It took only 1,281 days for Team Penske to go from 500 victories to 600 victories, and it was Josef Newgarden who achieved the milestone victory at Texas Motor Speedway. Kevin Mangussen traded a 12 Hours of Sebring victory for points in his Formula One return. I guess that is worth it. Super Sebring was back, and it is a weekend that was worth it. Marc Márquez went over the edge in Indonesia before the rain and the delay came. Ferrari had a banner day while it went sideways for Red Bull in the closing laps. Atlanta Motor Speedway has been transformed, though the tunnels exiting the track have remained the same. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.
IndyCar Without Texas
IndyCar is accustomed to goodbyes.
It is a near yearly basis IndyCar finds itself visiting a racetrack knowing no matter what happens it will be the series' final time competing there for the near future. Fortunately, history shows that we can never say never, but some places will be gone for a while. Perhaps it is only a year or two, but it could be a decade or an entire generation before IndyCar races at a place again.
This weekend at Texas did not feel like a surefire farewell, but it was borderline.
After a rough three-year period at the 1.5-mile oval where IndyCar struggled to race on the track due to the reconfiguration and the PJ1 traction compound stains in the corners, laid down on the asphalt for the NASCAR races, this year's race had a hint of being the final visit from the time IndyCar left from the Texas doubleheader last May.
Track president Eddie Gossage retiring in the middle of 2021 also didn't help IndyCar's future there. Gossage was long an advocate for IndyCar, with Texas hosting at least one race for over 25 years and at one point hosting two races, including the season finale. With a new sheriff in town, IndyCar does not necessarily have the same guaranteed hospitality moving forward. From the apparent lack of promotion and buzz in the Dallas/Fort-Worth-area ahead of this race, it sounds like this was not the first impression anyone was hoping for. With IndyCar and Texas living on one-year contracts, it would be easy for the series to be escorted out of town and never to return.
For many of us, it is hard to imagine Texas not being on the IndyCar schedule. It has been here since the infancy of the Indy Racing League and the split. It made its mark in the early 2000s with hyperactive races known for constant side-by-side racing, close finishes, and unfortunately, terrible accidents. It was one of the few definitive marks of the IRL at a time when the series identity was highly polarizing. The IRL stood out because of the racing it had on 1.5-mile ovals and while there were plenty of the schedule, Texas stood out among them all.
After reunification and during the recession, the number of 1.5-mile ovals dwindled on the IndyCar schedule. In 2008, there were a half-dozen 1.5-mile ovals. Texas was the last one standing in 2012 and since then it has been the only 1.5-mile oval for the last decade. IndyCar will more likely have zero of the intermediate ovals that proliferated around the turn of the 21st century than increase in the immediate future.
Losing Texas would be a shock to the system even if the race has not been close to its highest level over the last ten years. The track billed itself as IndyCar's second home, and as misguided and incorrect as that tagline is, no other track was flaunting that type of relationship with the series. Texas had clearly diminished in importance to IndyCar and vice versa, but the partnership continued, and it was one of the few venues IndyCar could count on being on the schedule. Schedule consistency is important for the health of the series, and when long-standing races are falling off that is concerning.
This loss is more than just another track. It is another oval gone for a series that has been unable to build any oval foundation when it has openly expressed waiting to keep it as a part of its identity. Even worse is there is not another oval waiting in the wings to join the IndyCar schedule.
After the 2011 season, Kentucky fell off the schedule after 11 seasons, Loudon was gone after a one-year return and Motegi was already switched to the road course after the oval was damaged in the Tōhoku earthquake, but IndyCar was set to lose three oval races from its original 2011 oval schedule in 2012. But then Fontana returned, and while Fontana didn't cover three lost ovals, it softened the blow.
Over the last decade, IndyCar has been always had another oval soften the blow. First it was Fontana. Then Pocono was added to the schedule and IndyCar was back up to six oval races. Unfortunately, Fontana only lasted four seasons and it fell off after 2015, the same year as Milwaukee, but Phoenix kept the number of oval races at five in 2016. Gateway brought the oval total back up to six races in 2017. Then Phoenix fell away in 2018. Pocono was gone the year after that, but Richmond was ready to step up in 2020. Then the pandemic came, and Richmond never happened. Iowa let IndyCar go for the 2021 season.
