Will Power won a race for a 13th consecutive season, as lightning and rain ended the ABC Supply 500 after 320 miles. There was no fairy tale ending in Bristol but there was plenty of carnage. There was a first-time winner in Japan. James Hinchcliffe and Alexander Rossi are pairing to contest the Bathurst 1000 in a wild card entry for Walkinshaw Andretti United. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Final Thoughts on Pocono
I have to admit I had a lot on my mind heading to Pocono this year. I always have a lot on my mind leading up to this weekend.
Every year I went to Pocono came with a tinge of apprehension because there is no other way to feel as a IndyCar fan at a venue that isn't Indianapolis, Long Beach, Road America, Barber, Mid-Ohio or St. Petersburg.
As much as I love heading to the racetrack, wandering aimlessly around the garage, snapping photographs at random intervals, trying to stay out of the way but still peek over the shoulders crew members and officials; as much as I enjoyed the zooming cars and trying to keep track of pit strategy in my head, silently counting laps in my head and projecting when each car would next stop, as much as I love all of it there was always a great pain in the days leading up to the event and in the drive back and the days following until the schedule for the following year is released.
In 2015, I wrote about my fears heading into a race with no guaranteed future. Of course those words had a haunting, unintentional foreshadowing of what would proceed that afternoon. While the race has continued and we have gotten many other pleasing moments from Pocono in the years since, here we are again and instead of writing it all before the cars unloaded at the racetrack I have decided to have one post-race gathering of everything that has been on mind with an uncertain future.
This was always going to be a long look at Pocono and IndyCar before the race and after yesterday, it takes a slightly different tour than I originally anticipated.
The Morning After:
It is good to have time to think and over 12 hours and a sunrise later, it is time to take another look at yesterday's race.
I still think there are improvements that can be made, especially with catchfences. I still agree with Will Power in that these incidents could have happened anywhere and it just happens to be at Pocono. I think IndyCar and Pocono should work to make things safer and not walk away and say it is too dangerous.
There was something else Power said in the post-race press conference that caught my attention and that is Power said attendance was up 15% each year at Pocono. I don't have any evidence that is true but there is part of me that thinks this was Power being privy to information because of his ties to Roger Penske and he overheard this in a conversation with people in the know. It could be a lie but this could also be the innocence of Power coming out and this was his biggest take away from a private conversation and this is the part he decided to share with us.
If this 15% increase is true this puts IndyCar in a tough predicament because not many other tracks are up 15%. Iowa isn't up 15%. Texas isn't up 15% a year. When few venues are moving in the right direction, can IndyCar walk away from one that is trending upward? On top of that, Pocono wants IndyCar back. Not many places want IndyCar. This isn't a case of a racetrack seeing the trends and despite the increases deciding to move on from IndyCar. Pocono has said all the right things.
There may be a good reason why IndyCar has not come to terms with Pocono. Pocono might be asking for no sanctioning fee. The series cannot give races away for free but if IndyCar is not negotiating with Pocono because the series wants to move on that is a befuddling and bold decision. The series is walking from a racetrack where things seem to be going in the right direction. On paper, no series would ever do that. More than attendance is involved in the decision making process.
I still believe IndyCar and Pocono have to work with each other, not only because the track wants IndyCar but because if we truly want an improvement in catchfencing the only way that will occur is if the series works with a racetrack for improvements and why not have Pocono Raceway be that place, the base for this improvement? Improvements have to start somewhere and we should want Pocono to be where catchfencing improvements begin, the same way the early prototypes of the SAFER barrier were implemented at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The SAFER barrier started at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and then spread across the country. We should want the same to be true for any catchfencing evolution and we should use the events of the last two years to push Pocono Raceway to be where the evolution begins.
The Oval Cycle:
There has been a pattern in IndyCar for close to a decade now when it comes to ovals that are not Indianapolis, Texas or Iowa.
1.) An oval venue is announced and everyone gets excited for it and the potential it brings.
2.) Oval race occurs and regardless of what happens on the racetrack everyone brings up the crowd.
3.) Venue struggles to draw a crowd to break even.
4.) People sour on the venue and wonder why things are not clicking.
5.) Oval venue is coming to the end of the contract with nothing pointing to a new deal being signed.
6.) While it appears one oval venue will be lost, have no fear because IndyCar is in talks with another oval venue and a deal is imminent so if the current oval that is struggling falls off there is another ready to step in and take its place and everyone is excited for the new venue.
7.) Repeat.
