We are in August and while IndyCar teams are testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen and some are enjoying trips to Rome (Scott Dixon), 2017 is getting closer. The schedule is anticipated to be unveiled by the end of the month and it would likely come at one of the two remaining race weekends this month at Pocono or Texas.
Like any other year, many events we already know as tracks have already announced race dates or others series (Pirelli World Challenge, IMSA, IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge) have released schedules with dates and tracks that correspond with past IndyCar races. Here is what we know:
March 12: St. Petersburg (Released by promoter)
April 9: Long Beach (Released by promoter)
April 23: Barber (Released by IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge)
May 13: Grand Prix of Indianapolis (Released by promoter)
May 28: Indianapolis 500 (Released by promoter)
June 3-4: Belle Isle (Released by promoter and IMSA)
June 25: Road America (Released by Pirelli World Challenge)
July 9: Iowa (Released by promoter)
July 30: Mid-Ohio (Released by Pirelli World Challenge)
September 17: Sonoma (Released by IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge)
Ten events have been confirmed with five events from the 2016 season still hanging in the balance. Let's start in chronological order from 2016 race date on the five other races:
Phoenix is probably the most interesting of the five events yet to be confirmed for 2017. Phoenix was the first Saturday in April this year but 2017 poses a slight problem. The 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Final Four is scheduled for the first Saturday in April 2017 in Glendale, Arizona and that is a head-to-head that would be a disaster for IndyCar. Attendance would be down. Perhaps the race could be held Sunday but that would defeat what Phoenix International Raceway wanted all along. Many have felt Phoenix could be pushed back a few weeks to the end of April to move it further away from the NASCAR race and hopefully draw a larger crowd for IndyCar. April 15-16th is Easter weekend and with Barber already tentatively confirmed, the next best date for Phoenix would be April 29th.
The problem with moving Phoenix to the end of April is it would create a month-gap between the first two rounds of the IndyCar season. There is nothing waiting in the wings to swoop in and fill the gap between St. Petersburg and Long Beach. Homestead isn't returning and IndyCar isn't going to make a spring break trip to Mexico City. I can't see the series taking a month off between the first two rounds and I think Phoenix will have one year on a Sunday before returning to Saturday night in 2018 and maybe pushing it back a few weeks if IndyCar can find something to fill the St. Petersburg-Long Beach gap.
We don't know about Texas but the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is confirmed to be racing at Texas on Friday June 9th. All signs point to IndyCar returning to Texas in the middle of June but who knows how this August date plays out? Eddie Gossage might love being one of the final few races of the season and love his race being in the championship discussion. I doubt that but crazier things have happened. However, expect Texas in the middle of June.
Toronto is interesting. The pit lane change was rough, the track is falling apart and the 30-year-old event has only one-year left on its deal. The track needs work but I doubt the city is going to pay for a repave and IndyCar doesn't have the money to fund it. Toronto will likely return and likely return in the middle of July but will Toronto be there in 2018? That is a question for August 2017.
Pocono re-upped with IndyCar for one-year after 2015 and the race will run in August for the second time this year. I am biased because Pocono is my home race and I hope it returns but this is the race most on life support. The crowd hasn't been disappointing to me. Traffic has always been a bitch leaving and there are a lot of people roaming the paddock pre-race but the inconveniences I and other Pocono IndyCar attendees face doesn't mean the race is successful for the Igdalsky family. I want it to return but wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.
(Update: Pocono Raceway announced a two-year extension with IndyCar through the 2018 season. Dates for 2017 and 2018 have not been confirmed).
Watkins Glen was an 11th-hour replacement for Boston and nothing is guaranteed beyond this Labor Day weekend. However, you would hope that the track and IndyCar would like to give this relationship a second chance and a second chance that is longer than one weekend that had three and a half months to prepare for. Hopefully, the Watkins Glen race can put together an impressive race weekend on a shoestring and returning for Labor Day weekend 2017 seems like nothing but a no-brainer.
Outside of those five events, the only serious track that could be added to the IndyCar schedule is Gateway Motorsports Park. The 1.25-mile oval in Madison, Illinois, a border town with St. Louis, has been in the conversation the last few years and now it appears to be serious for a return and likely run in August. Gateway does have lights and a Saturday night race makes sense for a mid-summer race.
Here is what the schedule would look like if IndyCar achieves 100% retention for 2017, yet to be confirmed races have an asterisk:
March 12: St. Petersburg
April 2: Phoenix*
April 9: Long Beach
April 23: Barber
May 13: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 28: Indianapolis 500
June 3-4: Belle Isle
June 10: Texas*
June 25: Road America
July 9: Iowa
July 16: Toronto*
July 30: Mid-Ohio
August 20: Pocono
September 3: Watkins Glen*
September 17: Sonoma
The obvious gap for Gateway is between Mid-Ohio and Pocono. Looking at the latter half of the IndyCar schedule, one has to consider that IndyCar and NASCAR share NBC Sports Network as a television partner and that must be taken into consideration. I don't think Gateway would fall the week after Mid-Ohio but it could be the week before Pocono. NASCAR is at Michigan that weekend but that Saturday night, August 12th, would be a perfect date. The NASCAR Xfinity Series is at Mid-Ohio that day and if that race is the same time in 2017, it could provide a nice lead-in and a Saturday evening full of racing with the Mid-Ohio race leading into IndyCar coverage at 7:00 p.m. ET. Gateway could fall between Pocono and Watkins Glen but I think the teams would like to avoid three consecutive weeks of racing.
Taking Gateway into account, here is what the schedule could look like:
March 12: St. Petersburg
April 2: Phoenix*
April 9: Long Beach
April 23: Barber
May 13: Grand Prix of Indianapolis
May 28: Indianapolis 500
June 3-4: Belle Isle
June 10: Texas*
June 25: Road America
July 9: Iowa
July 16: Toronto*
July 30: Mid-Ohio
August 12: Gateway*
August 20: Pocono
September 3: Watkins Glen*
September 17: Sonoma
I think if IndyCar could achieve 100% retention in its 2017 schedule that would be a massive victory for the series. Consider that IndyCar hasn't had 100% retention rate of races since 2007, when all 14 races from 2006 returned and Iowa, Mid-Ohio and Belle Isle were added. As much as we talk about television network changes and years of being a spec-series hurting IndyCar, having a constantly changing schedule hasn't helped IndyCar either. Consider that since 2007, 15 venues have fallen off the IndyCar schedule. You could create a schedule with those events alone.
IndyCar has a really good schedule and adding Gateway only makes it better. If IndyCar went to Fontana in October, where it never should have been moved from, another shorter oval and Circuit of the Americas or Laguna Seca, that would be IndyCar schedule nirvana.
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