Track Walk: St. Petersburg 2020 - Season Finale

For the first time, St. Petersburg will decide the IndyCar champion

 

The 14th and final round of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season will be the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Seven and a half months ago, the IndyCar teams were set up at Alfred Whitted Airport, ready to begin another season, this one with over two-dozen entries carrying aeroscreens for the first time at a race weekend. In a blink, the 2020 season was indefinitely delayed, eventually starting at Texas in June and St. Petersburg was rescheduled to the season finale spot on October 25. This is the first time a street course has hosted the season finale since 2003 at Surfers Paradise. This year's St. Petersburg race has been shortened to 100 laps for the first time since 2012. 

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday October 25 with green flag scheduled for 2:32 p.m. ET.
Channel: NBC
Announcers: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will be in the booth. Kevin Lee and Marty Snider will work pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule 
Saturday:
Practice: 10:55 a.m. ET (90 minutes)*
Qualifying: 3:05 p.m. ET * (NBCSN will have tape-delayed coverage at 8:00 p.m. ET) 
Sunday:
Warm-up: 10:40 a.m. ET (30 minutes)*
Race: 2:32 p.m. ET (100 laps)

* - All practice and qualifying sessions are available live with the NBC Sports Gold IndyCar pass.

Dixon vs. Newgarden

The Astor Cup will either go to Scott Dixon or Josef Newgarden at the end of this weekend. 

Dixon will clinch the championship with a finish of ninth or better regardless of what Newgarden does and the number of bonus points he earns. The number of possible outcomes that end with a Newgarden championship is small. 

A Newgarden victory, with the minimum of 51 points, combined with a Dixon finish of 12th or worse will give the Tennessean his second consecutive championship and his third title in four seasons. If Newgarden wins with two bonus points, Dixon has to finish 11th or worse. If Newgarden wins with three or four bonus points, Dixon has to finish tenth or worse.

If Newgarden finishes second, he will need Dixon to finish 23rd or worse to win the championship. 

If Newgarden finishes third, he will need to score all the bonus points, the one for pole position, the one for leading a lap and then the two for most laps led and have Dixon finish dead last, 24th, with no bonus points to take the championship. 

In case of a tie, Dixon owns the tiebreaker over Newgarden with four victories to Newgarden's three. Even if Newgarden were to win at St. Petersburg, Dixon would still own the tiebreaker with two runner-up finishes to Newgarden's one. 

Dixon is going for his sixth IndyCar championship, which would put him one behind A.J. Foyt's all-time record of seven championships. This would be Dixon's second title in three seasons, and it would be his fourth championship in the last eight seasons. This will be his 12th time in the last 14 seasons he has finished in the top three of the championships and it will be his 15th top five championship finish in 20 IndyCar seasons. 

If Dixon wins this championship, he will be the first champion over the age of 40 since Nigel Mansell in 1993 and the oldest champion since Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1989 CART championship at 43 years old.

Newgarden is aiming for his third IndyCar championship in four seasons. He is looking to become the first driver to win consecutive championships since Dario Franchitti won three consecutive titles from 2009 to 2011. He would become the first Penske driver to win consecutive championships since Gil de Ferran in 2000 and 2001. A third title for Newgarden would put him level with Rick Mears for most IndyCar championships for a Team Penske driver. 

Newgarden could become the 13th driver with at least three IndyCar championships joining Foyt, Dixon, Mario Andretti, Sébastien Bourdais, Franchitti, Louis Meyer, Ted Horn, Jimmy Bryan, Mears, Al Unser, Bobby Rahal and Sam Hornish, Jr. He would be the sixth driver to win three championships before the age of 30.

This is the 15th consecutive year with an American open-wheel series championship being decided in the final race of the season. 

In those 14 previous seasons, the championship lead changed hands six times, but it has not happened since Dixon won the 2015 championship over Juan Pablo Montoya on tiebreaker. Dixon trailed the Colombian by 47 points entering the Sonoma finale and that was double points race. In the five other times a driver overcame a deficit in a finale, those were not double points races and the largest margin overcome was 17 points in 2012 when Ryan Hunter-Reay took the title from Will Power at Fontana.

Since the formation of CART, this is the 34th time the championship will be decided in the finale. If you include Scott Sharp coming from behind to become a co-champion in the inaugural Indy Racing League season in 1996, only eight times has a driver come from behind on the last day of the season to take the title.

This is the sixth time Dixon has led the championship entering the finale. The only time Dixon lost the championship lead on the final day of the season was in 2009. He entered Homestead three points ahead of Franchitti. Franchitti won the race and the championship while Dixon finished third and Dixon lost the championship by ten points.

Newgarden is the most recent St. Petersburg winner, but his best St. Petersburg finish prior to last year was seventh and he had never led at St. Petersburg prior to last year's victory. His qualifying record is suspect. He started second last year, but that was only the second time he has made the Fast Six in qualifying and he has failed to make it out the first round of qualifying four times in eight starts.

Dixon has had rough days at St. Petersburg. While he has ten top ten finishes and seven top five finishes, he has never won at the track and last year was the fourth time he has finished runner-up at the 1.8-mile street course. He does have five finishes of 15th or worse in this race with three retirements. The good news is he has not retired from a St. Petersburg race since 2010, however, he has not led in this event since 2012. 

Dixon and Newgarden have been the top two drivers this season. They are first and second in victories, first and tied for second in podium finish with Newgarden, Will Power and Alexander Rossi all on five. Dixon and Newgarden are tied for most top five finishes with eight, but Dixon has 12 top ten finishes over Newgarden's 11, however they rank first and second again. Dixon leads IndyCar with an average finish of 5.153 to the 5.538 Newgarden sports. 

The two drivers have both completed all 1,800 laps this season and prior to 2020 only twice in IndyCar history has a driver completed every lap, Tony Kanaan in 2004 and Simon Pagenaud in 2017. Newgarden does have the edge in a few categories. He does have three pole positions this year, while Dixon has not won a pole position since the 2017 Indianapolis 500. In average starting position, Newgarden has a clear upper hand, leading IndyCar with 5.307 while Dixon is sixth in IndyCar averaging a grid position of ninth.

For the third consecutive season, Newgarden will lead IndyCar in laps led, the first driver to lead in laps led for three consecutive seasons since Alex Zanardi in 1996-98. With 434 laps led, Newgarden has led 104 laps more laps than Dixon, who ranks second.

Last Chance For Success

While two drivers battle for a championship, 17 drivers are fighting to end the 2020 season with at least one victory to their name.

Patricio O'Ward is the top driver in the championship without a victory as O'Ward sits fifth in the championship. He has three podium finishes this year and in all three of those races he was a factor for victory. O'Ward has won at St. Petersburg in Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights. He is looking to give Arrow McLaren SP its first victory since Iowa 2018 and its first victory on a road/street course since NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015.

Graham Rahal's first career victory came at St. Petersburg 12 years ago, but Rahal returns in 2020 stuck on six career victories since the middle of 2017. He has finished on the podium three times this year and he has four consecutive top ten finishes entering this weekend. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing has not had multiple race winners in a season since 2001 with Max Papis and Kenny Bräck.

Alexander Rossi has not won a race in his last 20 starts and Rossi is on a bit of a hot streak. He has finished on the podium in the last four races, the longest podium streak in his IndyCar career. Rossi could become the first driver with five consecutive podium finish since 2016 when Will Power had six consecutive podium finishes from the second Belle Isle race through Pocono. All those results for Power were first or second-place finishes. Simon Pagenaud opened the 2016 season five consecutive podium finishes; two runner-up finishes and three victories.

Ryan Hunter-Reay looks to avoid his second consecutive winless season and his fourth in the last five years with a victory at St. Petersburg. Hunter-Reay's most recent victory was the 2018 season finale at Sonoma. The only other time Hunter-Reay has a top five in a season finale was his first career victory at Surfers Paradise in 2003, his rookie year. Surfers Paradise became the finale after Fontana was cancelled due to wildfires.

Santino Ferrucci heads to St. Petersburg on four consecutive finishes outside the top ten. Ferrucci has never finished outside the top ten in five consecutive races. Last year, he was ninth at St. Petersburg, his best finish on a street course.

Jack Harvey has six top ten finishes this season, including three in the last four races. Last year, Harvey picked up his first career top ten finish when he was tenth at St. Petersburg. He did have three podium finishes at St. Petersburg in Indy Lights.

Rinus VeeKay scored his first podium finish with a third-place result in the first Harvest Grand Prix race. In six Road to Indy starts, VeeKay's worst finish at St. Petersburg was fifth in Indy Lights. He has three victories at the track (one in Indy Lights and two in Indy Pro 2000) and he has five podium finishes.

Marcus Ericsson has one final shot to do something that has never been done in Chip Ganassi Racing history: Have three different drivers win an IndyCar race in one season. The only drivers that have more top ten finishes this season than Ericsson are Dixon, Newgarden, Colton Herta and Patricio O'Ward.

Conor Daly has not finished in the top ten on a road course this season and Daly has not had a top ten on a road course since finishing tenth in the 2017 season finale at Sonoma. When it comes to street courses, Belle Isle is the only one where he has a top ten finish. He was sixth in the second Belle Isle race in 2015. In 2016, Daly was runner-up to Sébastien Bourdais in race one and sixth in race two. 

