Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Rain in Iowa allowed Kyle Larson to finish sixth in the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond and still make the Knoxville Nationals’ A-Main, where Larson won from pole position, his fourth Knoxville Nationals victory in six years. The Formula E season ended, and two mainstays from the very first race each said goodbye to the series. Marcus Ericsson won for the first time in over three years in IndyCar’s inaugural Markham race. The race didn’t quite make up for the construction delays on Friday. Though we talk about IndyCar street courses and series investment today, we will not tough upon this weekend and Markham, but we will likely discuss that shortly. However, what I write today I have been thinking about for maybe a month or more. This is the right time to share.
What Will $35 Million Get You?
This was supposed to be an IndyCar off-weekend. We started 2026 with this as an off-weekend, but a few weeks into the calendar year an announcement wade that IndyCar woulds m run a race in Washington, D.C. in part of the celebration for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was not the common IndyCar move.
IndyCar has not been the series to add races months after the initial calendar has been announced. It is the series that does not add races, period. For essentially a decade the series has been containing itself to 17 races for the sake of team budgets and not spending the competitors into oblivion. New races sometimes take years of vetting and a year or more from the introductory press conference to the actual inaugural running. This bucks all those norms.
This race was announced four months after the calendar has been released, increased the schedule by one more race, creating a five-week stretch to close the season, and this track will go from theory to reality in eight month’s time. The desire to have an event strictly tied to the celebrations in the United States proved too strong to pass up, and IndyCar will hold a race in the nation's capital, a place previously thought to be unfathomable for hosting a race.
It does come at a cost. Ever since it was announced, many logistics have been pondered, most notably how could this race be funded. Due to federal laws, there are no title sponsors nor any sponsors of the event. General admission tickets were free and obtained through a lottery. The money is coming out of IndyCar's pockets. Roger Penske approved the $35 million expenditure. This splurge is a bit stunning from anyone who has followed IndyCar for an extended period of time.
The money is never there until it is there.
It is not uncommon for financials to get in the way of IndyCar doing something, whether it is expanding the calendar, increasing marketing, developing a new chassis and engine. There are realistic limits to everything in life, including a motorsports series. Never before did it seem practical IndyCar would spend $35 million on anything, and yet, now it is.
It is frustrating to see.
Money has long been a reason for IndyCar's shortcomings and its lack of ambition. The money has been there all along. For the better part of the last decade IndyCar has had a lengthy gap somewhere in its calendar where another race could be added and it would not cause significant strain on the teams, but it is not filled and three-week gaps after the first race of the season existed with a two-week gap following the second race at times. Momentum would never build at the start of a season.
Ever since the 2020s began, IndyCar has been notably absent from the Northeast, the most highly populated area in the United States. There are a few venues that could host IndyCar, but the series couldn't work out a deal with the tracks or take the initiative to run its own event mainly due to cost. Guess what it is doing now? Running its own event at a significantly greater cost than running at any of the existing permanent venues.
IndyCar has been more involved with its events. Roger Penske was already overseeing the Detroit event well before he purchased the series. IndyCar runs the Milwaukee race, which has been a success. It has a heavy hand in the Nashville race, which has done well. Arlington is partially series-run with the Dallas Cowboys. IndyCar bought Long Beach in an effort to preserve the long-standing race on its calendar. Add in the two Indianapolis races and this race in Washington D.C., and IndyCar is promoting nearly half the schedule.
We have also seen the limits IndyCar will hit. The series promoted the Iowa race from 2022 through 2025. The first three years drew large crowds thanks in part to support from Hy-Vee, which also brought in notable musical acts for each day of the doubleheader weekend. When Hy-Vee pulled out ahead of the 2025 event, the crowd diminished considerably. IndyCar didn't have to bring in the same kind of musical acts, but it could have done more in terms of marketing the event around the local area to keep a crowd. Iowa had long been a respectable race in terms of attendance. With less resources and less promotion poured into the event, it shriveled up. As we can see with Washington, D.C., the money was available to get the word out.
