Mercedes-AMG clinched its seventh consecutive World Constructors' Championship with a 1-2 finish at Imola. The European Le Mans Series had one of the craziest championship count backs in motorsports history. Kevin Harvick has won nine NASCAR Cup races, and he has been eliminated from Cup championship competition. Stewart-Haas Racing had applied team orders, maybe Harvick would still be alive. Meanwhile, Team Penske worked team orders to perfection in IMSA. Ganassi has hired Álex Palou for the #10 Honda. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
What are IndyCar's Future Scheduling Options?
After taking a few heavy punches during the pandemic, IndyCar will a few bruises carry over to 2021, and on the scheduling side, most of those are not pretty.
IndyCar will be losing Austin and Iowa, and the Richmond race that was supposed to return this season will remain among the missing. There will be over a month between the 2021 season opener at St. Petersburg and the second round at Barber. To make up for the lack of ovals, Texas will be a doubleheader and move to the start of May. Belle Isle shifts a week back and clashes with Le Mans. Mid-Ohio will be Labor Day weekend. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course will host a second race with the NASCAR weekend.
Next season is not the step we hoped IndyCar would take and with the pandemic likely carrying through much of 2021, IndyCar is in a rough spot for the next few seasons. It survived 2020 and next year will be another year of survival.
With the amount of turnover IndyCar saw between a completely unplanned 2020 and a cautious 2021, the series is a few moves away from getting on the right track, but what direction will the series be heading?
A lot of things will be out of IndyCar's control. Racetracks are also making ends meet during this difficult time and could be limited on what is spent to host events. More tracks could hit trouble and there is the general concern of how tracks will get people to return when spectators are allowed in full force. It is not going to be a quick return to normal.
IndyCar does need a game plan for the near future. The pandemic has given every sports league a shot at a reset if they would like it. NASCAR has reconsidered how it does race weekends and one-day shows with no practice and no qualifying will become the norm. Think about how absurd that would have sounded on January 1 this year. The NHL and NBA could completely shift their schedules to avoid the heart of football season. Major League Baseball could be adopting a modified extra innings rule and possibly seven-inning doubleheaders moving forward. When forced to innovate for 2020, the entities did and some of those innovations could become permanent features in these sports.
The simplest outcome for IndyCar is everything returns to normal in 2021. Austin returns for an early spring race; Iowa rises from the ashes and Richmond finds a spot in the middle of summer. That sounds great, but that likely will not happen.
While having success in terms of the competitiveness of the DW12 chassis last decade, IndyCar continued to struggle with developing strong events, most notably at ovals. For the incredible return to Gateway, there are returns to Pocono, Fontana and Phoenix that had high points but did not work out long-term. Iowa was once considered an IndyCar stronghold and for the entire second half of the 2010s it saw a slow decline to the point where the track is effectively closed.
Something different has to be done because IndyCar is running out of facilities and it cannot continue living on three-year deals that go nowhere.
There is some real estate to play with on the IndyCar calendar and options are out there for schedule rejuvenation.
For whatever reason, IndyCar has a massive, floating void in its schedule nine times out of ten. Once, it was in the middle of the summer, then it moved to the end of the schedule and for the last few years it has been right at the start of the season after the St. Petersburg season opener.
Austin was the filler everyone was looking for, but then the pandemic happened, Austin disappeared for 2020 and will not be back for 2021. It could return in 2022, but Circuit of the Americas has its own host of problems and between a possible MotoGP date and NASCAR race in May, there might not be any more room for IndyCar in Texas's capital.
Homestead once opened the IndyCar season and there were a few rumblings of it possibly returning. The only problem is Homestead's NASCAR weekend has moved from the finale in November to late-February, sucking all the air out of that time of the year. It could be possible to run a NASCAR race a month later, though history at Phoenix shows a month between NASCAR and IndyCar races does not work out for IndyCar.
It was not long ago Mexico City was on the cusp of hosting an IndyCar race. That has died down, though the success of Patricio O'Ward could revive it and with Sergio Pérez's Formula One future unknown (he is likely staying in Formula One for 2021, but who knows after that? Come 2023, Pérez might be bound to IndyCar) it would be foolish if IndyCar did not consider a trip south of the border.
