior to the IndyCar race. IndyCar was going to be on its own in 2020. It was to practice Friday night, qualify before the race on Saturday and that would be it. Maybe that would help with getting rubber into the track but we will have to wait and see. The weekend schedule might have to look entirely different in 2021. There are still a lot of unanswered questions for 2020. It is hard to think about next year.
Moving on to the crowd, it never dropped off after nine years on the IndyCar calendar. It's not like Iowa, which has seen a decline in the last five years or Texas over the last decade. Richmond was strong each year. This race didn't go away because the crowd was dismal.
Twelve years later, I am not going to expect the same crowd to be there. Richmond drew over 100,000 people twice a year for NASCAR for a long time. In the last two years, the capacity has been reduced to 65,000 and NASCAR drew about 42,000 for the May race last year.
If NASCAR has less than half the crowd it did a decade ago and can't fill 60,000 seats, why should IndyCar expect to get the crowd of 60,000 people it had in 2009? Why should IndyCar think it will get 42,000, matching a NASCAR crowd?
IndyCar gets about 40,000 at Gateway and Richmond was selling tickets at a favorable price, $40. I just don't know how this race would fair smack dap in the middle of two NASCAR races. It is going to draw some different people. Baltimore drew fantastic crowds and it is three hours north of Richmond. There has to be some people from that area and around Washington, D.C. who will make the trip. With Pocono gone, there could be some in the Northeast that decide to take a weekend trip south. There will be race fans in the area, who support the NASCAR races and will attend the IndyCar race. But how many will that add up to and will it be enough to keep the race alive for many years to come?
I would hope it could draw about 30,000. That would be half the grandstand. We all want it to be better than that, but we have to be realistic. If it got 45,000 that would be terrific, but I can't see it happening.
There is a scary thought in the back of my mind that we might not see Richmond happen at all. Look at the last three months. Is anyone certain over what will happen in 2021? This feels like the race that could get away from IndyCar. Hopefully that will not be the case and if Richmond was willing to commit to IndyCar after 11 years away, I am not sure this pandemic will be squash the event from happening again. It will require patience, at least a year's worth.
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