Álex Palou will be making his first street course start in IndyCar and it is coming off a ninth-place finish in the second Harvest Grand Prix race. The only street course Palou has competed on is Macau. He first ran the Macau Grand Prix in 2014 and finished 16th while Rosenqvist took the victory and Ferrucci finished eighth. In 2017, he was 11th and in 2018 he was involved in a first lap accident.

After missing the Harvest Grand Prix due to concussion-like symptoms, Oliver Askew will be back in the #7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. This will be Askew's final race with the team and it will come in his backyard. Askew is from Melbourne, Florida. No Florida-born driver has ever win an IndyCar race. In six Road to Indy starts at St. Petersburg, his only victory was in U.S. F2000.

The last driver to have his only victory come in the season finale was Tony Kanaan, who won the 2014 season finale at Fontana.

Besides the Battle at the Top

All eyes will be on the championship battle, but there are plenty of other battles for championship positions. 

Colton Herta is third on 401 points, 13 points ahead of Will Power, but these two drivers are also fighting for most road/street course points this season. Herta leads with 244 road course points, seven markers clear of Power. Power has been the top road/street course driver in five of the last ten seasons. The only other drivers to lead road/street course are Dixon in three seasons, Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud. 

Newgarden, Dixon and Rossi are also in contention for most road/street course points this season. Newgarden is 25 points back, Dixon is 38 points behind Herta, and Rossi trails his teammate by 42 points. 

O'Ward is 12 points off Power in fifth of the overall championship. O'Ward is attempting to be the first Arrow McLaren SP driver to finish in the top five of the championship since Pagenaud was fifth in 2014. Graham Rahal has breathing room around him in sixth, 22 points off O'Ward and 26 points ahead of Sato. This could be Rahal's sixth consecutive season in the top ten of the championship. Sato is 17 points clear of Pagenaud with Pagenaud six points ahead of Rossi. 

A seventh-place championship finish would be the best for Sato in his IndyCar career, and it would be his third top ten championship finish in the last four seasons. Sato did not have a top ten championship finish in his first seven years in IndyCar. 

Rosenqvist sits in tenth on 294 points, 11 points off Rossi. Rosenqvist is nine points ahead of Hunter-Reay with Ferrucci 11 points outside the top ten. Harvey is 17 points outside the top ten and VeeKay is 20 points out. Ericsson sits in 15th on 265, nine behind VeeKay, but with a 41-point gap ahead of Daly.

Hunter-Reay has finished in the top ten of the championship in nine of the last ten seasons. He was 12th in the 2016 championship. Ferrucci, Harvey, VeeKay and Ericsson have all yet to finish in the top ten of the championship and are all looking for career-best championship finish.

VeeKay will clinch 2020 Rookie of the Year honors simply starting at St. Petersburg. He is 54 points clear of Palou, who sits 17th in the championship, entering the finale. VeeKay will make it six different nationalities for the last six IndyCar rookies of the year and Ed Carpenter Racing will become the sixth different team in the last six seasons to field the rookie of the year. VeeKay will also be the first Chevrolet driver to win rookie of the year since Chevrolet returned to IndyCar in 2012.

Long-Awaited Debut

The season finale will be the IndyCar debut for three-time Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin, who will make his long-awaited IndyCar debut with Team Penske.

McLaughlin wrapped up his ninth Supercars season last week with a fifth-place finish in the Bathurst 1000. He won the championship for the third consecutive season this year with 13 victories from 30 races. He had finished in the top ten of the championship in all eight of his full seasons. In 2012, he competed as a co-driver at Sandown and Bathurst before running the final race on the Homebush street circuit in Sydney for his solo debut. 

He is one of nine drivers with at least three Supercars championships and he is fourth all-time in victories with 56. Forty-eight of his 56 victories came with DJR Team Penske and he is ranked third all-time in Team Penske victories behind Brad Keselowski (66) and Mark Donohue (59).

McLaughlin was originally supposed to make his debut at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis when it was scheduled for May. He did participate in the preseason test at Circuit of the Americas and he ended up third fastest behind only Power and Rossi and ahead of Newgarden, Herta, Pagenaud, Askew, Dixon, Palou and O'Ward. 

McLaughlin also participated in all six iRacing events IndyCar held during the lockdown. McLaughlin won the events at Barber and Indianapolis while he was runner-up at Michigan and fourth at Watkins Glen and Austin. He was 24th in the Motegi event, but he was taken out while in second after contact from Askew when the American was fighting to get back on the lead lap late in the race.

With McLaughlin sliding behind the wheel of the #3 Chevrolet, he will be the first driver other than Hélio Castroneves to drive car #3 since the 2009 season opener at St. Petersburg when Will Power drove the car while Castroneves was sidelined due to his tax evasion case. McLaughlin will become the seventh New Zealander to start an IndyCar race. He will be the second New Zealander to drive for Team Penske. Mike Thackwell made his only two IndyCar starts with Team Penske in 1984 at Laguna Seca and the Caesar's Palace street course. 

Scott Dixon has made 334 starts but none of the other New Zealanders have made more than five starts. Wade Cunningham is the second most experienced Kiwi with five starts. Denny Hulme made four starts and Matt Halliday and Graham McRae each started three races. 

Since 1946, only three drivers have won their first career start: Graham Hill in the 1966 Indianapolis 500, Nigel Mansell in the 1993 season opener at Surfers Paradise and Buzz Calkins in the inaugural Indy Racing League race held at Walt Disney World Speedway in 1996.

Road to Indy

Both Road to Indy championships were claimed on October 11 at New Jersey Motorsports Park, as each Indy Pro 2000 and U.S. F2000 ran triple-headers to bolster their 2020 schedules. Each season will end with a doubleheader at St. Petersburg.

Idaho-native Sting Ray Robb clinched the Indy Pro 2000 championship with a second, first and third in New Jersey. This was Robb's fourth season in the series and his second with Juncos Racing. He has five victories and eight podium finishes from 13 starts. His worst finish was tenth in the first Mid-Ohio race back in July. Robb is the third Juncos Racing driver to win the Indy Pro 2000 championship in the last four seasons. 

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport driver Devlin DeFrancesco will fall short of the championship, sitting 73 points behind Robb entering the final round. He has finished tenth or worse in four of the last five races after starting the season with a victory, five podium finishes and eight top five finishes from the first ten races with his worst result being eighth. 

Artem Petrov and Danial Frost are tied on 292 points, 20 points behind DeFrancesco. Petrov won two of the first four races but has not won since. Frost won the first race of the season and opened with three consecutive podium finishes. Since the first three races, his only podium finish was second in the first Mid-Ohio race of the September weekend. 

Hunter McElrea and Parker Thompson are each looking for their first victories of the season. McElrea has four runner-up finishes, the most this season. Thompson has not won in Indy Pro 2000 since the second St. Petersburg race last year. Manuel Sulaimán is ending 2020 on a strong note. He has won two of the last five races and sits seventh in the championship, nine points behind McElrea and five points off his DEForce Racing teammate Thompson.

Colin Kaminsky is coming off a runner-up finish from pole position in New Jersey. He is eighth in the championship ahead of Antoine Comeau and Braden Eves. Eves has missed the last seven races after his accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Eves had a victory, two podium finishes, four top five finishes and two pole positions in his eight starts this season.

Kory Enders and Moisés de la Vara are 20 points and 21 points respectively behind Eves for that final spot in the top ten of the championship.

Indy Pro 2000 will race at 5:40 p.m. ET on Saturday October 24 and 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday October 25.

Christian Rasmussen's two victories in New Jersey locked up the 2020 U.S. F2000 championship for the Danish driver, but Rasmussen has something to race for this weekend. If Rasmussen will sweep the weekend, he will become the all-time leader in U.S. F2000 victories with 14 victories. Current Chip Ganassi Racing performance director Chris Simmons holds the record of 13 victories.

Nine of Rasmussen's 12 career U.S. F2000 victories have come this season. He has stared on pole position for eight of 15 races and he is 69 points clear of Eduardo Barrichello and Reece Gold, who are tied for second. Rasmussen's championship is also the first for Jay Howard Driver Development, which is in its second U.S. F2000 season. 

Barrichello has three victories this season while Gold has two, though Gold has more podium finishes this season, holding the advantage at nine to seven over the Pabst Racing driver. Michael d'Orlando is the only other driver to win a race this season and he is on 259 points in fourth, 47 behind Barrichello and his Cape Motorsports teammate Gold. 

Exclusive Autosport driver Christian Brooks has nine top five finishes this season and he is eight points behind d'Orlando for fourth. Josh Green has two runner-up finishes this season and he is sixth on 216 points, eight points ahead of Cameron Shields, who had a runner-up finish in the second race in New Jersey. 

Matt Round-Garrido opened the season with four consecutive top five finishes but has only one top five result in the last 11 races. He is on 199 points. Jack William Miller was third at Indianapolis Raceway Park and second on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, however he has only four top five finishes from 15 races and sits on 186 points in ninth. 

