Brad Sweet won the Knoxville Nationals ahead of Donny Schatz and his future brother-in-law Kyle Larson. It appears Scott Dixon will remain at Chip Ganassi Racing. The truck race had an impressive last lap pass and a photo finish. Sunday's race from Michigan was a runaway. A Spaniard got a long awaited first career victory in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters but the Brits did not leave the home fans at Brands Hatch disappointed. Champions were decided in Utah. MotoGP continues to be lost in the airwaves for some American viewers. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Is IndyCar's Summer Not Busy Enough?
The last few years have seen IndyCar have a slight summer break at the start of August and it has been pretty well received.
The teams are pretty much working non-stop from the start of May through the middle of June with a doubleheader weekend in the middle of it all. July has three races. It is a pretty busy period until this two-week period and afterward comes a hectic end to the season, three consecutive weeks of racing from Pocono to Gateway to Portland with a week off before the Sonoma finale.
But is IndyCar's summer not busy enough?
When going back and watching previous Portland races the 2003 race was the second of nine races in 12 weeks. The 2007 Indy Racing League season had the final ten races take place over 12 weeks with a period of five consecutive weeks of racing to start that stretch and three consecutive weeks of racing to end it. The 2008 season was the year of reunification, which saw races squeezed into the few off weeks during the summer with final ten races occurring in 11 weeks. The following year had nine races in 11 weeks. In 2010, both July and August had three races while 2011 had ten races in 13 weeks thanks to the Twin 275s at Texas from the middle of June to Labor Day.
Things have been quite different since the start of the DW12-era. A race in China did not come off and the series had only five races from the Fourth of July to Labor Day. The following season had a busy period from Indianapolis to Toronto with nine races in eight weeks thanks to two doubleheaders but afterward the series had only five race weekends from August to the end of the season in the middle of October and that included a month off from Baltimore on September 1st to the first Houston race on October 5th.
IndyCar decided to attempt to end the season by Labor Day starting in 2014 and that created jam-packed schedules with three doubleheaders in eight weeks and a total of nine races in that period. The last three seasons have seen the summer break fall in August and the seasons have ended two weeks after Labor Day.
It seems summer is full but with the series not thrilled to go beyond the middle of September when it comes to races and with unpredictable climates for venues across the country in spring, the only option for expansion would be the summer.
Richmond is one track floating around as a potential returning venue but it may have no option but to squeeze into a summer date. The weather of late-March is quite unpredictable. It could be in the 70s one weekend and 38ยบ F and dreary the next. There is a Cup race in late-April and late-September with next year's September Richmond race scheduled for the day before the 2019 IndyCar season finale from Laguna Seca. With IndyCar's May taken care of and most of June accounted for, the most likely spot for Richmond would have to be July or August.
On top of Richmond, Watkins Glen president Michael Printup said he hopes to have IndyCar back by 2021. Watkins Glen is in the same boat as Richmond. A March race isn't happening and a race could be held in early Autumn but in all likelihood IndyCar would not want to end the season there and the series would probably not like to push Laguna Seca back further into the year. This leaves summer as the only option but once again there is limited real estate, not only for the series but for Watkins Glen as well with the track hosting the 6 Hours of the Glen at the end of June or early July and the NASCAR race in the middle of August.
If there is one positive to adding races to the summer would be more racing for IndyCar. There is a portion of the fan base that wouldn't mind 20 or 22 IndyCar races a year and it would mean more of everything, oval and road/street courses. It would mean more chances for people to tune into the series and more chances for people to follow along. A person could tune into a race and instead of having a week off or two before the next chance to see a race, IndyCar would be back on track the following week. It would become a weekly soap opera to see how the championship plays out. IndyCar isn't as close to the level of over-saturation of NASCAR. Even with 20 or 22 races there would be more down time than on track action, the length of the offseason would still be quite lengthy for teams and while there would be an increase chance of fan fatigue, a season would still fly by. However, while more sounds good, I am not sure the series can handle it.
IndyCar is not in a place where it should be racing every week during the summer, nor would it likely be the best thing for the series. These breaks are necessary. Everyone needs a recharge. Teams are beat and teams have tested at Road America, Iowa, Portland and Indianapolis during the summer between races. The new teams to IndyCar have entered with a 17-race schedule to budget for. The series is not at a place where teams can start budgeting for another three to five races. Maybe in three years after the first contract with NBC the series could be in that position but right now IndyCar cannot be NASCAR-lite. Heck, NASCAR can't be NASCAR anymore but it is in a position it cannot get out from.
Certain tracks coming onto the schedule may not be as simple as IndyCar having its cake and eating it too. It may require current events falling off the schedule for certain venues such as Richmond and Watkins Glen returning to the schedule. IndyCar cannot become a weekly circus touring the country and visiting all the places the series wants. The series might have a few difficult decisions to make in the near future.
Champions From the Weekend
The #61 R.Ferri Motorsport Ferrari of Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina won the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GT championship after the team swept the weekend at Utah Motorsports Campus.
The #14 GMG Racing Audi of James Sofronas and Alex Welch won the SprintX GTS championship.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Brad Sweet, Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina but did you know...
Jorge Lorenzo won MotoGP's Austrian Grand Prix, his third victory of the season. Francesco Bagnaia won the Moto2 race, his fifth victory of the season and he retook the Moto2 championship lead. Marco Bezzecchi won the Moto3 race, his second victory of the season.
Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR Cup race from Michigan. Justin Allgaier won the Grand National Series race from Mid-Ohio, his third victory of the season. Brett Moffitt won the Truck race from Michigan by 0.025 seconds over Johnny Sauter, Moffitt's fourth victory of the season.
The #50 Panoz of Ian James and Matthew Keegan and the #69 SIN R1 of Harry Gottascker split the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GTS races from Utah Motorsports Campus.
Daniel Juncadella and Paul di Resta split the DTM races from Brands Hatch. It was Juncadella's first career victory in his 67th start. It was di Resta's second victory of the season and third DTM victory at Brands Hatch. Gary Paffett finished second to di Resta and he leads di Resta in the championship by 29 points.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar is back for 500 miles at Pocono.
NASCAR has its night event at Bristol.
The FIA World Endurance Championship has its first race in two months at Silverstone.
The European Le Mans Series will also be at Silverstone.
IMSA's GT classes will be at Virginia International Raceway.
Super Formula will be at Motegi.
The World Rally Championship holds Rallye Deutschland.
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