The highlight of today's release of the 2019 IndyCar Series schedule is the series will make two trips to Texas with Circuit of the Americas joining the 17-race, 16-track slate.
Circuit of the Americas is the only new venue to the 2019 schedule while the previously announced season finale at Laguna Seca being American open-wheel racing's first trip to the California track since 2004.
In order, St. Petersburg remains the season opener with the first round of 2019 being held on Sunday March 10th. IndyCar's first trip to Circuit of the Americas and Austin, Texas will be on March 24th. Two weeks later the series will head to Barber on April 7th, the earliest the series has gone to Barber since the series raced there on April 7, 2013. Long Beach will follow on April 14th. Easter falls on April 21st and NASCAR races at Talladega on April 28th. The combination of those two factors moved Barber up a few weeks.
The teams will have three weeks off before the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is held on Saturday May 11th, the first race not on a Sunday, and kick off the Month of May festivities. The 103rd Indianapolis 500 will be held on Sunday May 26th, Memorial Day weekend. The series will run a doubleheader the following week at Belle Isle on June 1st and 2nd and Texas marks the midway point in the schedule on Saturday June 8th.
Road America kicks off the second half of the season on Sunday June 23rd and two weeks off follow before the first of two stretches with three races in three weeks. Toronto will be July 14th with Iowa returning to a Saturday night race on July 20th and Mid-Ohio closes out the month of July on Sunday July 28th.
The series will get another two weeks off before three consecutive weeks of racing from Pocono on August 18th, Gateway on Saturday August 24th and Portland being the Sunday of Labor Day weekend on Sunday September 1st. The series will have two weeks off before the Laguna Seca season finale on Sunday September 22nd.
Gut Reaction
I like it. There are plenty of strong racetracks. There really isn't a weak link in terms of facilities and conditions of the racetracks. These are all proper racing circuits. IndyCar went through a period of racing anywhere and everywhere and that wasn't a good thing. Proper venues were passed over for street circuits with train tracks crossing a straightaway or a track constructed in the tight and rough confines of a parking lot for an arena or stadium.
There are seven permanent road courses, the most since the 2003 CART season. In 2014 there were only four permanent road courses. The 2012 and 2013 seasons had only three permanent road courses. IndyCar is heading to most of the top road courses the United States has to offer. Circuit of the Americas only adds to an impressive list that includes Road America, Barber, Mid-Ohio, Portland, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and Laguna Seca.
The four street courses on the schedule have proven to be the most reliable temporary circuits IndyCar has gone to over the last decade. St. Petersburg has held on for nearly 15 years. Long Beach's relationship with IndyCar is over three decades in length. Toronto is in the same boat as Long Beach. While Belle Isle has the shakiest history of the street courses it has corporate support from Chevrolet and General Motors as well as Roger Penske behind the event.
IndyCar loses an oval and is down to five but the series has five strong ovals. This year was a bit off at Indianapolis and Pocono but we know how breathtaking those races can be. Gateway draws a great crowd. Iowa is a popular venue and it is returning to a popular Saturday night time slot. Texas has been thrilling for two decades.
About the Breaks
Don't worry about them. Yes, IndyCar has stretches of three weeks off, two weeks off, two weeks off and two weeks off during the season but nothing has proven to be the moneymaker for IndyCar. The series has raced nonstop over the summer some years and had the season end in early September and the ratings have been the same as the years with a two-week break early in the season and another two-week break in the middle of summer and a two-week break before the finale.
I like breaks. It is good to have a vacation every now and then from racing. I don't want to feel obligated to spend every weekend in front of the television because of a race and I am a fan. How many non-fans would be turned off immediately because of the daunting task of keeping up while also trying to have a life of their own?
The breaks are also a blessing to the teams but I bet we will still hear complaints about the grueling schedule. The teams get a much-deserved break before the month of May and the end of spring where the teams will be at a racetrack for five consecutive weeks with a doubleheader in the middle of it all. The three-week break from the middle of April to the start of May is because of how events fall next spring and come 2020 the movement of Easter will likely clear that up.
With extended breaks come stretches of consecutive races. The first set of three consecutive races is manageable for the teams. Indianapolis is centrally located between Toronto, Iowa and Mid-Ohio. A short week is followed by a long week. It works itself out and another two-week break follows. The Pocono-Gateway-Portland stretch is difficult and while it does have the same short week is followed by a long week set up as Toronto-Iowa-Mid-Ohio the travel is much greater. Of course that stretch is also followed by two weeks off before the Laguna Seca finale and the start of the offseason.
I bet a lot of people are angry over the two-week break before the final race of the season and they see it as a momentum killer and bad for the series. As I said before, it doesn't matter. The final four IndyCar races could happen over six days and the same number of people would watch. The positive thing for the finale is Laguna Seca will take place on the Sunday after the NASCAR Cup race at Richmond. IndyCar is the show that day. It will have no competition. It will be a chance for all eyes to be on the series. That alone is worth the two-week wait.
