2020 IndyCar Schedule Fifth Revision: We Aren't Done Yet

On the eve August and with nearly half the scheduled races of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season complete, the calendar sees another amendment.

With increased lockdown measures in Portland, Oregon and restrictions in California, the western races at Portland and the Laguna Seca doubleheader have been cancelled.

To make up for the three lost races, Mid-Ohio, Gateway and the Harvest Grand Prix weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will all become doubleheaders, keeping the schedule at 14 races. None of the race weekends have changed dates.

The Mid-Ohio races will be Saturday August 8 and Sunday August 9. The Indianapolis 500 is still scheduled for August 23 with Indianapolis 500 practice beginning on Tuesday August 18. Gateway will have two afternoon races, one on Saturday August 29 and the other on Sunday August 30. The Harvest Grand Prix races will be Friday October 2 and Saturday October 3, as it shares the weekend with the Intercontinental GT Challenge Indianapolis 8 Hours. St. Petersburg remains as the season finale on October 25.

These doubleheaders will see adjusted race weekends, most notably race distances.

Mid-Ohio's two races will be 75 laps, 15 laps shorter than the originally scheduled distance for the Mid-Ohio race. Gateway will be a pair of 200-lap, 250-mile races. Each race will be 48 laps shorter than the original Gateway race distance. The Harvest Grand Prix race distances have not been announced.

Now we are done, right?

I said the same thing during the last round of revisions and even at that point we were hesitant about the security of Portland and Laguna Seca. Five revisions in and we are not sold St. Petersburg will happen after seeing the increase in covid-19 cases in Florida, but the state of Florida has been more relaxed when it comes to restrictions. The state has already hosted two IMSA races and Daytona plans on hosting two NASCAR weekends next month.

We are not going to be sure when the season will end until the season is already over.

August gets more cluttered, with five races over four races weekends. With the cancellation of Portland and Laguna Seca, September is an off month. There will be 32 days between the second Gateway race and the first Harvest Grand Prix race.

It is not ideal, but IndyCar is not going to add race weekends at this point in the season. We are not going to head to new racetracks. IndyCar is not going to add a race at Kentucky, a place it hasn't visited in nine years. If NASCAR isn't going to Watkins Glen and the IMSA 6 Hours of the Glen is in danger of being cancelled, then IndyCar isn't going to Watkins Glen.

The 2020 season will take place over the remaining race weekends. I think we are set for August unless things really get bad in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois over the next few weeks. The October rounds remain hard to predict. A lot can change between now and October. I think if we get through August, if either Harvest Grand Prix of St. Petersburg end up on the chopping block, we will just have a shortened schedule of 12 or 13 races.

I feel like Harvest Grand Prix will happen no matter what. One, it can be behind closed doors if necessary. Two, it would not require as many teams traveling as far as St. Petersburg. Meyer Shank Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, Team Penske and half of A.J. Foyt Racing are all coming from outside of Indiana, but Indiana has not put down travel restrictions on people from other states. Three, it is a permanent facility while St. Petersburg's future could rely on cooperation from the city.

As for the races we have scheduled for August, it makes sense to run shorter races at Mid-Ohio and Gateway. These teams are working double time and it is an already busy schedule with the Indianapolis 500 between it all. The teams will be at a racetrack for four consecutive weeks. Instead of running a pair of an hour and 45-minute races at Mid-Ohio and a pair of two-hour races of Gateway, the teams get to save at least 20 minutes in all four races that is a small bone to throw to all the teams.

Shorter races will be odd, but I don't think the races are going to suffer. Mid-Ohio is going to be a two-stop race for everybody. Seventy-five laps are too long for a one-stop race, unless there is a ridiculous number of caution laps and Mid-Ohio is not known for a ton of cautions. Mid-Ohio could be a three-stop race, but I don't think that strategy will work out because the final stint will not be long enough for fresh tires to counter the time lost on an extra stop.

Gateway will be three-stop races, which isn't that much different compared to a four-stop race. It is going to be similar to Texas, which coincidentally was shortened from 248 laps to 200 laps, just like Gateway. It is going to be a quicker race and teams will have one fewer chance to adjust on a car.

Harvest Grand Prix is the one unknown across the board. We do not know the distance nor the actual track configuration. With this race weekend shared with the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the track layout will have to work for both series. I think the layout could be the same layout as the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. I am not sure if oval turn one could be incorporated, or the track could be run in reverse.

If the course cannot be different, I hope the least that can be done are different race distances. The Grand Prix of Indianapolis was shortened this year to 80 laps from 85 laps and that made it a race where teams could make it on two stops. I am not sure that is the best thing or if we need to see that race two more times. I would like to see a little longer races and maybe different distances. I would love to see one Harvest Grand Prix race be 85 laps and the other be 90 laps or one race be 90 laps and the other be 95 laps. Those would be longer than normal road course races, but they would be different races than what we have seen on the IMS road course.

Mid-Ohio and Gateway point to Harvest Grand Prix being more conservative on race distances, even if Harvest Grand Prix will be occurring after 32 days off and with three weeks before the St. Petersburg finale. If Harvest Grand Prix follows Mid-Ohio lead, we could see a pair of 70-lap races.

We have to be patient. It sounds crazy because we have had only six races, but we are almost done. If August goes off without a hitch, we will have 11 races down and the season will basically be over. If we need one final revision to complete a 14-race calendar than it will not seem that bad. It will be the final gasp across the line to complete this 2020 season.

Though we are losing September races, we are going to have a busy August. After having five races in three weekends during July, we are getting five races in four weekends in August and one of the races is the Indianapolis 500. It is the best of a bad situation, one that will be over sooner than we realize.