Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
It turned out to be win-and-in after all in NASCAR's regular season finale from Daytona. It was also another big weekend for first time winners. The MotoGP grid could be in trouble. Trackhouse had a rough weekend on multiple continents. Filming took place in Monaco. It was a busy weekend in Wisconsin, and perhaps needlessly so. Though I don't know if it hurt anyone. Patricio O'Ward swept the Milwaukee doubleheader, the first driver to win multiple races in a days since Rick Mears in 1982. Álex Palou clinched his fifth IndyCar championship and fourth consecutive title. IndyCar's penultimate race weekend of the season ended with sunshine, but it did not quite go as planned.
That Wasn't Ideal
We made it through IndyCar's doubleheader weekend from Milwaukee, though it was more obnoxiously difficult than anyone had hoped.
Saturday rain delayed the start of the opening race, and a second shower caused a red flag. IndyCar waited as long as it could to complete the race on its scheduled date, but the weather won out on Saturday causing a clustered Sunday with more racing than anticipated for the final day of the weekend.
The first plan was to resume the delayed IndyCar race at 9:00 a.m. Eastern (8:00 a.m. local), and there would be an hour and 25 minutes to complete the race. The checkered flag would wave at the end of lap 250 or 10:25 a.m. Eastern, whichever came first. From there, the rest of Sunday would take place as scheduled with a 1:20 p.m. green flag for what was the second scheduled race.
The rain continued into Sunday morning, and it was apparent "Plan B" would not happen. The decision was made to delay the conclusion of the first 250-lap race until 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
None of it was ideal. It is rather frustrating when weather cannot cooperate and a schedule cannot be followed. The waiting is the hardest part. It is at least bearable when a timetable can be kept.
It is easy to look at this weekend and say IndyCar did everything wrong. It was a lose-lose situation. We can acknowledge things could have probably been done better.
There was not much that could have been done on Saturday. The rain came between qualifying and race. Unless the race started at 11:00 a.m. local, this was not a case of starting earlier would have solved all the problems. The showers were on and off all day and night on Saturday. Even if temporary lights had been brought in for Milwaukee, this race might not have made it the full distance, and is it really worth stretching a 250-lap race over nine or ten hours just to get to halfway for the race to be official?
Also, IndyCar isn't bringing in temporary lights unless it is going to use temporary lights. That is not an expense to have as a safety net in case it rains. It is never going to be an option unless IndyCar wants a night race at Milwaukee. Let's rule that out for the future.
Sunday could have been handled better from the start. Resuming a race at 8:00 a.m. local is incredibly stupid. It is even more so when people will attempt to attend only to find out the resumption has been delayed until the evening.
If 6:00 p.m. Eastern was always an option, IndyCar should have just chosen 6:00 p.m. Eastern from the start. It does cause a clunky scenario where a full race is taking place with another race to complete. It would be nice if one race could be put to bed before starting another, but it didn't work out that way. IndyCar didn't want to use its Sunday television window to complete the final 60% of a race and delay a full race until later that evening for cable television. That is understandable. Attempting to rush the completion of a race at 8:00 a.m. local is utterly foolish.
It is a lose-lose situation, but there is a worst option. IndyCar is disrespecting the spectators and itself running at 8:00 a.m. local on a Sunday. It is hiding its race running at that hour, viewing it as a chore it is attempting to get out of the way versus a proper race it cares about and should celebrate. Such an early start only makes it harder for everyone to watch, from those at home and the track, and the viewing experience should not be a chore. Running over 400 laps in one day means it will be a long day no matter what, but starting first thing in the morning is ridiculous.
A more accommodating schedule existed and IndyCar should have considered that first and not looked to get the racing over with as quickly as possible.
IndyCar should have kept the regular Sunday schedule intact, and allowed spectators to keep their Sunday morning routine, and added the race resumption to the end of the day. The spectators plans should not have been altered from a 10:30 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. arrival. The plan should have been to run the scheduled race first with a 12:20 p.m. green flag and then have the afternoon where spectators could watch the USF Pro 2000 race in the interim and hit the concession stands before the 5:00 p.m. local resumption. It was always going to be an eight or nine-hour day but it is a much easier eight or nine-hour day arriving just prior to noon than arriving just after sunrise.
We should hold ourselves from chasing hyperbole over what this meant for IndyCar and calling it a disaster. We had two Toronto races on the same day in 2014. We all lived. It wasn't that long ago a Texas race began in June and ended in August. IndyCar didn't collapse in on itself after that weekend. Two weeks ago, we had a weekend where an entire practice day was lost due to incomplete course construction. It is never the end of the world. IndyCar is going to be just fine.
This weekend wasn't ideal. It could have been better, but the schedule is going to be jumbled whenever it rains at an oval. If IndyCar knew this was going to be the forecast, it probably would not have scheduled Milwaukee for this weekend. The series cannot control the weather or know what Saturday will be the one with persistent showers.
I do not believe everything must be turned upside down because of this one weekend. Doubleheaders are still a great value for the fans, and it is the better weekend format, especially for ovals. For as much as IndyCar oval racing has been celebrated since the introduction of the DW12 chassis, it hasn't been attracting fans like flies to honey. They are still the toughest weekends to sell, especially when one day of the weekend is practice and qualifying and a lot of down time. Two races help make it a more full weekend. A strong argument can be made that outside the Indianapolis 500 every oval weekend should be a doubleheader. It would allow for a greater presence in a market, give more to sell to the spectators and it would be another race on television. There are inherent risks in such a weekend. Rain does make it much more complicated should it occur.
How can we solve some of the complications?
