Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Patricio O'Ward won a messy race from Toronto. Some think one bad race a championship reignites. A championship was claimed at Exhibition Place. Tire pressure rules nearly caused a stir in the Czech Republic. MotoGP will head into its summer break with at least cooler heads. Four was the magic number in Dover. Fourteen laps are also worth an hour-plus rain delay. It was a good weekend for BMW. There was a popular winner at home. A second-generation driver pulled out a stunner. This has actually been on my mind for a few weeks, and changes are already being discussed for 2026. An IndyCar weekend may look a little different next year. It should consider a few more tweaks.
Tweaking the Weekend
Off Track with James Hinchcliffe and Alexander Rossi is probably the best insider view of the IndyCar world we have out there in moment. It is honest and informative about what is going on not only inside the race car and during the races, but behind the scenes. There is always a thread to learn.
A few weeks ago, Rossi expressed some displeasure with the weekend scheduling and how practice did not begin until around 3:00 p.m. on Friday, feeling most of the day is spent sitting around. Saturday is then packaged with a practice session and qualifying session. Rossi was saying how he believes there should be another practice session on Friday.
The biggest problem is cost. Adding another practice session isn't as easy as just snapping your fingers. Another 45 minutes or an hour on track means more tires, more fuel, more parts and pieces. IndyCar isn't going to add another session for the sake of adding a session, but I think Rossi has a point.
There is something convenient about practice not starting until 3:00 p.m. on Friday. It is easier for people to attend. Some people could take a half-day from work and head to the racetrack. It is friendlier to attendees. However, it is not much to take up your Friday afternoon. It is only 90 minutes. You can show up for the junior series, but those will only be practice sessions and qualifying sessions. There is no reason to show up too early. Not much is happening on Friday morning or early Friday afternoon for the fans at the circuit. If you are going to 3:00 p.m. practice, you are likely arriving at least an hour early and maybe staying for an hour after, but less than four hours at the track really isn't worth it.
From attending IndyCar events on ovals, road courses and street courses, it does feel like something is lacking between Friday and Saturday. You should always leave them wanting more, but if they are always wanting they will never be satisfied. If they are never satisfied, they will leave looking for satisfaction.
A Friday of an IndyCar weekend is... extra? It doesn't quite feel like something you must experience or it is worth seeing, but it is nice to have. IndyCar needs it. On road and street courses, it needs Friday for at least one session, but it isn't a full day. If you miss it, fine. There will be plenty on Saturday and Sunday. There is a reason why many Fridays of race weekends are free.
I do think IndyCar should have two practice sessions on Friday. Waiting to start until 3:00 p.m. to get started isn't saving anyone money. All the teams are ready and on-site Thursday night. No one is landing for a race weekend at 11:00 a.m. and driving to the racetrack for practice at 3:00 p.m. They all have to be there first thing in the morning anyway. No one is saving a night on hotels. If that is the case, get started early.
There are people at the track. Give them something to watch early and maybe give others a reason to come and spend a full day out.
Looking at IndyCar's practice time, its Friday session is 75 minutes total, but it is a 45-minute part for all cars before the field being split in half for two ten-minute sessions. On Saturday morning, there is a one-hour session and then there is the 25-minute warm-up on Sundays. Between Friday and Saturday alone, each team will have at least an hour and 55 minutes allotted for practice.
If IndyCar doesn't want teams spending more time on track, it can take that hour and 55 minutes, make it two hours and then have three 40-minute practice sessions. The one on Friday mid-afternoon and Saturday morning can stay. An early Friday afternoon practice can be created. The weekend schedule can be a 40-minute practice at noon on Friday, a 40-minute session at 3:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m., and Saturday practice can be at 10:00 a.m. for 40 minutes.
It wouldn't cost the teams anymore money. It wouldn't be less total time on track. It would be one more television window to squeeze in, but let's not act like it would hurt IndyCar to be on television more. It clearly needs the exposure.
This is an easy way to spread around the sessions and make Friday worth a little more without taking much of anything away from the other two days in the race weekend.
There are two problems to this. The first is it doesn't matter if IndyCar splits practice into three 40-minute sessions if the teams are still going to spend 20 minutes sitting still because they do not believe they have enough tires during a race weekend.