Yuven Sundaramoorthy rounds out the top ten on 164 points. Sundaramoorthy picked up his first top five finish in New Jersey, while Prescott Campbell scored his first top five result and a podium finish. Campbell is 19 points outside the top ten. Nolan Siegel is three points off Campbell and has two podium finishes and a pole position this season. 

The U.S. F2000's first race will be at 4:40 p.m. ET on Saturday October 24. The season concludes on Sunday October 25 at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Fast Facts
This will be the fifth IndyCar race on October 25 and first since A.J. Foyt won at Sacramento in 1964.

Other October 25 winners include Tommy Milton at Charlotte in 1924, Jimmy Bryan at Sacramento in 1953 and Jim Hurtubise at Sacramento in 1959.

Last year, Josef Newgarden became the first driver to win the championship after winning the season opener since Will Power in 2014.

Last year, Josef Newgarden became the first driver to win at St. Petersburg in IndyCar and Indy Lights. He won the 2011 Indy Lights race at St. Petersburg.

Five other drivers entered for this year's IndyCar race have won at St. Petersburg in Indy Lights (Marco Andretti, Felix Rosenqvist, Colton Herta, Patricio O'Ward and Rinus VeeKay).

Last year's St. Petersburg race was the fastest since the race expanded to 110 laps, 198 miles with an average speed of 95.572 MPH.

Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe are the only drivers to have their first career IndyCar victory come at St. Petersburg.

Graham Rahal and Josef Newgarden are the only two American drivers to have won the IndyCar race at St. Petersburg.

The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 5.6875 with a median of fourth.

The pole-sitter has not won at St. Petersburg since Will Power in 2010. The only other time the pole-sitter won at St. Petersburg was Hélio Castroneves in 2007.

Fourth starting position has produced five St. Petersburg winners, more than any other starting position.

A St. Petersburg winner has never started third.

Sébastien Bourdais is the only driver to win at St. Petersburg from a starting position outside the top ten. Bourdais won from 21st on the grid in 2017 and from 14th in 2018.

Since 2012, Chevrolet has won six of eight St. Petersburg races. Sébastien Bourdais is the only driver to win for Honda at St. Petersburg since 2012.

The average number of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race is 6.5625 with a median of seven. The most lead changes were 11 in 2018. The fewest lead changes was two in 2003.

The average number of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is 4.25 with a median of five. The average number of caution laps is 18.8125 with a median of 18 laps.

Every St. Petersburg race has had at least two cautions. Four of the last six St. Petersburg races have had exactly two cautions. The fewest caution laps in a St. Petersburg race was eight in 2017.

Possible Milestones:

Will Power is one victory away from being the fifth driver to reach the 40 victories milestone. 

If Scott Dixon wins at St. Petersburg, he would tie Mario Andretti's record of 26 different tracks with a victory.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 59 laps to reach the 6,000 laps led milestone, the fifth driver to reach that milestone.

Scott Dixon needs to lead 97 laps to surpass Hélio Castroneves for fourth all-time.

Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 47 laps to reach the 2,700 laps led milestone.

Josef Newgarden needs to lead 22 laps to reach 2,500 laps led milestone.

Ryan Hunter-Reay needs to lead 51 laps to reach the 1,600 laps led milestone.

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 21 laps to reach the 800 laps led milestone.

Graham Rahal needs to lead 73 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Alexander Rossi holds off Will Power for his first victory of the season. Josef Newgarden rounds out the podium. Scott Dixon will cross the final line in fifth with Colton Herta in fourth. Scott McLaughlin will qualify and finish ahead of Simon Pagenaud. One of the rookies will finish in the top ten, but not better than eighth. Sébastien Bourdais will finish at least in the top 12. Marco Andretti will finish in the top twenty. There will be a record-low number of cautions. Sleeper: Felix Rosenqvist.

Musings From the Weekend: Should the IndyCar Finale Have Remained Double Points?

We had one of the best Petit Le Mans on record. Hindsight says Alexander Rossi should have stayed in the #7 Acura over Ricky Taylor. Nobody wants to win the MotoGP championship. Four different riders led the Moto2 championship during that race from Aragón. The World Superbike championship ended as planned, though Portugal's increased lockdown measures is making people worried ahead of Formula One's return to the country. Clean air won again in NASCAR and it was cold. The Supercars season concluded with the Bathurst 1000 and a popular winner. The IndyCar season finale is upon us and that is where we will start our week. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

Should the IndyCar Finale Have Remained Double Points?

There have been many revisions, cancellations, postponements, adjustments, amendments, expansions and truncations to get the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season in and now we are staring down the finale, one month later than scheduled at an event originally intended as the season opener. 

Five events became doubleheaders. Many race weekends were shortened to two days. We had a new qualifying format for the doubleheaders on ovals. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course hosted three races. The 2020 season did have three fewer races than originally planned but reaching the finish line feels like a significant achievement and also pure survival. 

Back in March, we weren't sure if any races would happen. We were preparing for the first year without an Indianapolis 500 in 75 years. This year could have been much worse, and yet, we have made it and the championship will be decided in late October on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico instead on the final day of summer in Monterey with the Pacific Ocean in the distance. 

One of the many changes for this season was IndyCar deciding the season finale would not be a double points race. The finale had been worth double points since 2014, when Fontana was the finale and the triple crown races, the 500-mile races at Indianapolis, Pocono and Fontana were all double points that season. Sonoma became the season finale in 2015, Pocono and Fontana each became regular point-paying events, while Indianapolis remained double points and Sonoma became a double points race. 

Double points races have divided the fan base. Many see it as an unnecessary gimmick. Others understand Indianapolis being double points because of its length and prestige (and IndyCar fans will give the Indianapolis 500 a pass for anything). Some are ok with Indianapolis and the finale being double points race because the series can make up the rules, these are established rules, the drivers and teams know the rules and that is fair. There are no surprises. This is all laid out before the start of a season. Everyone is competing with the same rulebook.

I can live with it either way. Did it hurt IndyCar when every race was worth the same? No. Are double points for two races, including the finale, a travesty? No. A driver can still clinch the championship a race early, it just requires double the points. Think of it as a driver needing to win by two to clinch a title early. It is still possible; it just requires a little more work.

During the lockdown, IndyCar decided this year's finale would not be a double points race, and that was a smart decision because we didn't know where the finale would be or when it would be or if it would happen as scheduled. When IndyCar made the decision on March 30, we had four races postponed and there was a chance Long Beach could be rescheduled, though that had plenty of hurdles to clear and we were still suspect of Portland and Laguna Seca happening. After being at St. Petersburg only to have the event called off on the Friday of race weekend, we all knew there would be a chance we could get through the penultimate race and then have the finale cancelled days before the event was to take place and it would not be rescheduled. 

With uncertainty over when the finale would take place and what would be considered the finale, IndyCar had to do what was best for the sanity of the series. It could not afford to announce double points for a finale, only for the finale to be cancelled. That is a difficult position. If the finale was cancelled, you couldn't retroactively make the penultimate race a double points race. If there was a retroactive adjustment to the championship and there was a change at who was first, people would be furious that a champion was not decided on the racetrack. At the time, removing double points for the finale was the right thing to do. 

However, we have now reached the end of the season. IndyCar has contested 13 races. All signs point to St. Petersburg happening. There was no reason IndyCar had to decide right then in there on March 30 whether or not the finale was double points. There were plenty of decisions made during the season that affected the championship. IndyCar created an entirely new qualifying format for the oval doubleheader events during the season. With the increase in road course doubleheader events, there was an extra point available in each of those qualifying session because in the road course doubleheader events the fastest driver in each qualifying group gets a point. Instead of having only two extra points for the Belle Isle races, there were an additional four points available because of there being three road course doubleheaders. 

IndyCar didn't have to commit to double points for the finale immediately, but if the series wasn't going to do it for the finale, it shouldn't have done it for the Indianapolis 500 either. There should have been a balance to this season and every event should have been worth the same. The Indianapolis 500 results now weigh more heavily over the championship picture than if there was at least one more double points race. One more double points race doesn't necessarily even it out, but an argument can be made that it would be fairer. 

In the current situation, Scott Dixon holds a 32-point lead over Josef Newgarden heading into St. Petersburg race. All Dixon has to do to clinch the championship is finish ninth or better. If St. Petersburg had been worth double points, Dixon would have a smaller window to guarantee his championship. With double points, Dixon would have to finish third or better to clinch the championship. 

While you might think Dixon's margin of error shrinking for a top-nine finish to a top-three is unfair and it would diminish what has otherwise been a dominant series for the Ganassi driver, it actually wouldn't. If the Indianapolis 500 had been treated like the 13 other races on the 2020 calendar, which means 50 points for a victory, at many as three bonus points for leading lap, and no additional qualifying points, only one point for pole position, Dixon would be heading to St. Petersburg with a 15-point lead over Newgarden, meaning the only way Dixon could guarantee taking home the championship was with a second-place finish. 

It ends up working out that double points in the finale would balance the scales this year and effectively make the championship picture almost identical to if there were no double points races at all.  

