Here is a rundown of what got me thinking....
While you were sleeping, Josef Newgarden scored his 20th oval victory with a fantastic performance at Gateway Motorsports Park. While you were awake, there were track issues in Monaco, Aprilia played bowling in Hungary, it didn't rain in Michigan, and someone went from last-to-first and made history in the process. There was also an explosive technical revelation in Moto3 that saw Adrián Fernández, but not that Adrián Fernández, disqualified from the first six races of the season as two of his engines were found to be tampered with. Le Mans test day has occurred and that endurance race is approaching quick. I feel better as I write this opening stanza. A peak behind the curtain will reveal I save this for last, but the previous week was not as positive of an experience.
I am Tired of Stupidity and Anger
It has been an exhausting period, and I am not talking about all the on-track action for the NTT IndyCar Series. Sunday night's Gateway race concluded five consecutive weekends of on-track competition and it was really more than that as there was a full week for Indianapolis 500 practice. However, this has nothing to do with what happened on-track. It is the auxiliary conversation around IndyCar.
"Everything is wrong."
If you listen to the buzz that is what you can take away. IndyCar needs to do this. IndyCar needs to do that. Every decision is wrong and it should be the complete opposite. IndyCar is not perfect, and the series has made its errors. We saw it during this period with race control and throwing cautions. That wasn't great and it is an area of improvement. Even I suggested solutions to ensure bumping in the future and better distribution of the prize money for the Indianapolis 500. When there are tweaks that can be made, let's discuss those and work through what can be done. However, there are certain topics are just beating a dead horse.
I am tired of everyone shouting for more oval races. I want more oval races. IndyCar could stand to add another two or three oval races. I am in agreement that it is a shame that we see high speed superspeedway racing, the thing that makes IndyCar stand out from all the other motorsports series in the world, only once a year. This is what IndyCar is selling when it prints t-shirts that say, "Speed Limit 241 MPH", and you can only see it every Memorial Day weekend.
That is an identity crisis IndyCar should probably address, but I am realistic and I know as loud as the crowd is the demand isn't there.
There is plenty of history that shows I am not one of those who sees an oval race struggle and immediately turns it on the fanbase for not showing up. It isn't about an inability to draw the fanbase that currently exists, but an inability to make an event and reach people beyond the those who are already apart of the congregation. We know, IndyCar's brass included, the demand is not there for some of these dream races.
IndyCar isn't going to Michigan International Speedway because IndyCar doesn't care about oval racing. It isn't going because it does not see a reasonable business plan for a successful race, and Michigan International Speedway agrees. If Michigan believed the demand was there for a profitable IndyCar event, it would be on the phone with the series trying to make it happen. That is the truth with a number of venues. I would love to see it. I can see how it would be beneficial for the series, but are 45,000 people going to show up? I don't see a reason to believe otherwise. I don't like to admit that, but let's be honest with ourselves. Sometimes you must roll the dice and take a chance, but you can do that for maybe one or two races.
It is staggering that after every IndyCar oval race we hear the same noise about all the oval races IndyCar needs and the only thing holding IndyCar back is the lack of oval races. We all know that is not true because the Indy Racing League happened, a series dedicated to only oval races, and that went so well that it started adding road and street courses, and within five years of its first road course event the series was practically 50/50 between ovals and road and street courses.
If all it took was adding eight or nine oval races to improve IndyCar's popularity, the IRL would have never added road courses and street courses. It is foolish to think all IndyCar needs is Michigan, Kansas, Pocono, Richmond, Loudon, Texas, Iowa, Kentucky, Homestead and Chicagoland. We literally had that and look at where it got us!
Also, let's not ignore that Long Beach, St. Petersburg, Road America, Barber Motorsports Park and Mid-Ohio are successful events with respectable crowds. Even Arlington did very well in year one and Detroit is respectable. It isn't a case IndyCar is holding 17 race weekends at 17 empty venues. The road and street course weekends are doing fine.
Should IndyCar try and branch out and build events at ovals? I would love to see it. I am just tired of how stupid some people are. These aren't good faith proposals. These are "You're stupid. I'm right. Listen to me!" arguments. I enjoyed Michigan as much as anyone, but let's not ignore what the grandstands looked like. That is what needs to be solved and if simply going was all it took IndyCar would not have struggled in the first place.