Outside of those places, I am not sure what other existing venue could fill in the spring. Phoenix is off the table, one because IndyCar's latest failure is still too recent, and it has a Cup date in March. Las Vegas has a Cup race in March. Fontana is about to become a half-mile, which has been a size too small for IndyCar. IndyCar is not returning to Sonoma if Laguna Seca is on the schedule.
Ovals are also lacking on the schedule, and I am not sure of the solution. There have been many great races at Fontana, Iowa, Pocono and Milwaukee and none of those tracks have stuck. Fans get blamed for not supporting oval races, but something is not right with the packaging. Road America has been a grand success since it returned to the IndyCar calendar, but Milwaukee could only draw a fraction of that crowd an hour south in a metropolitan area. Is it IndyCar, road courses being preferred over ovals or the promoter? If Road America can get close to 50,000 people and Milwaukee got only about 15,000 people that suggests a promoter, and possibly series, missing the mark.
IndyCar has been keeping the oval portion of the schedule afloat for the last decade and the pandemic ripped off the bandage leaving Texas, Gateway and Indianapolis. I am not sure if a post-pandemic IndyCar can find another two ovals to take a flyer on the series. I have never felt IndyCar needed ten or 12 ovals. I feel like seven or eight would be a good number. Right now, I would take six and be a happy man.
Going back to the simplest outcomes, Iowa is revived in 2022 and brings IndyCar back and Richmond takes its crack at IndyCar and we are back up to five ovals. There are a few summer dates open for both races to slide into, though it could create a few busy stretches for teams. With Mid-Ohio moving to Independence Day weekend, sliding Richmond into the last weekend of July would create a five-consecutive week stretch of races, starting with the Belle Isle doubleheader. Add Iowa to its mid-July date and that becomes six consecutive weeks of racing.
The 2022 season will give IndyCar two extra weeks in the season, because there should not be a Summer Olympics and not require IndyCar to take a break for television.
Even if IndyCar gets Iowa and Richmond back, that is five ovals and 19 races total. How could IndyCar get another oval or two?
First, drop the second IMS road course race with the NASCAR weekend. I know that is asking a lot, but the IndyCar/NASCAR combination weekend does not have to be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the road course, in fact, it shouldn't be at IMS. IndyCar doesn't need another IMS road course race and it should be smarter with any combination weekend. If you are going to do a combination weekend, you better get something out of it that you do not already have, not more of the same.
The only problem is any combination weekend will likely require it taking place during the NBC portion of the NASCAR season, and there are fewer oval options out there. First, there is Nashville Superspeedway, which I don't think will happen because IndyCar has the Nashville street course. Atlanta is in the middle of the summer when IndyCar is busy. The NASCAR Michigan weekend falls on Gateway weekend. Then there is Daytona, which is not happening.
After that are the NASCAR playoff races, which are concurrent with IndyCar's final two races. I don't think NASCAR wants to share a playoff weekend with IndyCar and I don't think IndyCar would want to end its championship on a Saturday night in late September or early October as a NASCAR undercard. I think IndyCar wants its championship race to be the main event.
I do think there are a few options for IndyCar/NASCAR combination weekends at an oval.
1. Pocono. I can't see NASCAR keeping the Pocono Cup doubleheader, especially when it dropped the only races from Chicagoland and Kentucky. With NASCAR committing to one-day shows for 28 weekends in 2021, there is a possibility that IndyCar could have the Saturday to themselves or have to share it with the NASCAR's second division or Truck series, but it would be open and it could allow IndyCar to practice and qualify on Friday and then race Saturday.
2. Loudon. Similar thing as Pocono, though it would also have to share with NASCAR's second division and the modified series, but how fun of a weekend would that be? How about a Saturday starting with a 100-lap modified race, then a 200-lap Grand National Series race and ending with a 250-lap IndyCar race? You could start at noon and go until 8:00 p.m.
3. Michigan could still be an option. It would require some date shifting with Gateway, but that could be done. I am not sure it could be a 500-mile race because it would likely have to share the day with one of NASCAR's lower divisions, but a 400-mile race would be possible, especially with the amount of daylight in that portion of the summer. A 4:00 p.m. start for a 400-mile race would still have more than three hours of daylight.