Single points across the board would still mean it would only be a two-horse race, but Will Power would be third and Colton Herta would be fourth entering the finale. Takuma Sato would be tenth, not seventh in the championship, behind Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist. Marcus Ericsson would three spots higher in 12th, Rinus VeeKay and Jack Harvey would flip with VeeKay in 13th and Harvey in 14th and Santino Ferrucci would be three spots lower in 15th. 

Double points wouldn't have changed that much this year nor have double points done that much in the six previous seasons double. All double points have allowed this year is for Dixon to have a larger cushion and the top finishers in the Indianapolis 500 are gifted a few extra spots in the championship while those who struggled in that one race are a few spots lower. 

Since IndyCar adopted it, double points have never really produced a championship result that did not fit what actually happened on track. A few drivers have gotten some lucky breaks and ended up a few spots better in the championship. There were a few extra drivers with a shot at the championship entering a final race, but it allowed for a circumstance whereas many as six drivers were alive in a finale. Scott Dixon might have gotten an extra championship out of it in 2015, but Dixon did win the most races that season in a year where no driver was head and shoulders above the rest. 

IndyCar history has not tremendously shifted because of these double points races and specifically double points finales. Everything that has happened fits what has happened on track. It passes the eye test. We haven't had any odd champions that feel hollow. The double points races have not overshadowed the rest of a season. A driver still needs to be strong over 17 races. One great result in a double points race does not completely make up for a dozen average or poor results. 

I am for fewer points being awarded in races, but double points are not the worst thing to happen to IndyCar. If IndyCar had decided to keep double points for this year's finale, it would have been fine and after looking over it, it would have hardly changed anything heading into the finale. It would have still been Dixon vs. Newgarden. The only difference is how much breathing room Dixon is playing with.

Champions From the Weekend

Jonathan Rea clinched his sixth consecutive World Superbike championship with a fourth-place finish in race one from Estoril.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Jonathan Rea's championship, but did you know...

Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander won the Bathurst 1000. It was van Gisbergen fourth victory of the season and his first Bathurst 1000 victory. It is Tander's forth Bathurst 1000 victory. Tander is the 12th driver to reach four Bathurst 1000 victories.

The #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac of Renger van der Zande, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon won Petit Le Mans, the team's second victory of the season. The #8 Tower Motorsport by Starworks Oreca-Nissan of John Farano, Mikel Jensen and Job van Uitert won in the LMP2 class. The #911 Porsche of Nick Tandy, Frédéric Makowiecki won in the GTLM class. The #63 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan, Cooper MacNiel and Jeff Westphal won in the GTD class.

Álex Rins won MotoGP's Aragón Grand Prix, his first victory of the season. Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race, his second consecutive victory and Lowes took the championship lead with this victory. Jaume Masiá won the Moto3 race, his first victory of the season.

Toprak Razgatlioglu won the first World Superbike races from Estoril with Chaz Davies taking the third race. Andrea Locatelli and Lucas Mahias split the World Supersport races. Locatelli ended his championship season with 12 victories from 15 races. 

Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race from Kansas, his third victory of the season. Chase Briscoe won the Grand National Series race, his ninth victory of the season. Brett Moffitt won the Truck race, his first victory of the season.

René Rast swept the DTM races from Zolder for the second consecutive weekend and he has six victories this season.

Nick Cassidy won the Super Formula race from Sportsland SUGO.

Esteban Guerrieri won the bookend WTCC races from Hungaroring with Yann Ehrlacher winning the middle race.

Coming Up This Weekend

The IndyCar finale at St. Petersburg with the Road to Indy series.

Formula One makes its first visit to Portimão for the first Portuguese Grand Prix since 1996.

MotoGP remains in Aragón for the Teurel Grand Prix.

There will be the 24 Hours of Spa and it will be 24 hours despite falling on the end of Daylight Savings in Europe.

NASCAR heads to Texas.

Super GT makes its second trip to Suzuka this season. 

Let's Look at the League - October 2020

There is still a little under two weeks until the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season finale at St. Petersburg and we know the championship picture. We know it will come down between one of two drivers for the crown. A few other drivers will be fighting for top five and top ten championship finishes. St. Petersburg will be the final chance to get a victory before the year is out. 

St. Petersburg will also be the conclusion of my second year of looking at IndyCar through a head-to-head, league format. We last looked at the league back in early September, prior to the Mid-Ohio round. There were three regular season weeks left, the playoff drivers were not set, a relegation spot was on the line, as was a promotion spot, and the second Harvest Grand Prix race would double as the semifinal round for the playoffs.

Where are we after those four races? Let's go over the finish to the regular season:

League One Results

Week 12 (MID-OHIO):

#1 Penske vs. #7 AMSP (2 to 19)

#9 Ganassi vs. #20 ECR (10 to 13)

#12 Penske vs. #55 Coyne (1 to 12)

#30 RLLR vs. #15 RLLR (17 to 4)

 

#22 Penske vs. #98 Andretti (18 to 23)

#27 Andretti vs. #14 Foyt (3 to 22)

#10 Ganassi vs. #5 AMSP (6 to 11)

#28 Andretti vs. #18 Coyne (5 to 14)

 

Week 13 (MID-OHIO):

#1 Penske vs. #12 Penske (8 to 7)

#9 Ganassi vs. #30 RLLR (10 to 18)

#15 RLLR vs. #20 ECR (4 to 16)

#55 Coyne vs. #7 AMSP (23 to 15)

 

#22 Penske vs. #10 Ganassi (6 to 22)

#27 Andretti vs. #28 Andretti (2 to 3)

#18 Coyne vs. #14 Foyt (14 to 21)

#5 AMSP vs. #98 Andretti (9 to 20)

 

Week 14 (HARVEST GP):

#1 Penske vs. #9 Ganassi (1 to 9)

#12 Penske vs. #30 RLLR (6 to 18)

#15 RLLR vs. #55 Coyne (7 to 17)

#20 ECR vs. #7 AMSP (12 to 20)

 

#22 Penske vs. #27 Andretti (16 to 2)

#10 Ganassi vs. #28 Andretti (5 to 19)

#18 Coyne vs. #5 AMSP (15 to 22)

#14 Foyt vs. #98 Andretti (21 to 25)

Conference 1 Standings:

#1 Penske 11-3

#9 Ganassi 11-3

#12 Penske 10-4

#15 RLLR 8-6

#30 RLLR 6-8

#7 AMSP 5-9

#55 Coyne 4-10

#20 ECR 1-13

Conference 2 Standings:

#10 Ganassi 12-2

#28 Andretti 9-5

#18 Coyne 9-5

#22 Penske 8-6

#5 AMSP 7-7

#27 Andretti 5-9

#98 Andretti 3-11

#14 Foyt 2-12

What happened?

With Scott Dixon's victories in the two Mid-Ohio races, he locked up a playoff spot, while Josef Newgarden assured his spot with a victory in the first Mid-Ohio race. In the first Harvest Grand Prix race, Newgarden's victory over Dixon got him the #1 seed from his conference. 

Felix Rosenqvist had already locked up the #1 seed in his conference, but it was an interesting three-way battle for second. Simon Pagenaud won the two Mid-Ohio races and kept himself alive but lost the first Harvest Grand Prix race and fell a victory shy of making it a three-way tie. Santino Ferrucci went 2-1 and Ryan Hunter-Reay went 1-2 in the final three weeks, leaving the two drivers tied on 9-5 records. 

The tiebreaker was head-to-head record between the two drivers and Hunter-Reay went 2-0 over Ferrucci, defeating in Texas qualifying in week one and in the first Mid-Ohio race, meaning Hunter-Reay virtually locked out any hope of Ferrucci making the playoffs with that victory at Mid-Ohio because that meant at best they could finish tied and Hunter-Reay held the tiebreaker.

Even if Pagenaud had made it a three-way tie, Hunter-Reay would have gotten the playoff spot because the tiebreaker would be head-to-head between the three drivers. Hunter-Reay was 2-0 against Ferrucci and was 1-1 against Pagenaud, giving him a 3-1 record. Ferrucci was 2-0 against Pagenaud with victories in the first Road America race and the first Gateway race, but his record would be 2-2 and Pagenaud was 1-3. 

What about the relegation fight?

We knew the #20 ECR entry was going down in Conference #1, and it did not take look to settle Conference #2. Once Alexander Rossi defeated Dalton Kellett at the first Mid-Ohio race and Ferrucci defeated Kellett the next day, it was over. The #14 Foyt entry was going down. Bourdais did get a victory over Andretti in the first Harvest Grand Prix race after Andretti lost his engine, but it was merely a consolation prize.

The good news is the #20 ECR did get its first victory of the year in the final round when Conor Daly finished 20th, one spot ahead of Hélio Castroneves in the #7 AMSP entry. 