COTA's Lofty Goal
Circuit of the Americas intends to raise the bar.
The track doesn't just want to host an IndyCar race but host a premier IndyCar race. Track founder and chairman Bobby Epstein wants Austin to have the second-largest purse on the IndyCar schedule. He wants to award a $100,000 bonus if the pole-sitter wins the race. No track has taken on that challenge and it is understandable because there isn't a lot of money floating around IndyCar but maybe this challenges other tracks to step up their IndyCar game.
I think more of these bonuses should exist. Maybe every race should pay $100,000 if the pole-sitter wins the race. Money motivates people and it might not sound like a lot when you see NASCAR drivers and Formula One drivers making millions of dollars but every little bit helps in IndyCar. I think the road course and oval championships should return and each should have a $100,000 prize (I would like it to be $250,000 for each $100,000 would do). Incentives will only make things better.
Ok... How Could it be Better?
A year or two ago I said if I slipped into a coma for fifteen years and woke up and saw the IndyCar schedule was the same as it was when I lost consciousness I would be fine with that and I still believe that. If I slipped into a coma on September 17th (I want to see this year's finale) and was out until September 17, 2033 and the IndyCar schedule was the same 16 venues as it will be in 2019 I would be happy.
Do I want more ovals? Yes but I am realistic. IndyCar doesn't need eight or nine more oval races. IndyCar would be fine having eight total oval races. If it was a 60-40 split in favor of road/street courses that is good enough. There are ovals out there and we know what can be done at the super speedways and we know what can be done at short tracks. If IndyCar had three of Fontana, Michigan, Kentucky, Chicagoland, Richmond, Homestead, Memphis, Loudon, Charlotte, the Nashville Fairgrounds, Milwaukee, Darlington, Kansas, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Atlanta and/or Las Vegas then that would be great for the series.
The only road course missing is Watkins Glen. If the 16 current tracks remained and Watkins Glen along with three of the 16 ovals mentioned above were added that would be the dream 20-track, 21-race schedule but it would rely on races being spread out a bit more with the schedule starting in February and maybe ending a few weeks later. We are a ways away from that and it needs to make business sense for the teams to make a 21-race schedule possible.
And In The End...
I am thinking long-term about the IndyCar's scheduling future.
Is it ok if IndyCar has 12 or 13 consistent venues with two or three venues that can last about a decade with another two or three venues that fall off after one contract?
That might work. IndyCar cannot be NASCAR and nor should it be NASCAR with 36 races. Nobody wants a schedule to last that long. The 21-race dream schedule above is the maximum for IndyCar. It should never expand greater than that but maybe the current number of races should be the maximum. While that sounds like a constricting schedule, the rotation of races allows for more tracks to have IndyCar over the span of a decade.
It is kind of a catch-22. You get to go to more tracks but you also have more events that are seen as failures but maybe we should change how we look at events. We all had our hopes up for Phoenix and after one three-year deal it is gone. We are all looking at it as a failure but maybe IndyCar should handle it differently and maybe we should view it different.
As long as IndyCar has Indianapolis, Long Beach, St. Petersburg, Texas, Iowa, Gateway, Toronto, Portland, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Barber and Laguna Seca on the schedule, the rest of the season can fluctuate a bit. Let's say the races above is the core of the schedule: The remaining three or four spots can be open and we can see a rotation of tracks. Some will last ten years, others will last two years but that rotation allows many different tracks onto the schedule.
That rotation can include returning to venues that already had been tried. Let's say a track is visited for a few years and maybe the crowd is good and the racing is good but neither is great and then both parties decide to go in opposite directions. After five or six years apart, maybe IndyCar and that track decide to give it another go and all of a sudden IndyCar is back at a familiar track.
Why would that be a bad thing? It might not be ideal but how many times have our expectations not been met and we have been discouraged and disgruntled in the aftermath? How about we go into a race and look at it as we will give it a go and it might not get renewed but a few years after that both IndyCar and the track might be in a place where a race is feasible again? Remember, never doesn't have to exist. Any track can return to the schedule. The worse case scenario for an event that drops off the schedule is we will go back again someday. Someday might be a long time but the parties can get back together in the future and try all over again.
We have less than two weeks until the IndyCar finale. There are still tasks that need to be done. The series still doesn't have a title sponsor for next year, ratings aren't fantastic and another problem is always lurking around the corner but there are positives. The championship battle is shaping up to be a doozy. IndyCar already has a calendar released for next season that it can promote during the finale. IndyCar has a new television partnership that seems promising. Existing teams are talking about expanding and other teams are talking about entering. Go to bed tonight and dream. Things are on the up. Do not fret. Things are alright.
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