Texas is on the fritz and there isn't another oval around to step up. IndyCar is fortunate to raise Iowa out of the pandemic ashes, but there is a world where the only oval races on the 2023 calendar are Indianapolis and Gateway. No one else is jumping for IndyCar to return. Richmond has been silent. Michigan isn't walking through that door. Chicagoland is not walking through that door. Langhorne is not walking through that door.
I am not sure when the wakeup call is to come but it should be now and not when the two-oval reality comes to be.
Beyond ovals, losing Texas is losing Texas, as in the entire state. With the second-highest population, leaving Texas would be withdrawing IndyCar from an important part of the country. Five of the fifteen largest cities are in Texas, each has loads of businesses that could be potential partners for the series and the state population is growing.
On top of all that, Texas has a large Mexican American population at a time when IndyCar has a Mexican driver that is about to burst as a star. Can IndyCar afford not to be in Texas at all?
This is about more than running ovals. This is about IndyCar exposure. People went nuts about not having a race in the Pacific Northwest for more than a decade viewing it as an underserved market before Portland returned in 2018. Leaving Texas is even crazier in terms of the future of the series. With nearly 30 million people in the Lone Star State, you have to imagine IndyCar could hold one healthy race there.
Texas Motor Speedway was once that race. It has decline significantly. Houston failed after three separate short stints on the schedule. There was only one IndyCar race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, and while it would be easy to call the race a failure, it was trending in the correct direction before the pandemic started in March 2020. IndyCar had a successful preseason test at the track. The race had gained AutoNation as a title sponsor. It might not have rivaled the Formula One crowd, but it was respectable for what IndyCar draws. Maybe it was building into something. We will never know.
It will likely be a few months before we know whether or not Texas Motor Speedway will return to the IndyCar schedule for the 27th consecutive season in 2023, but until its fate is finalized, we must ask whether or not IndyCar can afford to lose this track for a variety of reasons.
There were reasons for optimism yesterday. This year's race was far better than the 2020 race and both races in 2021, but the track surface is still unfriendly to IndyCar competition. IndyCar had to really work to put on a half-decent show. If the track is not going to work with IndyCar, nor promote its only visit to the state, IndyCar has to weigh its options.
Does the series remain at an inhospitable racetrack and use more resources to try and have a respectable race with no guarantee of success just to remain in the state of Texas and keep its roots in the second largest state or is this a sacrifice IndyCar has to accept and potentially leave the state if another venue cannot be found?
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden, but did you know...
The #02 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Neel Jani won the 12 Hours of Sebring. The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Scott Huffaker, Mikel Jensen and Ben Keating won in LMP2. The #33 Sean Creach Motorsport Ligier-Nissan of João Barbosa, Malthe Jakobsen and Lance Willsey won in LMP3. The #3 Corvette of Antonio García, Jordan Taylor and Nicky Catsburg won in GTD Pro. The #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte and Giorgio Sernagiotto won in GTD.
The #36 Alpine of Andre Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivière won the 1,000 Miles of Sebring. The #23 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson of Paul di Resta, Olivier Jarvis and Josh Pierson won in LMP2. The #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre won in GTE-Pro. The #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard and Nicki Thiim won in GTE-Am.
Charles Leclerc won the Bahrain Grand Prix, his first victory since the 2019 Italian Grand Prix.
Richard Verschoor and Théo Pourchaire split the Formula Two races from Bahrain. Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins split the Formula Three races.
Miguel Oliviera won MotoGP's Indonesian Grand Prix, his third consecutive season with a victory. Somkiat Chantra won the Moto2 race, his first career victory. Dennis Foggia won the Moto3 race.
William Byron won the NASCAR Cup race from Atlanta. Ty Gibbs won the Grand National Series race, his second career victory. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his first career victory in his fifth career start.
Eli Tomac won the Supercross race from Indianapolis, his fourth consecutive victory and sixth of the season.
Coming Up This Weekend
Formula One is back in Saudi Arabia.
NASCAR takes its turn around Texas, but at Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
Supercars has its second round of the season from Symmons Plains.
Supercross visits Seattle for the first time since 2019.