League Two Results

Week 12:

#88 AHSR vs. #60 MSR (9 to 7)

#21 ECR vs. #8 CGR (8 to 15)

#26 Andretti vs. #31 Carlin (Walkover)

#59 Carlin vs. #4 Foyt (16 to 21)

Week 13:

#88 AHSR vs. #26 Andretti (1 to 17)

#21 ECR vs. #59 Carlin (11 to 13)

#4 Foyt vs. #8 CGR (19 to 5) 

#31 Carlin vs. #60 MSR (Walkover)

 

Week 14:

#88 AHSR vs. #21 ECR (4 to 3)

#26 Andretti vs. #59 Carlin (14 to 11)

#4 Foyt vs. #31 Carlin (Walkover)

#8 CGR vs. #60 MSR (10 to 8)

League Two standings:

#88 AHSR 11-3

#21 ECR 10-4

#59 Carlin 9-5

#60 MSR 7-7

#8 Ganassi 7-7

#26 Andretti 6-8

#4 Foyt 5-9

#31 Carlin 0-11

League Two At-A-Glance:

Colton Herta was already assured promotion and with Rinus VeeKay going 3-0 in the final three weeks while Max Chilton went 2-1, the #21 ECR entry earned promotion, meaning the two ECR entries will pass each other like two ships in the night, one ascending to the top league while the other settles into the second-tier. 

Here are the tentative 16 entries that will be in League One next year:

#1 Penske 

#9 Ganassi

#10 Ganassi

#28 Andretti

#12 Penske 

#18 Coyne

#15 RLLR

#22 Penske

#30 RLLR

#5 AMSP

#7 AMSP

#27 Andretti

#55 Coyne

#98 Andretti

#88 AHSR

#21 ECR

Once again, this is tentatively. Some entries might close down. That might mean the #20 ECR or #14 Foyt could stay. Someone in League Two, like the #59 Carlin entry could get promoted or the #60 MSR entry could move up. I am not quite sure how I would rectify that issue if it arises, but I will come up with something if needed. We will set the conferences once this season is over, we know the final entrants' championship standings and when we know who will be running in 2021.

Tentative League Two entries:

#20 ECR

#14 Foyt

#59 Carlin

#60 MSR

#8 Ganassi

#26 Andretti

#4 Foyt

#31 Carlin

Playoffs

With all that done, and with this pandemic affected season, the playoffs were reduced to the top two from each conference, a semifinal round at the penultimate race and the championship settled in the finale. 

We split the entries from each conference, meaning the top seeds would face the second seed from the other conference.

That meant the #1 Penske faced the #28 Andretti and the two Ganassi entries matched up in the second Harvest Grand Prix. 

Newgarden ended up fourth with Hunter-Reay in 16th. 

Dixon was eighth with Rosenqvist in 11th. 

That means the head-to-head championship at St. Petersburg will come down to either Josef Newgarden or Scott Dixon, the two drivers that are battling for the actual championship. 

Last year, the head-to-head championship came down between Newgarden and Ed Jones in the #20 ECR entry, because Ed Carpenter finished ahead of Alexander Rossi at Gateway and then Dixon had his mechanical failure at Portland, allowing Jones to beat Dixon in the semifinal. The #20 ECR entry went 7-7 and was a four-seed. Newgarden was a one-seed and had the second-best record at 11-3 behind Rossi's 12-2. Newgarden beat Hinchcliffe and Pagenaud in the first two playoff rounds. In the finale, Jones never really got close to Newgarden and Newgarden took two championships, one actual and another hypothetical.

This was only year two of this theoretical competition. I was always curious how head-to-head matchups would play out. It is not as clean cut as the actual championship. A top five championship driver can have a ho-hum day and finish 10th but lose a head-to-head matchup to someone who is 19th in the championship because that driver finished ninth. 

But in the first two years, the actual IndyCar champion has made the finale. The first year, the champion was against an entry barely in the top 15 in the entrants' championship. The other two semifinalists were second and fourth in the championship and went to the Laguna Seca final with a shot at the actual title. 

This year, the other two semifinalists are currently tenth and 11th in the championship. Rosenqvist had the best record and he has only five top ten finishes from 13 races. The top five finishers from Conference #1 are all in the top seven of the championship. In Conference #2, three of the drivers in the top ten of the championship finished behind the 11th and 13th-place drivers on head-to-head matchups. Pagenaud has won a race and yet he finished behind a driver that hasn't even stood on the podium. The bottom three full-time teams in the entrants' championship had the three worst records in League One and yet the worst full-time entrant on points is staying in League One because of head-to-head results.

Strange, but sometimes strange is good. 

The championship battle between Dixon and Newgarden was already going to be on the mind of every IndyCar fan during the finale, but keep in mind the head-to-head battle during the St. Petersburg race. Newgarden might finish ahead of Dixon on the track and not score enough points to take the Astor Cup. However, that would be enough for Newgarden to take his second consecutive fictional head-to-head championship.

Musings From the Weekend: Squeezing in Events

This was an off-week for me. I had the Bathurst 1000 on my schedule a week earlier than its actually date, but I guess it is better to be a week early than a week late. I am at least prepared. However, I did not realize the MotoGP race and the Formula One race started an hour earlier than usual. Anyway, Lewis Hamilton tied Michal Schumacher's record of 91 grand prix victories. It rained at Le Mans and Ducati made history. It rained in Charlotte, NASCAR was a mess, but IMSA did quite well. The Road to Indy Series visited New Jersey and both series had titles wrapped up. We are going to start this week looking at Formula One pulling off the Nürburgring event and whether or not track of its ilk have a place on future calendars. Here is a rundown of what got me thinking.

Squeezing in Events

Despite the weather, Formula One's return to the Nürburgring received a warm welcome. 

People enjoyed being back at the famed German track for the first time in six years. People were excited last month to visit Mugello for the first time. Portimão, Imola and Istanbul are the next three races and there is anticipation for all three. 

It is fun to do something different, especially when the Formula One schedule can remain relatively unchanged year after year. There is always the occasional new venue in Formula One, but most of those tracks are newly built, typically Hermann Tilke designed with miles of paved runoff and 22 corners squeezed into three miles of tarmac. 

It is rare to get a returning venue or for Formula One to visit a historic track that has never hosted Formula One before. There is always something that gets in the way, whether that is believing the circuit isn't up to standards or lack of money. Money is the answer 99% of the time. Not many places can drop $20 million to host a Formula One race. 

This year has led to a much different calendar, and one that is exciting because it is unprecedented. There was a strong belief Formula One would never visit Nürburgring or Imola again. I doubt anyone thought Mugello or Portimão would get races. Then Istanbul came in out of nowhere and Formula One decided to do a race around the Bahrain perimeter circuit. 

Three of those tracks have never hosted Formula One before. Two of them had not hosted a race in the previous six to ten years. Another had not been on the calendar in 14 years. This year has been terrible across the board, but if there is one positive we can look back on and smile about is the 2020 Formula One calendar. We might not see anything like this again. 

These visits to unfamiliar venues have led some to suggest Formula One should have a handful of "invitational" events, races at tracks not normally on the schedule and those races are different each year. It would allow some old venues to return, as well as allow some other newer tracks to get a race. 

There are more than 22 circuits that can host Formula One, but the one issue is timing and money. 

There are only so many weekends in a calendar year, and it costs a lot of money to host a Formula One race. I doubt any track would want a one-time $20 million cost. The tracks need a little more meat for that price tag. 

We have seen a condensed schedule with back-to-backs are possible for Formula One and I think that is one way we can get a few more events on the schedule. Liberty Media already set the goal of 25 grand prix weekends. The original 2020 schedule was supposed to have 22 races. The goal is within reach, and there are tweaks Formula One can do to get to 25 races. 

Mugello came the week after Monza, and with strategic back-to-backs, Formula One can get to 25 races while also visiting different venues and not heaping excessive travel on the teams. 

Back-to-backs have become more frequent in Formula One, as the schedule has inched over 20 races. This year we even had a few back-to-back-to-back stretches. There are fewer weekends to work with and I am sure teams want to limit the number of three consecutive weekends with races, but I think there are ways for such stretches to take place and not entirely wear out the teams. 

The first is hit strategic back-to-backs where it makes sense. Why couldn't Formula One have two races in Australia every three or four years? You can have Melbourne and then return to Adelaide or visit The Bend Motorsports Park or there could be another venue that pops up. Why couldn't Japan host two races every so often? Or China? Or France? Or Germany? Or the United Kingdom? 

We have heard plenty of talk about a second race in the United States. Depending on location, that second US race could be tied with the Canadian Grand Prix in June or Austin in autumn, which would likely have to be a three-week stretch of Austin, the second US race and Mexico. We could also pair a race in Argentina with the Brazilian Grand Prix. Malaysia could rotate in every now and then and either pair with Vietnam at the start of the year or Singapore toward the end. We could also pair Thailand with either Asia-Pacific swing as well. 

The season could also start earlier. For the last couple of years, Formula One has made preseason testing into a four-day event, normally at Barcelona. Why couldn't the first race occur immediately after testing? I know teams would hate that because they are trying out the cars for the first time and know there are massive updates that will be made, but maybe we adjust the regulations, allow the teams to test on their own for the two weeks prior to that test, schedule a four-day test from Monday to Thursday and then that Friday begin a race weekend before the season opener at the same track. 

It could be a "grand premiere grand prix" each year at the start February or in the middle of February. The venue could rotate. It likely wouldn't be at Barcelona, but it could be a way for Jerez, Portimão or Estoril to end up on the schedule. A Middle East venue like the Dubai Autodromo could be a suitable location. It could rotate to a few different venues. 

