Josef Newgarden scored a popular victory on Independence Day. Same track, same result for Formula One, but many more penalties than the week before. Lewis Hamilton has signed with Mercedes through 2023. There was a second generation winner in Formula Two, and nobody noticed. Maverick Viñales is leaving Yamaha. Chip Ganassi is exiting NASCAR after 20 years. IMSA had a sprint around Watkins Glen interrupted. NASCAR is quietly exiting the iRacing game. SRX had a thunderous round at Indianapolis Raceway Park. There is a new championship leader in World Superbike. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
A Lost Weekend
IndyCar will not be heading to Toronto this weekend due to restrictions involving travel between the United States and Canada, and public gatherings in Ontario. It is the second consecutive year Toronto will not be on the IndyCar schedule, but it is one of the few major alterations to the 2021 IndyCar season in wake of the global pandemic.
The start of the season was rearranged, and Long Beach was moved to the season finale, but 13 of the 16 races on the calendar appear on track to happen on their originally scheduled date with Toronto being the only lost event. It was announced on May 14 that the Canadian round would not take place.
After the Road America round, IndyCar announced a replacement race would not take place of the lost Toronto race, despite doubleheaders at either Mid-Ohio or Gateway being considered.
A 16-race championship is still a fair representation of the championship, but this does feel like a lost weekend for IndyCar at a time when it would have been advantageous to be on track.
There are plenty of valid reasons for an additional race not being added to the schedule. One reason a current round was not expanded to a doubleheader was the lack of return on investment for a track. Mid-Ohio would have had six weeks to alter its schedule if it were to have expanded into a doubleheader again for this season. It would have been difficult to find a television window open for the additional race on Independence Day weekend, as NBC was already chuck full of races, the Tour de France and Olympic trials.
Gateway would have had an additional month and a half to prepare, but again it would have caused a significant shift in the schedule. As Gateway is scheduled for a Saturday night race, the additional race would either have to take place on Friday night, when Gateway has the NASCAR Truck Series, or Sunday evening to allow the teams enough time between races or the schedule would have had to shift entirely and both races would need to be run in the afternoon that weekend.
None of those are desirable outcomes, and the simplest solution might have been to use the weekend already carved out. A race was scheduled for July 11 and a television window was set aside. Instead of jamming a race into an existing weekend, IndyCar could have just gone elsewhere and filled the vacancy.
It might sound silly, but it would have made more sense if Mid-Ohio hosted an additional race on Sunday July 11, one week after its first race than if it hosted a doubleheader over the last two days. That sounds counterintuitive, but IndyCar would be available on an additional weekend and not jammed into an already crammed holiday weekend, and it would be one fewer week between races, as the next race is not until Nashville on August 8.
It would still be an additional cost for the teams, but Mid-Ohio is close enough to IndyCar's central Indiana hub that it could have been a one-day show with practice in the morning, qualifying in the early afternoon and a race in the middle of the day. Green Savoree Racing Promotions would get a break and could sell tickets at one of its venues in place of Toronto, another GSRP event. Honda would get a break and instead of the Honda Indy Toronto, we could have had an additional Honda-sponsored race at Mid-Ohio. It would have hopefully been one of the final band-aids to get through this pandemic.
That was not the choice of IndyCar and if there is one thing this pandemic should remind us it is IndyCar is not the most stable series in the world, even with Roger Penske's stewardship. Unlike NASCAR, which could make up a race with the Daytona road course or whip together a doubleheader at Darlington, or Formula One, which can make a grand prix seemingly happen out of thin air and resurrect a track nearly a decade off the schedule, or even IMSA, which stayed at Watkins Glen and ran on Friday evening in place of the Mosport round that was lost and supposed to take place this past weekend, IndyCar can't just snap its fingers and make a race happen.
IndyCar doesn't have a selection of racetracks in the company and can simply add a race for its convenience. I would have loved if Mid-Ohio had a second race weekend or if IndyCar had decided to return to Road America because it is the best road course in the country and 10,000 people would show up for a last second race. The only track in IndyCar's back pocket is Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and that is already hosting a second road course race in August apart of the NASCAR weekend and I don't think we are going to see a second oval race at Indianapolis anytime soon.
The best thing for IndyCar, a racing series, to do in this case was not race. That sucks to write, but IndyCar's best financial decision was to not do what it is meant to do. IndyCar has been in this slog for the last 20 to 25 years. There is a reason why the calendar has been kept to 17 races as it has been for basically the last decade. The series runs on the margins and any more weekends make the series less financially viable for the teams. There is nothing wrong with a 17-race calendar and that length creates a sort of urgency in each race. However, it shouldn't be a limit IndyCar is stuck at otherwise the series could collapse. There needs to be more breathing room to allow for an additional race or two, especially if the interested venues are out there. Hopefully the last 16 months has shown IndyCar where it has to strengthen for long-term success.
We all wish it was different and accepting IndyCar's financial truth doesn't make it any easier to swallow. While NASCAR and Formula One are able to put on races somewhere and broadcast them around the world, IndyCar has to lose a weekend and is out of the spotlight for another week ahead of what was already going to be a healthy summer break. Even if it is for the best, this cannot be chalked up as a victory.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix, his fifth victory of the season.
Dennis Hauger, David Schumacher and Frederik Vesti split the Formula Three races from the Red Bull Ring.
Kyle Kirkwood swept the Indy Lights races from Mid-Ohio. Christian Rasmussen and Hunter McElrea split the Indy Pro 2000 races. Michael d'Orlando won the first and third U.S. F2000 races with Kiko Porto winning the second.
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Road America, his second victory of the season. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race, his 101st victory in that series.
The #31 Cadillac of Felipe Nasr and Pipo Derani won the IMSA sprint race from Watkins Glen. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen won in the LMP2 class. The #74 Riley Motorsports Ligier-Nissan of Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson won in the LMP3 class. The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor won in the GTLM class. The #14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus of Jack Hawksworth and Aaron Telitz won in the GTD class.
Ernie Francis, Jr. won the SRX race from Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Toprak Razgatlioglu won the main World Superbike races from Donington Park while Jonathan Rea won the Superpole race, but Razgatlioglu took the championship lead with 183 points to Rea's 181.
The #32 Team WRT Audi of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts swept the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint cup races from Misano.
Coming Up This Weekend
NASCAR bakes in Atlanta.
Formula E is back in Brooklyn.
Monza starts the second half of the European Le Mans Series.
SRX has its penultimate race at Slinger Speedway.
Supercars may be racing in Townsville. Lockdown restrictions may prevent it from taking place.
The World Touring Car Cup stays on the Iberian Peninsula and moves to Aragón.
