Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Scott Dixon did it again. Jett Lawrence completed the perfect AMA Motocross season, winning all 22 races. A record was matched after a few showers in the Netherlands. Americans had flashes, both good and bad. One race did not complete enough laps to be official. Some notable names will not be contending for a championship. Mazda MX-5 Cup tested at Martinsville. A son will be returning to his father. There were some scheduling conflicts this weekend, and that has been on my mind for some time.
Proper Scheduling
Earlier nonsense prevented this from being addressed at the start of the month, but North America's three biggest series have a communication problem.
That is not surprising, but it is a little less acceptable in the 21st century. We have cell phones, people! You can have a video conference from anywhere in the world. You don't even have to leave your house! Time is a precious commodity and that could be the cause any misconnection, but there are enough shared partners that they should at least set aside some time for one another.
August 6 was a rather busy day if you enjoy IMSA and IndyCar and NASCAR. The IMSA race from Road America began at 11:00 a.m. ET, which was 10:00 a.m. local in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. A little over 90 minutes later, IndyCar was taking the green flag from the streets of Nashville. At 2:30 p.m. ET, about 45 minutes after IMSA finished, and just over a half hour after the IndyCar race was finished the NASCAR Cup race began.
It was a full day of racing, but let's not think this is an ideal situation. Nobody is fighting for a 10:00 a.m. local start. IMSA may have been the lead-in broadcast for the NASCAR race, but at what trade-off to the in-person crowd?
We know when the series are not competing against one another they all do better. Shouldn't that competition be limited?
It would be nice if each series got its own television window, but when they are all competing in the Eastern or Central Time Zones, there is going to be some stepping on toes. It isn't going to work out where one can start at 1:00 p.m., another at 3:00 p.m. with an evening capper. Each gets a good television window and is at a good time for people attending the events, but it isn't a practical regular schedule. It works for a few weekends, specifically holiday ones, but those are few.
There are so few IMSA weekends and IndyCar weekends compared to NASCAR that the number of times all three are competing on the same weekend let alone the same day is scarce. Unless it is a holiday, the events of August 6 should be avoided.
IMSA has many open weekends in the summer. It could have moved some pieces around in its schedule and run Road America the week prior when there was only a NASCAR Cup race and then shifted Lime Rock, which went head-to-head with the IndyCar race from Iowa, to the weekend of August 6 and get to run on Saturday without any significant conflict. Lime Rock could have led into the race for NASCAR's second division that afternoon.
We saw it this weekend as well. IMSA began the Virginia International Raceway round at 2:00 p.m. ET while IndyCar started at 3:30 p.m. ET, and the NASCAR Truck Series race from Milwaukee, the only complete standalone race for the series, began at 4:00 p.m. ET.
All three have the same television partner during this time of the year. There is a way to create a schedule that works for all three without this many direct conflicts. IMSA has already released its 2024 schedule, but there is still time to work with one another, and there is already one question.
The Mosport round will be July 14. Though it is only LMP2 plus the two GTD classes, Mosport is scheduled for the same weekend the IndyCar Toronto race took place in 2023. That suggests either something is changing for 2024 or motorsports fans in the Province of Ontario will have a difficult decision to make. The two series should not forcing the paying audience, much of which has interest in both, to choose a side and only attend one. This could be the worst avoidable conflict between the two series.
One week either way for Mosport and it at least allows people to attend both. IMSA also has an entire month off from August 25 to September 22 where a race could be positioned.
Conflicts are going to happen from time to time, but many should be avoided.
IndyCar and NASCAR have more clashes. Again, some are unavoidable, but a good number could be. Toronto and Loudon were going to be at the same time this year, until the NASCAR Cup race from New Hampshire was rained out. The second Iowa race was the same time as the Cup race from Pocono. Detroit and Gateway were going to be at the same time before rain delayed the Gateway Cup race. The same was going to happen with Barber Motorsports Park and Dover in April before another rain delay this year.
If it wasn't for Mother Nature, this would have been a more frustrating year for viewers. Maybe she is telling us something?
There are understandable circumstances, but when everyone talks about working together, there doesn't appear to be much of that. It isn't going to work out where one series will always be in the Pacific Time Zone, and it makes scheduling easy, but even that isn't a given. Long Beach and Martinsville clashed this year!
A precious period of time exists on Sunday afternoons, and everyone is fighting for it, even if time zones means it could be avoided. Maybe that is one of those few occasions when we just have to accept the conflict, but the other half-dozen, especially when IMSA, IndyCar and NASCAR will all be starting around the same time, don't make any sense leaves at least one party shortchanged.
It does come down to television slots, and networks do compete against one another and is not going to look out for each other. As for the series on the same family of networks, would it have made more sense for VIR to be this Saturday afternoon and lead into the NASCAR Cup race? It takes a Sunday away from VIR, which isn't great for selling a weekend and Sunday is a better day to draw a crowd than Saturday. Could IMSA have run last weekend when there was just a Cup race from Watkins Glen and no IndyCar?
Or couldn't the GT-only round have waited another week and be run on Labor Day weekend, beginning at noon, leading into the IndyCar race from Portland, which already leads into the Southern 500 from Darlington and created a full day of racing?
But what do I know?
It is easy to make a schedule on paper. There is much more that goes into it, but there are too many conflicts to believe this is the best all parties can do.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Jett Lawrence and Scott Dixon, but did you know...
Max Verstappen won the Dutch Grand Prix, his record-tying ninth consecutive victory.
Chris Buescher won the NASCAR Cup race from Daytona, his third victory of the season. Justin Allgaier won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season. Grant Enfinger won the Truck race from Milwaukee, his third victory of the season.
The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor won the IMSA race from Virginia International Raceway, its second victory of the season. The #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow won in GTD, its second consecutive victory and fifth of the season.
The #22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson of Philip Hanson, Oliver Jarvis and Marino Sato won the 4 Hours of Aragón. The #17 Cool Racing Ligier-Nissan of Adrien Chila, Alex García and Marcos Siebert won in LMP3. The #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Scott Huffaker, Takeshi Kimura and Davide Rigon won in GTE.
The #16 ARTA Honda of Nirei Fukuzumi and Hiroki Otsu won the Super GT from Suzuka. The #18 Team UpGarage Honda of Takashi Kobayashi and Syun Koide won in GT300.
Christian Rasmussen won the Indy Lights race from Gateway, his fourth victory of the season. Kiko Porto and Nikita Johnson split the USF Pro 2000 races from Austin.
Isack Hadjar (sprint) and Clément Novalak (feature) split the Formula Two races from Zandvoort. The sprint race did not award points as only two points were completed due to weather.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar's penultimate round in Portland.
Formula One has its final European round with the European Grand Prix.
NASCAR opens its playoffs with the Southern 500 from Darlington.
MotoGP is at Barcelona.
Hockenheim hosts the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup.