The "grand premiere grand prix" could also see different strategies when it comes to the new car. Even if the teams were given two weeks of free testing with their new cars ahead of the start of the season, some might decide to run the previous season's car because the new one is not fully polished and instead of going into a race weekend with something unproven, a team might go with something tried and true while others might roll the dice. That would lead to an interesting opening race. Does old faithful win out while other teams falter working out the kinks or does a team hit it out with a new car while a conservative strategy bites a team early? 

The European Grand Prix could return and become a rotating event where a different track hosts it every year, similar to the UEFA Champions League Final. A track could bid and maybe it could get two years in a five-year period if it has the funding. You could see a rotation that includes races at Donington Park, Magny-Cours, the new KymiRing in Finland (which was supposed to host MotoGP this year), a return to Donington Park, and then Zolder or Valencia (Circuit Ricardo Tormo, not the street course) or Hockenheim or maybe another track pops up because they have new found belief in hosting a Formula One race. Maybe its Brno. Could you imagine Formula One at Brno?

If these "invitational" events happen, they should get a little more security than just a one-and-done. For starters, these can be Formula One races at a typical Formula One price. These have to be discounted weekends and a favorable business deal for the track. Any agreement should see a track get two or three shots, whether that is hosting a race over consecutive years or spreading the dates out over five or ten years. These tracks should get multiple chances to host an event. One event cannot be indicative of what a track has to offer. Two or three years would take into account that poor weather could affect one weekend, allow a track to have a mulligan and it would allow these tracks to learn and make improvements from year to year. 

I think a lot of preconceived notions about what is possible for a grand prix weekend and an entire calendar have been obliterated this year. There are still limits. We are not going to have a grand prix every weekend, but I do believe Formula One is more open to taking chances and actually trying new things. Imola will be a two-day weekend. That could be a way to contest a few extra races without overstraining the teams. There were going to be nine European rounds in 2020. That would be 27 days on track. If there were 12 European dates and eight were two-day shows and four were three-day shows, that would be 28 days on track. You could get three more rounds and only spend one more day at a track. 

There would still be setup time and travel, but if it was Monza to Mugello or Zandvoort to Zolder or Barcelona to Portimão, the teams would at least be in the neighborhood all things considered. 

We are still in the pandemic and it is going to be around for a good portion of 2021. Any attempt at "invitational" races or a rotation of part-time events might be a few years away. When the time comes, the entire landscape could be different and such events could be impossible anyway. We still have to get through this, but I think many are looking to a different future once it is over and are ready to accept the change.

Champions From the Weekend

Christian Rasmussen clinched the U.S. F2000 championship with victories in the final two races from New Jersey Motorsports Park. Eduardo Barrichello won the first race of the weekend.

Sting Ray Robb clinched the Indy Pro 2000 championship with finishes of second, first and third from NJMP. Devlin DeFrancesco and Manual Sulaimán split the other two races.

The #22 United Autosport Oreca-Gibson of Filipe Albuquerque and Phil Hanson clinched the European Le Mans Series LMP2 championship with its victory at the 4 Hours of Monza, the team's third consecutive victory.

Jordi Torres won the MotoE World Cup championship with a victory and a sixth in the final weekend at Le Mans. Niki Tuuli won the second MotoE race. It was the first victory of the season for both Torres and Tuuli.

The #32 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi of Dries Vanthoor and Charles Weerts won the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup championship with finishes of sixth, second and second at the Barcelona season finale.

Winners From the Weekend

You know about Lewis Hamilton and company, but did you know...

Danilo Petrucci won MotoGP's French Grand Prix, his first victory of the season and it was Ducati's first victory at Le Mans and in the French Grand Prix. Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race, his first victory since the 2016 Moto2 race at Aragón. Celestino Vietti won the Moto3 race, his second victory of the season.

Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup race from Charlotte, his third victory of the season. A.J. Allmendinger won the Grand National Series race, his second victory of the season. 

The #3 Corvette of Jordan Taylor and Antonio García won the IMSA race from Charlotte, its fifth victory of the season. The #96 Turner Motorsport BMW of Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley won in the GTD class, its second victory of the season.

The #13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier-Nissan of Martin Hippe and Dino Lunardi won the LMP3 class in the European Le Mans Series race from Monza. The #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski, David Perel and Nicola Cadei won the GTE class.

Dani Sordo won Rally Italia Sardegna, his second consecutive year winning the event.

René Rast swept the DTM races from Zolder.

The #163 Emil Frey Racing Lamborghini of Albert Costa and Giacomo Altoe, the #66 Attempto Racing Audi of Nicolas Schöll and Frédéric Vervisch and the #88 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG of Timur Boguslavskiy and Raffaele Marciello split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Series races from Barcelona.

Nathanaël Berthon, Tom Coronel and Nicky Catsburg split the WTCC races from Slovakia.

Coming Up This Weekend

Now it is Bathurst 1000 weekend.

IMSA has Petit Le Mans.

Jonathan Rea looks to clinch his sixth World Superbike championship at the season finale in Estoril.

MotoGP is in Aragón for its first of two consecutive race weekends at the track.

DTM has its second consecutive weekend at Zolder.

NASCAR begins its semifinal round at Kansas.

Super Formula will be at Sportsland SUGO. 

WTCC heads to Hungary.

NASCAR's Big, Long-Awaited 2021 Schedule

October opened with 2021 scheduling news for America's two largest motorsports series and NASCAR had long been touting a shakeup with its 2021 calendar. 

Next year will be different, though for everything that is different, the 2021 NASCAR calendar will have a familiar feel. 

There will be three new tracks for the NASCAR Cup Series next year, with Road America getting its first Cup date in 65 years, Nashville Superspeedway getting its first Cup date and its first national NASCAR series race since 2011 and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas will get its first ever NASCAR date.

Along with those three new locations, Darlington and Atlanta each get second races back. Prior to 2020, Darlington had not had multiple Cup races since 2004 and Atlanta has not hosted multiple Cup races since 2010.   

To make room for these five dates, Dover hands one of its dates to Nashville, as Dover Motorsports, Inc. owns Nashville Superspeedway. Austin is leasing Texas Motor Speedway's spring date for the 2021 season. Road America is leasing a date from NASCAR, presumedly the Chicagoland race, which falls off the schedule after hosting a race since 2001. Kentucky loses its one Cup date so Atlanta can gain its second date. Michigan loses a race so Darlington can pick up its second date. 

Buried under all the date shuffles and new tracks is the spring Bristol race becoming a dirt race and the Brickyard 400 will move from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval to the IMS road course. 

While Texas loses a points-paying race, it will gain the All-Star Race, which will shift from the middle of May to the middle of June, specifically June 13. 

The Daytona 500 remains the season opener on February 14 with Homestead shifting to the second date of the season. The Bristol dirt race will be March 28 with the new Darlington race on May 9, Austin on May 23, Nashville on June 20, Road America on July 4, Atlanta on July 11, Indianapolis on August 15 and Daytona concluding the regular season on August 28.

Other regular season races to note include the possible final race on the two-mile Fontana circuit on February 28. Dover's lone date is May 16. The Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte remains on Memorial Day weekend, May 30. Sonoma is scheduled to return on June 6. The Pocono doubleheader remains for June 26-27. Watkins Glen will be on August 8, the first race back after NASCAR takes two weeks off for the Olympics. Michigan's lone date will be the penultimate regular season race on August 22. 

All the playoff races remain the same as 2020 with the only change being Texas and Kansas switching dates. Texas will lead off the semifinal round ahead of Kansas and Martinsville. Phoenix remains the season finale for a second consecutive season.

NASCAR has shaken up its 2021 calendar with new dates, new racetracks and track configuration changes. However, it does feel a little too familiar, kept the money within the existing duopoly and distracts people from not getting what they wanted most. 

None of the new tracks are really getting a slice of the pie. Nashville happened to have the right owners. Dover Motorsports, Inc. is spreading its crumbs around. NASCAR, which absorbed International Speedway Corporation last year, and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. are each giving Road America and Austin a nibble for one year through the leases. Each of those dates could go elsewhere in 2022. 

NASCAR had been running multiple races at Darlington and Atlanta for decades. Those are not new events and neither track showed a rebound justifying the return of second races. No one was really vouching for either to gain races. It almost feels like NASCAR making a market correction for moves made over the previous 15 years.

Flying over the heads of many and going unnoticed is the 2021 schedule shuffle did not add any more short-track races, which the masses have been begging for. The number of intermediate oval races did decrease from ten to nine, but the number of short track races remains six, and one will be a dirt race in place of a Bristol race that was not a concern. 

The wait for another short track race will have to wait until 2022, when Fontana is converted to a half-mile oval, despite NASCAR already owning Iowa. NASCAR thought its best plan for adding a short track race to the Cup schedule would be to spend tens of millions of dollars to completely renovate a two-mile track into a half-mile instead of going to a track that NASCAR already owns. That track was built within the last 15 years, was already deemed acceptable for NASCAR's other two national divisions, even the modified division was scheduled to visit Iowa in 2020 before the pandemic and has hosted IndyCar. NASCAR had a golden solution sitting right in front of its face that it could plug into the schedule with little effort and it tossed it away. 

The dirt provides a distraction from that fact. 