The same is true for Texas Motor Speedway. Everyone gets angry IndyCar left Texas, but if you were watching closely, you would have seen the crowd dwindling on a yearly basis even prior to 2020. IndyCar didn't stop going because things were going so well or because the series is really against oval racing even when its only nationally recognized event is an oval race. It stopped going because it couldn't even draw 10,000 spectators. If in 2023 Texas still had 50,000 people showing up even for an IndyCar race that began at 11:30 a.m. local time, IndyCar would likely still be going to Texas Motor Speedway.
And if you are thinking, "Well, IndyCar shouldn't have been racing at Texas Motor Speedway at 11:30 a.m. and taken into consideration that the local residents would not go that early to a race" then you cannot get upset over scheduling justifications as to why Detroit is the weekend after the Indianapolis 500, which was the latest quibbling point this week.
This week James Hinchcliffe said on the latest episode of On-Track with Alexander Rossi that one of the reasons Detroit is held this weekend is because school lets out the week after the race and once school is out people go on vacation and leave the city of Detroit. This was also something Nathan Brown of the Indianapolis Star pointed out he reported on three years ago.
Whether we agree that should be a deciding factor over why a race is held on a certain weekend or not, it is still a case of taking in the local habits of the residents and trying to maximize the appeal of the event.
We could also be honest and just say that is when Roger Penske and Chevrolet wants the Detroit race to be held. Not everyone is leaving Detroit for the summer, but those executives that sign the checks and approve the funding for the event would like to spend from the middle of June through the start of August upstate and not in the city. The rich get their cake and eat it too. And that is why Detroit is the weekend after the Indianapolis 500.
And for those who said, "Well, NASCAR is racing at Michigan the weekend after Detroit when school is out. Why can NASCAR do it?" Because those are two entirely different promoters! NASCAR has decided to hold its Michigan event in the middle of June, a time of year where it has historically always held a race at Michigan. Chevrolet wants IndyCar to race a week earlier. Detroit could be held on a different weekend, but those in charge don't want it to be a different weekend. They have the money. They make the decision. There is your answer.
I am just tired of it. I am tired of so many people having their heads in the sand. We saw this weekend. Everyone was losing their mind that IndyCar made some aerodynamic changes ahead of Gateway. I will admit, sometimes it feels like IndyCar does tinkering too much, but in this case, it didn't really change anything. Even before the race, people were upset it started on FS1 because the United Football League playoff game was running long. That happens! When you are following a live sports event, they will let that event finish and then you get on. The Gateway race also started 20 minutes early as there was a concern with weather. That wasn't how it was planned, but it worked out that way. And even if the broadcast began on FS1, the race was on Fox within 20 minutes of the green flag waving, and the broadcast continued well beyond midnight after the multiple red flags for weather.
There is no point in being difficult just to be difficult.
Everything might not be perfect but not everything is a disaster. We can also be realistic about expectations. I would love Michigan to return. As someone who went to every Pocono race after it returned to the schedule in 2013, I would love if Pocono was back. It isn't happening tomorrow though. And it is ok it isn't happening tomorrow. There are other events out there that are doing well.
Gateway has been around for a decade now, and it has had its ups and downs, but it has good footing as an IndyCar event. Gateway's last decade and Milwaukee's last two years should give us some hope that in a few years maybe Pocono could return and be better than after or maybe Richmond could be added after nearly returning six years ago or maybe it is Loudon or somewhere else. It is going to be incremental steps, not a giant revolution of venue changes.
Things are not as bad as some make it out to be. We all want things to be better and a few tweaks here and there, another oval race or two, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking there is some horrific failure in front of us.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden, but did you know...
Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the Monaco Grand Prix, his fifth consecutive victory.
Marc Márquez won MotoGP's Hungarian Grand Prix and the sprint race. Manuel González won in Moto2, his third consecutive victory and fourth victory of the season. Máximo Quiles won in Moto3, his fifth victory of the season.
Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Cup race from Michigan, his second consecutive victory and his third of the season. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his third victory of the season.
Noel León (sprint) and Nikola Tsolov (feature) split the Formula Two races from Monaco. Gerrard Xie (sprint) and Brando Badoer (feature) split the Formula Three races. Xie inherited the sprint race victory after Hiyu Yamakoshi was disqualified for improperly mounted front push rods on the car.
Myles Rowe won the Indy Lights race from Gateway after starting 24th in the 24-car field.
Coming Up This Weekend
94th 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Formula One has its first ever Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix though it isn't Barcelona's first race.
NASCAR takes a trip to the Poconos.
GT World Challenge America will be in Road America.
World Superbike takes a run around Misano.