It is easy to bust IndyCar's ball when it comes to ovals and the Merry-Go-Round the series finds itself on but with Pocono appears to be heading for the exit and Richmond being the venue linked to a return to the calendar I have to ask why does anyone think Richmond will be different?
Let's really consider this:
Milwaukee returned in 2010, there was excitement to be back after a year away, the venue struggled, it tried many different dates, it somehow made it to 2015 and then was gone.
Loudon returned in 2011, there was excitement to be back after over a decade away, the venue struggled in year one, it ended with one of the more embarrassing moments in IndyCar history and it did not come back for 2012.
Las Vegas returned in 2011, there was excitement to be back after over a decade away and this was supposed to be the new home for the IndyCar finale, the free ticket idea was not as successful as people thought, Dan Wheldon was killed, both sides pointed fingers at one another and it did not come back for 2012.
Fontana returned in 2012, there was excitement to be back after nearly a decade away and this was supposed to be the new home for the IndyCar finale, year one was good, year two was better but it started late and ended late, the race moved back into summer, the race was held on a Saturday afternoon in late-June, the crowd was dismal and it was gone after 2015.
Phoenix returned in 2016, there was excitement to be back after a decade away, the venue struggled, the races struggled with single-file action on the track, it completed its three-year contract and then was gone.
Gateway returned in 2017, there was excitement and the crowd has been fantastic in its first two years back but it is still early. We have seen Iowa shrink in the decade since it was first added to the schedule. What is to say the same will not happen to Gateway?
Pocono returned in 2013, there was excitement to be back, it had a good year one, struggled in year two and many thought the July 4th weekend scared people away due to traffic in the area, the race moved to late-August, traffic was much better, the races were really good, one year was rained out to a Monday, there have been signs of growth, each year felt a little bit better but it appears at the end of the second contract with IndyCar the series is ready to move on even after encouraging attendance the last few years.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy Pocono made it to seven years but we have to wonder if IndyCar can live on three ovals sticking around annually and then having another two or three ovals rotate with tracks only staying for a range of three to seven seasons.
Why do people think Richmond will somehow be much greater than Pocono? Keep in mind that if crowd size is the problem, it appears every oval race outside of Indianapolis and Gateway only gets about 20,000 people. That is just what IndyCar draws. In Richmond's heyday for IndyCar it got about 40,000 people. Richmond's capacity is only about 60,000 now after years of downsizing and it can barely fill that for its NASCAR Cup races. Why should we expect anymore than 20,000 to go to Richmond?
Even a great crowd at Richmond might only be 30,000 to 35,000 people and that is still only be half-full. People are still going to look at the crowd and feel disappointed. I kind of want to set the bar low now so no one heads into with unrealistic expectations.
Maybe IndyCar can make this work and it can constantly rotate oval venues. I think a lot of people would not like that and people would argue that is not an effective way to establishing a fan base but that is a more likely to happen then IndyCar signing three or four tracks to ten-year deals and lock IndyCar in at a few ovals for the next decade.
Rotating might not be a bad thing. Supercross has its annual venues but it also has some venues that are on the schedule for a season, gone the next and then back for another three or four years. That could work for IndyCar. If you make an IndyCar race a one-off, a special event then maybe people will go. Some of these races might be Gateway and a track will work for a longer deal. Other tracks will have its one or two years, not draw crowds that suggests it has to have IndyCar annually but would benefit from having IndyCar every four or five years.
There are plenty of venues out there: Michigan, Fontana, Richmond, Loudon, Kentucky, Chicagoland, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Darlington, Homestead, Memphis, Kansas, Atlanta, hell even throw Bristol in there.
That is 16 venues that could possibly host IndyCar, add in Pocono and you could have 17 venues where IndyCar rotates, some yearly, others in three to five year intervals, some might stick around for 15 to 20 years if we are lucky and I don't think that is a bad thing. IndyCar could make it work. It would keep the schedule fresh each year, which wouldn't be a bad thing.
I think IndyCar is still in a place of trying to figure out what is the right choice of action when it comes to ovals. I don't think oval races, outside of the Indianapolis 500, are going to go away entirely. The series sees there is a benefit to having five or six of them but do those five or six venues have to dedicated surefire successes on the schedule or could two or three of those venues be rotating wild cards with some being around for a year, others being around for four or five years but there always being ovals stepping up and filling the gap when one is going to take a break?
Only time will tell.
What Went Wrong?
I don't know if anything went wrong. It is a mixture of things.
I look at how Pocono sold tickets, the traditional general admission and then tiered pricing for different seats with paddock passes as an add-on, and compare it to Road America, where every ticket is general admission and paddock access is included, and I wonder if Road America's model is what would work for other IndyCar venues.