Losing a Bristol race for a dirt race is one step forward and two steps back. A dirt race could be the most-overrated idea in NASCAR history. It sounds nice, like playing basketball games on aircraft carriers, but we could find it was only a good idea on paper. These Cup cars are heavy and low on horsepower. They are not going to sling dirt like a sprint car or a dirt late model. As we have seen with seven Truck races at Eldora, the last five of which have averaged a speed between 41 and 46 MPH, a Bristol dirt race will be a slow affair with cars trudging around at 65 MPH when a typical Bristol race has an average speed over 20 MPH faster. 

This is at most a vanity event at the behest of Fox. It could drum up some interest but ultimately fall on deaf ears. Something kooky, but receiving little attention outside the bubble NASCAR already lives in. It is scheduled for the final Sunday in March. If everything goes right, the NCAA tournament would have Elite Eight games that day drawing the attention of most American sports fans. 

Even in adding a dirt race, NASCAR did not do it for the most possible good for the series. If adding a dirt race, no matter what, would give NASCAR a positive outcome of at least +2, adding a dirt race in place of a Bristol race is at most a +3. If this dirt race was in place of a Pocono race or a Las Vegas race or a Kansas race, it would be greater than a +3, it would likely be a +5 or +6. If it was for a Pocono race that would likely be the most possible good and be a +10! 

We got changes, but these changes do not maximize what is the best possible schedule. 

NASCAR had a recent history of schedule realignments to learn from with its 2021 decisions, and unfortunately, it appears to have repeated some of its worst offensives from the 1990s and 2000s. 

I really hoped NASCAR would have learned to not entirely shutdown racetracks and abandon fanbases. That has not changed, as Chicagoland and Kentucky will be entirely gone from the NASCAR schedule, not just losing Cup dates but losing all national touring series races. It appears Iowa will also lose its Grand National Series races and Truck race and close entirely.

After watching North Wilkesboro, Rockingham, Nazareth, Pikes Peak, Memphis, the Milwaukee Mile and Indianapolis Raceway Park lose races and disappear from the scene, some closed forever, others hanging on with minor events, you would have thought NASCAR would have had a little more compassion for the million dollar palaces built and favored over the less-glitzy short tracks that were pilfered over the previous two decades. Chicagoland and Kentucky face the same fate of the previously trampled regional gems. 

Nothing says growing motorsports and increasing outreach more than shutting tracks down. NASCAR might have had too many intermediate races and needed to drop two or three, but it should not have come at the expense of tracks that only had one race. At the very least, even if these tracks had to make way on the Cup schedule, they should have kept something, a Grand National and Truck race to keep the doors open and keep a NASCAR national series visiting the community. That will not happen and fans in Illinois and Kentucky will have to venture a little further if they hope to see NASCAR in person again, or they will have to settle for sitting in front of the television. 

The schedules all mirror one another, and it is partly done to reduce costs for the television partners, but it also is meant to boost the existing tracks. The trend will continue of more triple-headers with all three national touring series together at one track and standalone events become even more endangered ahead of 2021. Iowa is gone. We might be lucky if we are left with Mid-Ohio in NASCAR's second division, and Gateway, Mosport and Eldora in the Truck series. With each calendar realignment, NASCAR's lower two divisions lose a little more of their identities.

This long-awaited 2021 schedule shakeup reset the clock for when people eventually get bored again and demand another shakeup. Maybe that is when Chicagoland and Kentucky return if they are not hidden under bushes and vines. Maybe that is when another short track or two are given races. Whatever occurs, we can be certain it will remain in the houses controlling NASCAR's interests. The dates will not move all that far or to unfamiliar areas. If a track wants to keep a date or gain another, it's best to build a casino somewhere on the property. In the 2020s, that is the best way to assure survival. 

Until 2025 or 2029 or 2032 or whenever people are poking for change, some places get to breathe a sigh of relief it was not them on the chopping block this time around, but they should remain vigilant their demise is not sooner than they realize. 

15 Thoughts on the 2021 IndyCar Schedule

Last week, IndyCar unveiled its 2021 schedule, and after the piecemeal pandemic schedule of 2020, next year was always going to look different. However, compared to even the pre-pandemic 2020 plan, next year will be a shakeup. A few favorite events are gone. Other races are moving. One track is getting an additional race weekend. 

There was a lot to process after it was released, and it generated a reaction on Thursday morning prior to Harvest Grand Prix practice. A week has allowed thoughts to collect, flesh those out and refine a reaction into a response and I am left with 15 thoughts on next year's calendar.

1. I was disappointed when the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series schedule was released, but there is a key distinction between disappointment and anger over what was released. 

The disappointment wasn't so much at IndyCar or anyone organization, but the current conditions and how the pandemic has shaped the 2021 calendar. There is only so much IndyCar can do when tracks are struggling economically and have to make difficult choices. 

People have been laid off across the country in many different professions. Every company is tightening its belts and trying to lower operating costs. Tracks are not going to be any different. 

IndyCar lost Austin and Iowa, and Richmond's second flight never got off the ground. Austin had no major events this year. It added a NASCAR weekend for 2021 because it is probably hoping to have one big money-making weekend in early 2021, along with hopefully MotoGP, before Formula One hopefully returns in October or November. Austin has always been operating on the margins. It likely did come down to deciding between NASCAR and IndyCar and the better bet was NASCAR. 

Iowa might be gone for good, which is devastating, because it came at the end of the track boom of the 1990s and early 2000s and it was the one short track constructed during that time while the cookie-cutter 1.5-mile tracks popped up in Chicago, Kentucky, Texas, Kansas and Las Vegas, and Fontana got a two-mile speedway. 

When everyone is clamoring for more short tracks, the one short track that emerged from motorsports' last great boom is on its deathbed and its only knock is being in Iowa. We have spread motorsports to nearly every part of this country (the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest are a little parched) and yet, Iowa was too remote for NASCAR, but Kentucky got a race. 

I think Richmond could be a 2022 option. Richmond likely could not afford to add a new event when we still aren't sure what public gathering restrictions will be in place next year. It couldn't afford to add an IndyCar race without knowing whether or not it would have attendees in the grandstands. It is a difficult setback because there was an excitement over Richmond returning, but I don't think this means Richmond never happens. It is going to be a little longer of a delay. 

2. Let's go through the schedule... 

St. Petersburg on March 7... sounds about right. 

Then a month off, and IndyCar cannot escape this early season gap. Austin filled it in 2019. Maybe this is an opening in case Austin gets its feet underneath it in 2021 and can bring IndyCar back in 2022. The only problem for IndyCar is it does not have many other places that can fill that early springtime date. 

3. One of the reasons for the gap between St. Petersburg and Barber on April 11 is Easter Sunday on April 4. That is only one week, and it would still be a month between races, but should be noted. 

Long Beach will be April 18, typical Long Beach date. 

4. Can we stop the date equity bullshit from now and for the rest of eternity? 

Texas moves from early June to early May and becomes a doubleheader. 

Belle Isle shifts back a week from the weekend after the Indianapolis 500 to two weekends after the Indianapolis 500. 

Mid-Ohio moves from early August or late-July to Independence Day weekend.

Portland shifts from Labor Day weekend to the weekend after Labor Day weekend, which is also the first weekend of the NFL season, which is foolish. Why you would give up the last NFL-less Sunday to race on the weekend when the NFL season starts and all we have heard from IndyCar for the last decade is how much it wants to avoid football season?

5. Taking this one-by-one, similar to how no one in the NASCAR world was calling for a second Atlanta race, no one in the IndyCar world was calling for a Texas doubleheader. 

This year's race didn't help Texas's perception with some IndyCar followers. The Firestone suggested 30-lap stint limit didn't help, but the residue and track staining from the traction compound Texas uses for the NASCAR race made IndyCar's season opener on network NBC a processional 300-mile race with every car on the bottom and if any car dared to go up half a lane the car was bound to spin or hit the wall. 

Imagine getting that twice in as many days. I am sure Texas, IndyCar and Firestone can work on something to make sure 2021 is better, but I am not sure this is going to stick around. This move to May is in part because Texas will host the 2021 NASCAR All-Star Race and moving it to June. IndyCar made way for NASCAR. 

4. Remember when everyone joked IndyCar would be down to three ovals, Indianapolis, Texas and Iowa? Well, we didn't see Iowa's demise coming and the ascension of Gateway, but it is still three oval tracks with Gateway filling that final spot. 

It would have been nice if Iowa stuck around. Yes, we would only have four oval tracks, but if we had four oval tracks, had the Texas doubleheader and then kept Iowa as a doubleheader, then we would have six oval races. I know we would like six different oval tracks, but I think we could live with six oval races if we had to. 

5. Belle Isle moves back a week, which gives the teams a week off after the Indianapolis 500 and crew members will appreciated that. The race now falls on Le Mans weekend, which is fine, because IMSA will run its own event at Belle Isle on that first weekend in June, but that takes out any IndyCar contingent going. Sorry Sébastien Bourdais. 

Also, I guess that myth about the importance about running the week after the Indianapolis 500 is now busted, correct?