Frustration stems from the glaring shortcomings that the series has chosen not to address. It is clear they could have been.
For $35 million, the series could have invested in a five-year or eight-year plan of developing a race or two at a facility or facilities whether that be Pocono, Loudon, Watkins Glen or Richmond. It could have put roots in the ground and made an effort to grow in a community and become a yearly event the locals look forward to and supporting. Washington, D.C. will grab some attention, but it is clear this is a one-year thing. After this year, there will be nothing on the East Coast between Markham and St. Petersburg, and the closest to the west will be Mid-Ohio. It has been that way far too long.
The series is not becoming anymore accessible with this race, but the money could have been committed to expanding IndyCar's reach, which the series needs in the long-term.
We already know the same problems plaguing the series will continue to exist next year. IndyCar announced its first phase of the 2027 calendar, and as we expected last month, there will be no race between Long Beach on April 18 and the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 15. That will be three consecutive weekends without a race. The Indianapolis 500 open test will be held on Tuesday May 4 and Wednesday May 5, but no one is causally going to tune into a test. People pay to see races, not practice laps.
We know IndyCar will spend the money to create an event, but it has decided the three-week gap is not enough of a reason to develop a race in a new market and expand its reach. It would rather have three weeks with nothing significant leading into the month of May and Indianapolis 500 festivities than hold a race that will generate attention and increase interest before its biggest month of the year.
It didn't even need to be a new race to fill that opening in the spring. Nashville could have gotten out of the heat of the summer and turned into a nice spring date while providing another oval before Indianapolis. The middle of July could have opened up for more suitable conditions in a Northeast race.
These are the decisions IndyCar fails to make year after year when it should have already been addressed. It is one thing to have an off-year and need to do some rearranging for the future, but IndyCar doesn't do that. It doesn't address the problem. It allows it to linger. The energy is not thrown into growing and finding a place in another part of the country to put its roots. Instead, we have another year of the series shrugging its shoulders and essentially saying, "It is what it is." It doesn't have to be, and it should be unacceptable to the series. It should make a statement and put itself out there with another race. We know it is possible for the series. The upcoming race formed out of thin air eight months ago.
Washington, D.C. is happening because it is a seismic event and the opportunity may never come up again. Maybe it has always been Roger Penske's dream to see IndyCar race around the Capitol Building and the National Mall with the Washington Monument in the background. Penske has the money to make it happen. More power to him. It would also be nice if he had the same enthusiasm about expanding IndyCar across the country where more Americans had a race they could count on attending on a yearly basis.
The money has always been there for it. Apparently it is not worth it to the series.
Champion From the Weekend
Pascal Wehrlein clinched the Formula E Drivers' Championship with finishes of first and 14th in the London ePrix. It is Wehrlein’s second Formula E title.
Jaguar clinched the Formula E Teams' Championship.
However, Porsche clinched the Formula E Manufacturers’ Championship.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Pascal Wehrlein, Kyle Larson and Marcus Ericsson, but did you know...
Taylor Barnard won the second race at the London ePrix, and Barnard became the youngest Formula E race winner at 22 years, two months and 15 days old.
Joey Logano won the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond, his second victory of the season. Kaden Honeycutt won the Truck race, his second victory of the season.
Jack Jeffers and Andrés Cardenas split the USF Pro 2000 races from Toronto. Sebastìán Garzón and Brad Majman split the U.S. F2000 races.
Matteo Cairoli and Marco Wittmann split the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters races from the Nürburgring.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar goes to Washington, D.C.
NASCAR heads to Loudon.
Formula One is back from its summer break with a sprint weekend at Zandvoort, and the final Dutch Grand Prix for the near-future.
IMSA will not be far from IndyCar with a GT-only round from Virginia International Raceway.
European Le Mans Series runs the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Super GT will be at Suzuka.
Supercars are at Queensland Raceway for the final round of the Sprint Cup.
