Kyle Busch took the Grand National race and Chase Elliott won the Truck and Cup races from Charlotte during the middle of the week. Thursday Night Blunder came to a conclusion with a fabulous pair of finishes. Supercross returned. Formula One is on the verge of releasing its European schedule. MotoGP dropped trips to Silverstone, Motegi and Phillip Island. World Superbike laid out plans for its restart. Williams F1 might be for sale. Indy Lights is going on hiatus. Today is the first day of June. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
IndyCar's New May
I was thinking about this before this season and, unfortunately, none of it happened but the month of May in IndyCar looks a lot different in 2020 compared with many previous years.
The first on-track action of the month was going to be on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on the Friday before Mother's Day with the Grand Prix of Indianapolis following the next day. After two days off, Indianapolis 500 practice would begin on Tuesday and that continue through Friday. Indianapolis 500 qualifying takes up that weekend on Saturday and Sunday and a practice day the following day. After a few days off, Carb Day fell on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and the Indianapolis 500 would be on Sunday.
With how the calendar fell this year, both Belle Isle races would have taken place in May because Memorial Day was on its earliest possible date.
There would have been four races in the month of May this year, and it would not have been the first time such a thing happened. The 2015 season had both Indianapolis races and both Belle Isle races occur in May but compared to how IndyCar racing looked for the previous century, it is a new phenomenon and vastly different from tradition.
Some years would see another race sneak into May. If the Indianapolis 500 fell on May 24, it allowed for the last Sunday of the month to be May 31 and another race or two to take place. There was also the rare early May race when the Indianapolis 500 fell at the tail end of the month and the May 1 or May 2 fell on a Sunday.
During the split, we had a few extra May events because CART didn't have the Indianapolis 500 taking up its schedule but when it came to the IRL and years prior to the split multiple May races were rare. Between 1946 and reunification in 2008, the only seasons to feature multiple May races in the same series were 1976, 1982, 1987 and 1999 with 1999 seeing the first May race at Charlotte cancelled after spectators were fatally injured after debris from an accident entered the grandstand. In 2009, an Indianapolis 500 landing on May 24 allowed Milwaukee to be on May 31. In 2010, Kansas ran on May 1. São Paulo was on May 1 in 2011 and rain pushed the race to May 2. In 2013, São Paulo was scheduled for May 5.
Since 2014, and as long as the Grand Prix of Indianapolis retains its place in the schedule, we will always have at least two May races a year but could have as many as four.
I was not a proponent of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis when it was first introduced but I think that was mostly because the IMS road course got a race before Road America, Laguna Seca and Watkins Glen, the top level of American road courses. Part of it was history and thinking certain things should not change but when it was laid out that opening weekend for Indianapolis 500 practice drew only about 5,000 people and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis drew more than five times of that and at a higher price point per ticket it became harder to argue against it.
Six years after the first Grand Prix of Indianapolis and it is safe to say it did not ruin IndyCar or the Indianapolis 500. The Indianapolis 500 is doing just fine and might be at one of its highest points. Carb Day is the second most attended day of the year for Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ahead of the Brickyard 400, and people love the Freedom 100. All kudos to track president J. Douglas Boles and his team. IndyCar still has to put up a mighty fight for attention and maintain its existence, but the series is doing well. This change didn't hurt IndyCar and IndyCar might not be drawing two million television viewers for each race and 100,000 people in attendance but this change, this new May might be what the series needed.
We can get four races now in a three-week period. There is plenty to watch and with higher stakes. Races are going to win out over practice days and even qualifying days. We have found this balance where IndyCar gets more television time, and network television time at that, while also getting the tension of pole position qualifying and bumping.
It would seem really odd going back to what many consider "traditional" and having the month of about ten practice days and four qualifying days.
Qualifying days are stressful and intoxicating but doubling them would likely set up a greater divide between the top and bottom teams. We already have the "two-week" programs versus the "one-week" programs, which is really just one more engine in case something goes wrong before qualifying. We would see the full-time teams and a handful of top one-off programs participate in the first week and then the final six or seven entries taking to the track the second week but with a greater gap to the rest of the field.
The current format puts all entrants, whether that is 33 or 36, on track immediately. Everyone participates in the qualifying session with nonstop attempts and it is wrapped up in two days. It puts more pressure on everyone, mistakes are magnified and there is little cushion to fall back on.
After all the races and the immediacy of qualifying, taking it away for more practice days, less television time and less ticket revenue would be a mistake. Could a second qualifying weekend allow Formula One drivers to attempt the race now that Monaco will not be the same day as the Indianapolis 500 in 2021 but still falls on one of the qualifying weekends? Sure, it could, but it likely would not happen. You rip the door open to any takers but if no one is coming then it isn't worth it.
In 2020, IndyCar has found the right approach. It has an event two weeks before the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A week later the field of 33 is set and another seven days later is the famed race. If you are still interested, there is a doubleheader the following week. It is the most saturated point in the IndyCar season, but it isn't oversaturated. The rest of the season balances it out.
The concentration should be on the Indianapolis 500 and the race is smack dap in the middle of IndyCar's busiest time. May changed and for the better.
Champion From the Weekend
Alex Albert won the Thursday Night Blunder World Final championship at Indianapolis. Stevan McAleer won the Pro class championship.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Thursday Night Blunder and the midweek NASCAR action but did you know...
Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR Cup race from Bristol, his second victory of the season.
Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Salt Lake City, his sixth victory of the season.
Fernando Alonso swept the Legends Trophy races from Silverstone, making it four victories in the last two weeks. Esteban Gutiérrez and Seb Priaulx split the Pro Cup races.
Kenton Koch won the IMSA iRacing event from Virginia International Raceway.
Coming Up This Weekend
Fingers crossed, IndyCar's season opener from Texas
NASCAR Cup Series has weekdays off and will be at Atlanta but the Grand National Series has a race tonight at Bristol.
Supercross will be at Salt Lake City on Wednesday night and Sunday.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