6. The summer is a mess.

Road America is June 20, about where it has been since it returned to the IndyCar calendar. The only problem is NASCAR is bringing the Cup Series to Road America on Independence Day weekend and IndyCar will be at Mid-Ohio that weekend. 

I think IndyCar, NASCAR and NBC botched this because Road America on Independence Day weekend would have been a great place and time for an IndyCar/NASCAR shared weekend. Instead, IndyCar will go to Road America two weeks earlier and then be at another track on the same weekend and the two series will be battling for television real estate instead of working together while being together. 

7. Let's tie in the elephant in the room and that is the IndyCar/NASCAR shared weekend at the IMS road course on August 14-15. The Brickyard 400 is moving to the road course and IndyCar will run on the Saturday. 

Just like a Texas doubleheader, no one was asking for another IndyCar race on the IMS road course. One was good enough.

I support an IndyCar/NASCAR shared weekend, but it can be somewhere else other than Indianapolis. It shouldn't have to be IndyCar tagging along when NASCAR is in town. I get that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the most notable racetrack in the country and Roger Penske owns it, but this IndyCar/NASCAR shared weekend would be better for IndyCar if it was at a track IndyCar wasn't already visiting on its own earlier in the year. 

The IndyCar/NASCAR shared weekend could be a chance for IndyCar to get to one of the handful of tracks it has had difficulty establishing a race at... say Watkins Glen or Michigan or even Richmond. 

IndyCar didn't need to run another race weekend in Indianapolis. I am sad that IndyCar, NASCAR, NBC and the folks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Roger Penske could not have had a better vision for this shared weekend. 

8. Moving Mid-Ohio does two things... it gets IndyCar an Independence Day weekend race and it allows Nashville and the additional IMS road course race on the schedule. 

The 2021 schedule does account for a two-week Olympic break. That does take away two possible race weekends and condenses the end of summer. I am not sure how the schedule will change in 2022 and 2023, two non-Summer Olympic years, but there will be more flexibility and I expect IndyCar to take advantage of that. 

9. I am not a fan of an Independence Day weekend race for IndyCar. 

I think IndyCar is better off giving everyone a holiday weekend off from the series. I think people are too set in their Independence Day rituals and many are not going to shift their holiday behavior to add either attending a race in person or watching it on television. 

I am sure there are plenty of people in the Mid-Ohio area who have Independence Day weekend plans and then have IndyCar race weekend plans for the end of July or start of August. Now, they will have to choose. Some will choose IndyCar, but I have a feeling majority of people will choose what was already planned for the holiday.

Also, the IndyCar Mid-Ohio race will be the same day as the first NASCAR Cup race at Road America in 65 years and the two races will either be simultaneous, or one will be run before the other. I feel like IndyCar at Mid-Ohio is in a losing position after it had a good thing going in its current date. 

IndyCar stressed how important date equity was and then it took a successful Mid-Ohio race and moved it to a more cluttered part of the summer. I apologize for my description but that is moronic. 

10. The other thing the additional IMS road course race does, beside dropkick Mid-Ohio out of its prime date on the calendar, is prevent Gateway from being a doubleheader, and I feel when IndyCar is down to three oval tracks, having a doubleheader Gateway would be better than another IMS road course race, even if it was with NASCAR. 

I understand why Gateway will not be a doubleheader on the 2021 calendar because it is three consecutive weeks of racing and that is asking a lot on the teams. Belle Isle shifting back a week gives the teams the week before and the week after off. Texas has the week before off and the teams will get a week off between Texas and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. 

However, in a way to keep the number of oval races in line with what we have had since 2012, having Texas and Gateway both be doubleheaders makes sense, and I have more faith in Gateway pulling off a doubleheader than Texas. 

It would have been smarter for IndyCar to run Nashville, have a week off and then run a Friday night/Saturday night Gateway doubleheader on August 20-21. 

11. By the way, I don't understand the segment of the IndyCar fanbase who after the schedule came out said they were done with IndyCar because of the lack of ovals.

Let me get this straight, you were only watching Mid-Ohio, Road America, Toronto and Belle Isle because Iowa existed? There is a threshold of oval races needed to justify whether or not you follow the series and watch any of the road course races? 

I don't get that. For starters, since reunification, the schedule has tilted in favor of road/street courses. Since 2012, it has been about a third ovals. I am frustrated about the lack of oval races as well, but to say you are done with the entire series because the percentage of oval races went from 29.4% to 23.5% kind of seems foolish. That 6% was all that was keeping you around? 

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the people that were somewhat tolerating what over 70% of the IndyCar races are because of the other 30% that existed. If you like IndyCar, then you should probably like road course racing, not just tolerate it, but actually like it. Once again, it is over 70% of the series. 

I wish Iowa didn't go away and Richmond actually got a race as well. I wish IndyCar was closer to a 60/40 split. However, IndyCar has been predominantly a road course series for the last 30-plus years. Maybe Tony George is to blame for corrupting the minds of many, but to completely walk away because one oval race was lost is short-sighted. 

12. I already touched upon moving Portland off of Labor Day weekend, but remember when IndyCar officials wanted to turn Labor Day weekend into a big IndyCar finale weekend? Now, they are moving races off that holiday weekend! And that weekend made sense to race on. At least the Southern 500 was at night and IndyCar got the entire afternoon to itself without NASCAR. 

13. Laguna Seca is back in the spot as the season finale. It will not have an IMSA weekend preceding it. Maybe it could see some gains in 2021, but Laguna Seca has its own batch of issues it has to figure out. Let's not hold our breath that Laguna Seca is going to survive this pandemic. It probably will, but let's not be surprised if it doesn't. 

14. The pandemic makes us confront IndyCar's reality, and for years IndyCar has been struggling with oval events and general awareness of the series. We could gloss over it when it was normal. IndyCar could find an oval or two to buy in and give IndyCar a shot. If they took a loss, not the end of the world, because it was a three-year commitment and then IndyCar could find another oval or two to step to the table and lay down a wager. 

That isn't the case during a pandemic. Pockets are too tight to make a low-seven figure gamble for these tracks, and IndyCar is left with its few willing partners.

This has to be an eye-opening experience for IndyCar, and it has to reconsider how it does business, especially when it comes to oval races. 

For the record, I have never been in the, "Well, if as many people went to the oval races as called for the oval races, there would be more oval races" crowd on Twitter because that is a horrible business strategy because you cannot expect 20,000 to 30,000 people to travel to six oval races spread across the country. I think if the average fan can make it out to one race a year that is wonderful.

I don't think the strategy of expecting the average fan to attend a third to half the races each season is going to work. If IndyCar cannot get at least 30,000 different people at the 16 races that are not the Indianapolis 500 then that is on the series. After all, 30,000 different people attending 16 races is 480,000 people and one of those is in Canada, so it would be 450,000 Americans and 30,000 Canadians. If IndyCar has fewer than a half-million willing to attend fans out of a nation of nearly 330 million, the series is in enormous trouble. A half-million is just over a tenth of a percentage of Americans. If you can't draw slightly over a tenth of a percentage of Americans, then IndyCar is fucked. 

I am in the "IndyCar needs an actually strategy and do market research when making up its schedule" crowd. 

I want more oval races and there has to be more than "Twitter wants it" going into these decisions. 

When the NHL expanded into Las Vegas and Seattle, it did season ticket drives to see if there was an interested fanbase in those locations worth pursuing establishing a franchise. IndyCar has to see what tracks will draw a suitable crowd. 

It is not a perfect science, because we see Road America draw great crowds, but for some reason an hour down the road, Milwaukee could only draw a fraction of that. Despite imperfectness, from 2022 onward IndyCar has to do more research into where it will draw fans and what tracks are possible venues. 

IndyCar doesn't need 12 ovals. It needs three or four more. From there, you need a business model to make a crowd of 25,000 or 30,000 work financially for an event. That crowd size is greater than the typical basketball and hockey game. That is better than majority of Major League Soccer teams. 

There has to be a model that works for IndyCar. It might feel odd, or be different, but IndyCar has to do something.

15. This is negative. I am not going to pretend the 14 points above are somehow leaning positive, but this is part of the current times.

This is a difficult period and IndyCar is just trying to get through it. IndyCar is still going to have 13 of the 16 tracks that were scheduled for the 2020 season prior to the pandemic. Losing three tracks at any time is not good and you should be a little disappointed and a little negative when losing racetracks. It's not a good thing. However, during a pandemic, losing only three tracks and not five or six is a minor victory.

There is a balance between being disappointed and a little upset about things and being apoplectic over what is the 2021 IndyCar schedule.

On the bright side, Barber is returning, Long Beach should be back, Portland and Laguna Seca are set to return, Road America, Mid-Ohio and Gateway are set to return, and IndyCar is going to visit Nashville. And let's not forget the Indianapolis 500 is back on Memorial Day weekend.

Maybe a few of these ills can be cured for 2022. Maybe Richmond is in a better position and Iowa and Austin are reinvigorated and all three are on the 2022 schedule and 2021 is just an off year battling the side effects of the pandemic. 

This is a step back in what has been a tumultuous start of the Roger Penske-era in charge of IndyCar. Many are thankful to be going through this difficult time with Penske in charge, but the Captain's job keeps getting a little harder and many difficult decisions lay ahead.