This one does come down to money. You could say just give the teams two extra tires every weekend. Someone has to pay for those, and tires are not cheap. Teams get ten sets of tires for each race weekend and at least three, if not four, are being used in the race. At least two of those will be new. That leaves eight sets for the remainder of the sessions. In qualifying, every team is using two in the first round. A third and maybe a fourth are being used in the second round. By the final round, everyone is on scuffs. That means there are four sets of tires remaining for practice.
You would think two sets of tires per two practice sessions, four sets for nearly two hours of practice time, would be enough. It isn't.
The schedule can change and the weekend can be spread out better for the sake of the teams and Mr. Rossi, but it doesn't matter if the teams are still going to sit around for half a practice session.
However, after Mid-Ohio weekend, Rossi revealed it has been discussed, and likely happen, that next year practice will be split into groups due to the lack of space on the racetrack when all 27 cars are competing. It was not clear if this would be at every venue. A place like Road America you would think is large enough that it would not be warranted. Either way, that changes the makeup of the weekend.
I doubt there is a way IndyCar can give every car its 55 minutes of Friday practice if the field is split into groups. That is 110 minutes of total time, not including the few minutes in-between groups running. Friday practice is already only allotted for 90 minutes. This would make the session last at least two hours.
My guess is we would see the 90-minute session split, and each group would get a pair of 20-minute sessions with ten minutes for clearing the circuit between groups. That does not lend into an extra session on Friday. IndyCar isn't going to have two 90-minute sessions on Friday.
How can we find a balance and split practices into groups to ensure cars have enough space on track while also adding an early session to Friday?
IndyCar could keep the 90-minute window in the middle of the afternoon and then add an hour to Friday. That one-hour session could see each team get two 15-minute segments on track. Each car would get 30 minutes early, 40 minutes late, and on Saturday, that session could be an hour with each car getting another 30 minutes of practice time. It would actually be less practice time for the teams. It would be 70 minutes total compared to the 105 minutes now, but they already aren't using the full 105 minutes. Hopefully, less would be more as fewer cars on track would mean more space for cars to run and less of a reason to wait meaning teams are on track for a greater percentage of the practice time given.
It is a minor tweak, but it could do wonders for everyone. The teams and drivers get a little more breathing room to practice, and instead of fighting with 26 other cars for space, they would fighting for at most 13 or 14 other cars. There would be more to see on Friday and possibly draw more people out on the afternoon. Hopefully, the extra track space means less time sitting around, and though each car would have less total time on track, they would use a greater percentage of what would be given.
Tweaks are already being considered, but let's hope they go a step further.
As for oval weekends, I will need another weekend to ponder those.
Champion From the Weekend
Max Garcia clinched the USF Pro 2000 championship with finishes of first and ninth in Toronto. Alessandro de Tulio won the second race of the weekend.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Patricio O'Ward, but did you know...
Marc Márquez won MotoGP's Czech Grand Prix, his eighth victory of the season and fifth consecutive. Márquez also won the sprint race. American Joe Roberts won the Moto2 race. José Antonio Rueda won in Moto3, his seventh victory of the season.
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup race from Dover, his fourth victory of the season. Connor Zilisch won the Grand National Series race, his second consecutive victory and fourth of the season.
Sho Tsuboi and Kakunoshin Ohta split the Super Formula races from Fuji.
The #18 RS1 Porsche of Jan Heylen and Alex Sedgwick swept the GT World Challenge America races from Virginia International Raceway. The #97 CrowdStrike Racing by Random Vandals BMW of Kevin Boehm and Kenton Koch swept the GT4 America races. Justin Rothberg swept the GT America races.
The #46 Team WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi and Raffaele Marciello and the #59 Garage 59 McLaren of Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer split the GT World Challenge Europe races from Misano
Oliver Solberg won Rally Estonia, his first career World Rally Championship victory.
Jack Jeffers swept the U.S. F2000 races from Toronto.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar ends it busy July at Laguna Seca.
Formula E closes its season with a doubleheader in London.
Formula One returns from a brief break to contest the Belgian Grand Prix.
World Superbike makes its first trip to Balaton Park in Hungary.
NASCAR has the Brickyard 400 to close its in-season tournament.
