After ten years and 15 days of waiting, Marco Andretti has finally won a race, as Andretti won the SRX race at Slinger Speedway in Wisconsin. July is here and scheduling news is fresh off the press. The FIA World Endurance Championship will not go to Fuji and instead WEC will run two races in Bahrain, a six-hour race and an eight-race to close its season. Formula One will not be going to Australia, nor will MotoGP, and Portimão will get a second MotoGP round that will take place the week before the Valencia finale. Looking into 2022, Formula E announced a 16-race calendar with new races in Cape Town, Vancouver and Seoul. There is also a Chinese round with an unannounced venue and a TBD slot in June, which will likely be Jakarta. The World Rally Championship has announced nine provisional rounds for 2022, only two of which have dates so far. Oh, and Atlanta Motor Speedway is reconfiguring the track, and many are not happy. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
We Have to Get Along
Let's talk television, especially in an IndyCar context, because a month has made a big difference in perception.
After the Belle Isle weekend, many were upset with the coverage of those two races. Even though NBC stuck with the first Belle Isle race for almost 90 minutes beyond its scheduled end time, many were displeased because the first lap of the race was missed because the preceding Premier Lacrosse League game went to overtime and went a little long. On top of that, because the race went late, there was a lack of post-race coverage, as once the race ended NBC moved on to the Olympic diving trials, which had already been pre-empted for most of its broadcast window. There was no post-race interview of first-time winner Marcus Ericsson, nor any word from the unfortunate Will Power, who lost the lead when his car would not fire when the red flag was lifted.
On Sunday, the second IndyCar race started on CNBC because the French Open men's final went to five sets. The IndyCar race was not shown on NBC until around the halfway point in the race.
Belle Isle was not a great weekend for IndyCar, even if there were a lot of things out of the series control. On one of only two doubleheader weekends, this one where both races aired on NBC, nothing went right in terms of timing for the series. People were mad and no answer was sufficiently appeasing anyone.
Flash-forward a month and IndyCar heads into its summer break with news of 1.3 million viewers for the Mid-Ohio race, the most-watched IndyCar race outside the Indianapolis 500 on NBC and the most-watched Mid-Ohio since 2008. IndyCar's total audience delivery through nine races is 1.582 million viewers, a 30% increase over last year's comparable coverage.
Many are strutting their feathers after the viewership news, and this comes as IndyCar is working on its next television deal. One month, everyone is angry. The next, everyone has something to celebrate. This is a good time to remind everyone that IndyCar is one part of NBC Sports' coverage, and it is not the golden goose.
IndyCar did get special attention at Belle Isle, and I think it is easy to forget how different things once were for the series. NBC stuck with the IndyCar race through the checkered flag. IndyCar got an extra 90 minutes on network television. It wasn't that long ago IndyCar races at Michigan were bumped to ESPN Classic due weather delays. Let's not forget Danica Patrick's only IndyCar victory at Motegi came on ESPN Classic because it was delayed a day and ESPN had something else to show at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday April 19.
It is not going to be perfect and when NBC is filling an entire day with live sports, there are bound to be a few conflicts. A lacrosse game went to overtime on Saturday. That happens. A goal was scored late in regulation. If that goal isn't scored, we get to the IndyCar race on time, and no one notices. But it is sports and it is unscripted. Not to forget mentioning the overtime winner was scored very quickly. IndyCar was lucky it only missed the opening lap at the start.
As for Sunday, tennis is a difficult sport to schedule. It could last anywhere from 90 minutes to five hours. You never know what will happen and sure enough this French Open final just happened to be the one Novak Djokovic rallied from losing the first two sets and win in five sets. We again should be thankful Djokovic won those final three sets 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. If any of those sets had gone to a tiebreaker then there is a good chance none of the second IndyCar race would have made it on NBC and about 75% of you would have died from a heart attack.
Let me also remind you that the end of the second Belle Isle race did get on NBC and the national network television did show the thrilling battle late between Josef Newgarden and Colton Herta and then Patricio O'Ward's charge through the field on multiple restarts. While we want to see an entire race make, network television caught the good parts in this case. That is worth something and 1.383 million viewers saw the conclusion of that race.
Also, Belle Isle's conflict is partly on IndyCar. Belle Isle was a week later than normal. It moved to French Open finals weekend. If it had remained the week after the Indianapolis 500 then Belle Isle would have been in the middle weekend of the French Open, and it would have been easier to schedule and had less competition. This is one thing IndyCar has to consider going forward. It needs to work with NBC, or whichever channel is the partner in 2022, and position itself to avoid these conflicts.
And people have to stop getting upset that NBC promotes NASCAR during the IndyCar race, especially when IndyCar is the lead-in programming. NBC wants the viewers to stay all day when the series are back-to-back. They want people to watch IndyCar at noon and stick with the NASCAR race all the way through until its checkered flag at 6:00 p.m.