The one issue with any of these ovals is rain and if it rains on Saturday that leads to a congested Sunday and IndyCar will lose out to the Cup race. It is not an ideal position to be in, but IndyCar is the one desperate for oval races and it has to take what it can get. That is why a road course makes more sense for a combination weekend, like Watkins Glen, not the IMS road course.
The other thing against an IndyCar/NASCAR combination weekends at ovals is NASCAR's new car set to debut in 2022. The teams are going to need track time and practice. NASCAR can do one-day shows next year because the teams know this car and it is a lame-duck. In 2022, there might be a few one-day shows, but there will likely be more practice days as teams get used to the car and the 18-inch wheels and possibly a hybrid system.
When it was announced Chicagoland and Kentucky lost their NASCAR races, many thought these places would be viable for IndyCar returns, but I don't think that is happening. Those tracks are done. They have lost the sweet, sweet NASCAR television money and an IndyCar date would be a massive financial loss. Maybe Kentucky could work with the right date in the summer and its proximity to Indiana and Ohio, but I don't see the track putting in the effort to draw 40,000 spectators and I am not sure 40,000 spectators would be enough to break even.
I know many are happy that Roger Penske is in charge and are happy Penske was the one at the helm during the pandemic, but are we necessarily sure Penske can turn around IndyCar's fortunes and get back to at least five ovals, let alone having six or seven? This is the man that has decided to kill the Freedom 100 for Indy Lights, taking away the highlight of Carb Day and the only notable event for Indy Lights. I am not sure we can trust this guy. I know it is year one for him in charge and he got dealt a pandemic, but there has to be better moves going forward to suggest Penske is up to the task.
This is a difficult period for IndyCar, but I don't think it is a permanent state for the series. I think the 2022 calendar will look different from 2021. That is hope talking, because I hope things improve next year and tracks can be a little bolder in 2022 and expand the number of events that can be held, and IndyCar gets a few breaks. That is easier said than done, but after all that has happened this year, I got to hold out hope for something.
Champions From the Weekend
You know about Mercedes-AMG, but did you know...
The #2 United Autosport Ligier-Nissan of Wayne Boyd, Rob Wheldon and Tom Gamble won the European Le Mans Series LMP3 championship with its third victory of 2020 at Portimão.
The #77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried, Alessio Picariello and Michele Beretta won the European Le Mans Series GTE championship on count back over the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of David Perel and Michael Broniszewski after the #77 Porsche won at Portimão. Both cars finished with two victories, two runner-up finishes and two fourth-place finishes. The #77 Porsche won the championship based on its first victory coming before the #74 Ferrari's first victory.
The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor clinched IMSA's GT Le Mans class championship with a runner-up finish at Laguna Seca and the disqualification of the #4 Corvette due a height infraction.
Patrick Kelly clinched IMSA's LMP2 class championship with his victory at Laguna Seca in the #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson with Simon Trummer.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about a slew of championships, but did you know...
Lewis Hamilton won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from Imola, his ninth victory of 2020 and his third consecutive victory.
The #26 G-Drive Racing Aurus-Gibson of Nyck De Vries, Mikkel Jensen and Romain Rusinov won the European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of Portimão.
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville, his fourth victory of the season. Harrison Burton won the Grand National Series race, his fourth victory of the season and his second consecutive victory. Grant Enfinger won the Truck race, his fourth victory of the season.
The #7 Acura Team Penske Acura of Ricky Taylor and Hélio Castroneves won the IMSA race from Laguna Seca, its fourth victory of the season. The #912 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor and Earl Bamber won in the GTLM class. The #86 Meyer Shank Racing Acura of Mario Farnbacher and Matt McMurry won in GTD class, it second victory of the season.
Jean-Karl Vernay, Mikel Azcona and Thed Björk split the WTCC races from Aragón.
Coming Up This Weekend
For the first time, NASCAR ends its season at Phoenix.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will have a three-horse championship battle conclude at Hockenheim.
MotoGP will run the European Grand Prix at Valencia.
Super GT has its penultimate round of the season at Motegi.