There isn't enough of a demand to charge seats at different prices. The seats I got each year were $75 a piece and the paddock pass was an additional $20. I would argue it might be better if every seat was general admission with paddock access included and all tickets were $50 or $60. One ticket gets you everything. The suites and covered seats could be sold at a higher price point but the rest of it could be up for grabs.
Moving away from tickets and thinking about Pennsylvania, there are a lot of race fans in Pennsylvania. We talk about local short tracks all the time but I feel like any major racetrack should visit these local short tracks twice a month, bring a tent and sell tickets there. Bring an IndyCar driver or two to these short tracks and have them talk to people and just be casual. If Pocono hit a handful of these tracks, maybe it would have sold an additional 5,000 tickets. That goes a long way.
There is also the fact that Pocono is two hours away from New York City and it is two hours away from Philadelphia. When you factor that over 20,000,000 people live within 100 miles of Pocono Raceway you don't have to draw a large portion of that population to have a successful event. We are talking about drawing a quarter of percent would be 50,000 people. If you cannot get a quarter of a percent of 20,000,000 people to come out it says a lot about the interest of the people and relevance of the series.
When it came to the weekend, Pocono had a lot of down time. Outside of two years, Indy Lights was not present at the track. I get Indy Lights has a prerogative and it doesn't want to run many ovals but when you look at the Freedom 100, why wouldn't Indy Lights run Pocono? Indy Lights gets one televised race a year. An Indy Lights race at Pocono might have been too good not to be on television. The historic cars were nice to have at Pocono but even with those there was plenty of gaps in the schedule.
The good news is, as stated above, attendance reportedly was on the rise each year and maybe Pocono was on the right track. We will only know if the series returns for 2020 and beyond.
The Future:
It is not official that Pocono will not be back in 2020 and if Pocono is back in 2020 I will be there but let's not count our chickens before the eggs hatch.
The track has thrown out that it would be open to hosting a IndyCar race once every three years, similar to something I mentioned above. My biggest concern with this kind of deal is there is no long term commitment, either side can walk away out of the blue, and how can Pocono reserve a date when it isn't on the schedule for two consecutive seasons?
Let's take this late-August date? Is IndyCar going to leave this weekend open for two years waiting for Pocono to return? What happens if another track approaches IndyCar and says its best date would be late-August? I would not blame IndyCar if it gave another track that date because it committed for multiple years and consecutive years.
The late-August date has been kind to Pocono. The weather has been much more favorable compared to the July 4th weekend. There was the rain out and this year's race was rain-shortened, though if that red flag doesn't happen all 500 miles likely would have been completed. It is positioned late in the season and it is a key factor in the championship picture. There is something great about seeing an IndyCar stretch its legs and run at full song. I would hate IndyCar to lose that.
Looking at IndyCar and the fan base it is safe to say it is a Midwest series and maybe the series should embrace that. When you see the success of Mid-Ohio, Road America and Gateway it might make sense for the series to add Kentucky and Chicagoland, two places where Hoosiers and Buckeyes will drive and attend. That is fine with me. Plenty of people are still going to watch on television. I would still watch. It would suck not to have a race in the Northeast and it is not like the series is trying to add five or six Northeast races. It just has to make one race successful. If IndyCar cannot make one race successful that is a blow to the series but if staying in the Midwest means a few more better attended races and also saves the teams some money in travel expenses then the series would be foolish not to do it.
I hope IndyCar and Pocono work something out. I hope we keep the other 500-mile race on the schedule. This is biased because Pocono is a home event for me. It is in my neck of the woods. I get to sleep in my own bed. There are not many other venues IndyCar can go to where I get to stay home. It was nice to have a race effectively in my backyard and I hope it remains for many years to come. If it is time to move on then it is time to move on. Pocono will be missed.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Will Power but did you know...
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup race from Bristol, his fourth victory of the season. Tyler Reddick won Grand National Series race, his fourth victory of the season. Brett Moffitt won the Truck race, his third victory of the season.
Ryō Hirakawa won the Super Formula race from Motegi, his first career victory Super Formula victory.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar has its final oval race and its final night race of 2019 from Gateway.
MotoGP hopes to race at Silverstone.
Suzuka hosts the penultimate round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season, a ten-hour race.
IMSA has another GT-only race at Virginia International Raceway.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters returns to Germany and will be at Lausitz.
World Rally Championship returns to Germany for Rallye Deutschland.
Supercars has its second race weekend in Tailem Bend.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