More could be done to accommodate doubleheader weekends. The schedule is not perfect, but doubleheaders could be scheduled so there is an off-week either before or after. This year, there was supposed to be an off-week before. Then Washington, D.C. was added. There are only so many things IndyCar can control with its calendar, but it can position a doubleheader so it has enough time before or after to lessen the burden on teams.
Every team should start a doubleheader weekend with a new engine, and it should be in the regulations. If everyone is starting with a new engine, there are no advantages, there is no need for any grid penalties, and teams wouldn't need to change engines between races. It would decrease the work necessary between the races and hopefully give the teams less work post-race Saturday. If teams must change engines between races then it would be a grid penalty but everyone would start fresh and start the weekend knowing it shouldn't need to do it on Saturday evening.
Each team should have a backup car ready to go, engine fitted and everything, in case of emergency on a doubleheader weekend. It would require more preparations, but a doubleheader is a different weekend. The regulations should accommodate the teams in case there is an accident, especially if both races must take place in the same day. Milwaukee was an odd circumstance where an accident in the first race could have meant a team could not resume the other race. Ninety-nine times out of 100 we are never in this scenario, and that wasn't the case this weekend, but for the one time it happens, IndyCar should allow the teams to be ready so no one misses a race.
Communication must improve between the series and spectators. This isn't just a doubleheader issue. This is across the board when it comes to delays. When the weather is bad, sometimes it is clear there is no update. If we are onto our fifth consecutive hour of rainfall, guess what? The status has not changed. With any weather delay, it is very fluid. There is no set plan until track drying commences. You can lay out a plan but that doesn't mean it can be followed accordingly. Weepers furthered delays on Saturday evening. You cannot plan for weepers.
Where IndyCar dropped the ball is stretching out Saturday to a point where we all knew it was a race to sunset, which really meant getting to halfway and whatever number of additional laps beyond halfway was gravy. By the time IndyCar announced its plans, there was about 75 minutes to sunset and the cars weren't even close to being pushed to the grid. Any onlooker with half a brain could have figured out we were going to see at most 40 minutes of racing if Saturday evening's plan stuck. We would have cleared lap 125 and been able to call it a night, but we would have been lucky to reach lap 150 in that case.
It wouldn't have been the first race called early due to darkness and it would not be the last. The entire decision-making process felt dragged out and to the benefit of no one watching in the stands or at home.
Should there be a hard out on a race day even if there is daylight remaining? IndyCar would not win anyone over if it changed its regulations to make an official race only need two completed laps like in Formula One. No one would have been satisfied only seeing a 90-lap race that may pay half-points. It would solve a problem but it wouldn't make anyone happy.
Maybe there should be a cap on how long a delay can be. If a race is not restarted in two hours or three hours it will be finished the following day. It sounds good on paper but we know there will be scenarios where such a stipulation would not make things better, like if a track has lights, or if a delay happens at 1:15 p.m. after 15 laps of a 250-lap race were completed and the rain will end at 3:00 p.m. with sunset not until after 8:00 p.m. You can write a logical regulation but there are instances where common sense will be the way to go even if not written down.
It is easy to be angry, and frustration is understandable. There is a limit on how devastating any disruption will be to the course of life. IndyCar didn't catch two breaks this season when it really could have. Nashville was delayed a day after being scheduled to follow the World Cup Final. Milwaukee became a hectic weekend after IndyCar drew considerable amount of attention from the Washington, D.C. race. If IndyCar had not scheduled a race at either of those times, a fair number of people would have been upset over those decisions.
Life is always lose-lose when you are looking for something that was not perfect. I am not going to fall in that boat. Even with everything that happened at Milwaukee on Saturday, two full races still got in. Sunday turned into a beautiful day for racing, and IndyCar showcased itself at its highest on track. There are still things that should be taken away from this weekend and adjustments made for the future.
It is important to keep perspective. IndyCar has been regularly running doubleheaders since 2013. This was only the second time the first race was delayed and both races had to be held on the same day. Doubleheaders have been held at Iowa, Gateway, Texas and even at Milwaukee prior to this weekend and this was the first time the Saturday race was postponed.
More times than not, things will stick to the schedule. Every now and then, it will not. That is not the end of the world even if you are led to believe otherwise.
Champions From the Weekend
You know about Álex Palou, but did you know…
The #48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Lucas Auer clinched the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup championship with a fourth-place finish in the 3 Hours of Nürburgring.
Winners From the Weekend
Marc Márquez won MotoGP's Aragón Grand Prix, his fourth victory of the season, and Márquez won the sprint race as well. Alonso López won in Moto2, his first victory since the 2024 season opener in Qatar. Máximo Quiles won in Moto3, his seventh victory of the season.
Ryan Preece won the NASCAR Cup race, his first victory in 249 career starts. Ryan Siege won the NASCAR Grand National Series race, his first career victory in 424 starts.
Max Garcia won the Indy Lights race from Milwaukee, his first career victory. Thomas Schrage won the USF Pro 2000 race.
The #007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Marco Sørensen, Mattia Drudi and Nicki Thiim won the 3 Hours of Nürburgring.
The #29 Turner Motorsport BMW of Robby Foley and Justin Rothberg won the GT World Challenge America race from Road America. The #33 Blackdog Racing McLaren of Tony Gaples and Michael Cooper and the #028 RS1 Porsche of Spencer Pumpelly and Luca Mars split the GT4 America races. Memo Gidley swept the GT America races.
Sami Pajari won Rally del Paraguay, his third consecutive victory.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar closes its season at Laguna Seca.
Formula One has its first visit of the season to Italy. This will be to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix.
The 77th Southern 500.
The FIA World Endurance Championship will cook for six hours in Austin.
World Superbikes extended summer break ends with a round at Magny-Cours.