It isn't crazy that IndyCar was running NASCAR promos ad nauseam during Road America for the Nashville race. One, it is NBC's first NASCAR race of the season and, two, it was a new track. That is how it works. And we cannot ignore that Road America got 807,000 viewers, the most-watched NBCSN race in almost five years. But NASCAR also drew 2.6 million viewers for the Nashville race that immediately followed.
While IndyCar drew over 1.3 million viewers for Mid-Ohio, NASCAR had more than double for Road America immediately after, 3.1 million viewers to be exact. Like it or not, IndyCar is significantly behind NASCAR, but leaving NBC Sports likely is not going to change that.
IndyCar has a solid base of about one million people that will tune in no matter what. NASCAR has a solid base of about 2.5 million people that will tune in no matter what. Advantage NASCAR.
IndyCar does have to ask itself some tough questions as it works on this next television contract. Is is happy as a lead-in for NASCAR races on a regular basis? It certainly helps the television number, but IndyCar finds itself in a tight window. It has a two-hour block with a 30-minute buffer zone to get the checkered flag in.
Being a lead-in also dictates how long IndyCar's races are. Mid-Ohio worked because it was shortened to 80 laps, ten laps shorter than previous Mid-Ohio races held. The 80-lap race worked, but it did take a strategic element out of the race, as it appeared it was always going to be a two-stop race and the six laps of caution early confirmed it. The 90-lap races brought on some thrilling battles as some drivers hoped the tires would last at the end of each stint and a two-stop strategy would prevail while others would go on the chase and hope the speed allowed with a three-stop strategy would come out on top.
I don't like IndyCar running shorter races especially if it takes out the two-stop vs. three-stop element, but it is a concession that has to be made if IndyCar wants to avoid running head-to-head with NASCAR. NBC will set up IndyCar and NASCAR so both succeed, but IndyCar also has to make sure it is putting on the most competitive race it can show. Mid-Ohio ended well this year with Josef Newgarden holding off a late charge from Marcus Ericsson, but that isn't always the case when both drivers are on the same strategy.
There are advantages to both series sharing a network, especially in the latter half of the year. As much as people want IndyCar to shine on its own, recent history suggests that is not going to happen. The grass isn't always greener and bailing on NBC because things aren't perfect isn't the answer. Perfect doesn't exist. CBS Sports was a rumored player for the future IndyCar rights back in May, but CBS Sports has since withdrawn interest. One of the issues was CBS' commitment to golf. There was not enough room at CBS for IndyCar, and the cable channel CBS Sports Network is puny compared to NBCSN and even USA Network. If IndyCar had switch to CBS and CBS Sports Network, it would be a worse situation than when IndyCar joined Versus in 2009.
ESPN has Formula One, but it isn't investing anything into that broadcast, and I doubt its would put more into IndyCar than it was last time around. That doesn't leave many other players out there and I do not see Fox, Turner or any other channel stepping up at this time and giving this disconnected sector of the fan base what they wish.
We should find out IndyCar's television future soon, but regardless of if it stays at NBC or moves to another partner, we must remember we have to get along with all the other sport properties. IndyCar is not going to be the top of the pecking order if it can't break a million people on cable. Until IndyCar is averaging three million viewers per race, it will have times where coverage will have to scurry to the next event, or races will be lead-ins for other races.
It is not perfect, but IndyCar's current position is not a bad one. There are plenty of positives to draw from it and we are seeing positive numbers for the series. We cannot get angry every time something does not go the way we would like, and we have to get along with the other sports properties regardless of where IndyCar is shown. That is the healthiest option for any fan.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Marco Andretti, but did you know...
Maximilian Günther and Sam Bird split the Formula E races in Brooklyn.
The #65 Panis Racing Oreca-Gibson of Julien Canal, Will Stevens and James Allen won the 4 Hours of Monza. The #4 DKR Engineering Duquesne-Nissan of Laurents Hörrs and Jean-Phillipe Dayrault won in the LMP3 class. The #55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron, David Perel and Alessandro Pier Guide won in GTE class.
Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Cup race at Atlanta. Kyle Busch won the Grand National Series race at Atlanta, the 102nd in the series. Austin Hill won the Truck race at Knoxville.
Shane van Gisbergen swept the Supercars races from Townsville. Van Gisbergen has four consecutive victories and he has won ten of 16 races this season.
Gabriele Tarquini and Frédéric Vervisch split the World Touring Car Cup races from Aragón.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One returns to Silverstone.
NASCAR has its final race before its Olympic break at Loudon.
Only IMSA's GT classes will be at Lime Rock Park.
Monza remains busy with its first FIA World Endurance Championship round.
Supercars remain in Townsville for another round.
Rally Estonia hosts the World Rally Championship.
