However, we can address what the 2027 calendar will be in a more causal form and set aside philosophical issues... mostly. Think of it as a first impressions except a few days late and with more consideration.
1. There is no way IndyCar races in Barcelona for the next ten years, the reported length of the contract.
When has IndyCar had any commitment last that long?
Let's just think about since reunification.
Of the entirely new venues to join the IndyCar schedule since 2008, only Barber Motorsports Park has lasted more than a decade. São Palou hung around for four years. Baltimore made it three years. NOLA Motorsports Park and Circuit of the Americas were each only around for a year. Nashville's street course lasted three years before downtown construction moved the event to Nashville Superspeedway for the last three years. Thermal Club hosted two races, an exhibition and a points race.
That's it. The 2026 season saw three inaugural events held, and one is already gone. Time will tell on the staying power of the other two. Besides those three events from this past season, seven entirely new venues joined the IndyCar calendar in the last 18 years, and only Barber lasted at least five years, and it is the only one still around today.
History tells us Barcelona will not last that long.
It is easy to be skeptical of a IndyCar schedule because many races don't get off the ground let alone last, especially fly-away events. Barcelona sounds good now, but after a year or two, if attendance is not fantastic and sponsors lose interest, it could be a deal where both sides are looking for an out.
2. There is a greater than 0% chance Barcelona does not happen in 2027.
This is IndyCar. Something can go wrong. We are a long way from July 18, 2027. Don’t celebrate until July 19.
Prepare for the riot when it does.
3. July is a tough time for this race. It is warm in Barcelona in the summer. Even if it was an evening race, it would be warm. What kind of crowd will like to sit in the heat for a series they really are not aware of and a bunch of drivers who are complete unknowns including the local hero?
This race made more sense in April or early May, which is a busy period for IndyCar, but we know the dates are there.
I wonder how long this race will last period, but especially during summer. It works for 2027, but many potential IndyCar venues in North America are probably better suited for a July date, especially if they could be paired with existing venues in scheduling.
In 2027, Formula One is off the weekend IndyCar will be in Barcelona. There will likely always be a Formula One off-week in July every year moving forward, but who is to say that off weekend will not move around. How much can IndyCar chase that off date and have the Barcelona race move from mid-July to the first weekend of July to the last weekend of July?
Put on your tinfoil hats because Formula One could sabotage this race simply by moving its races around so the one off-weekend in July is different every year.
Don’t forget that Barcelona will return to the Formula One schedule in 2028, and then alternate with the Belgian Grand Prix running 2030 and 2032 as well. The Belgian Grand Prix will be July 25, 2027. Is Barcelona really going to run IndyCar and Formula One on consecutive weekends?
With Formula One's current schedule structure and clustering races from specific parts of the world, April and May are more accommodating to an IndyCar European vacation. Formula One is still in the Asia-Pacific and races in North America at that time. IndyCar likely would not have to worry about having a Formula One race on the European continent challenging it for attention.
I would venture to think the timing of this Barcelona race will change at some point before it leaves the IndyCar calendar, whether that exit be in a year or two or in eight or nine years towards the end of this contract.
4. We must acknowledge how close IndyCar was to receiving glorious praise for its 2027 calendar.
If IndyCar had found a way to keep Nashville Superspeedway and move it to the weekend of May 2 while adding a fly-away race in Barcelona, or if IndyCar had found a way to tack itself on the NASCAR weekend at Texas Motor Speedway that same weekend in May, or IndyCar could have found any oval to run the weekend of May 2, I think this calendar would have been widely celebrated.
Essentially every race would be retained except Washington, D.C., which was long believed to be a one-off event, and IndyCar would have found a way to add an international race in a noteworthy and legitimate location. I don't know what else you could ask for.
There are always going to be those numbskulls who will not allow themselves to find happiness unless Michigan, Pocono, Chicagoland, Kentucky, Richmond, Loudon, Texas and Homestead are added to the IndyCar schedule at once. IndyCar is not adding eight oval races to its schedule when it has only five at present, nor is the schedule going from 17 races to 25 races in a year. However, those grounded in reality could see complete calendar retention plus an international race as a big success.
5. It makes you wonder why IndyCar didn't try and find one oval race to run on the first weekend in May to at least cover its backside and at least look good. IndyCar must have known losing an oval race, even if it was Nashville, was going to draw considerable scorn. Nobody was going to view it as a success. If IndyCar kept the same number of oval venues and added Barcelona, I don't think people would be this dissatisfied.
IndyCar could not have found the money to organize one more Nashville race? This is where everyone gets frustrated because IndyCar can spend $35 million on a one-off race that was essentially a vanity project, but it cannot spend a few million to keep a race on the calendar, keep all the tracks on the schedule from one year to the next, and at least prevent people from getting upset over the feeling of a lost event?
It was right there for IndyCar, but it was too much to overcome? It would have been last minute, but we saw a street race go from hypothetical to reality in about eight months and we long believed such an exercise required over a year to get off the ground. Organizing one oval race could have easily been done in comparison.
6. Since 2012, IndyCar has been somewhere between four and six oval races in a season. In 2021, there were four oval races at three circuits. This is where IndyCar has been for a decade-and-a-half. I don’t understand how anyone can be concerned and act like this is new. This has been the norm. One going away with another not replacing is a net-loss, but another one could come around in 2028, and we will be back to five oval circuits and possibly six oval races if one of them remains a doubleheader.
Losing Nashville and losing one oval fall cannot cause the-sky-is-falling panic. This has been the norm for a long time. Don’t act like it hasn’t been.
7. I don't see how Nashville returns to the calendar. I don't see how going on hiatus for an indefinite period of time will lead to a successful event returning. The new stadium is due to open next year. It was built entirely on the parking lot IndyCar used for its paddock. The current stadium is bound to be demolished, which likely means another year, and redevelopment plans could see the site of the current stadium become a park and housing, neither of which would be ideal for a street race.
It is hard to see how any race in downtown Nashville could be reorganized before 2029 or 2030.
If the Music City Grand Prix wanted to be downtown, it probably could have developed a plan and returned either this past season or for this upcoming season. There is some course that could have been developed that avoided the stadium construction and allowed a race to take place.
If we are being honest, the only way a downtown street race is taking place in Nashville is if the promoter finds a way to use the convention center, which is right downtown and a stone's throw from where part of the original street course was, to be the paddock area. Even then, I am not sure a suitable course can be developed entirely on the west side of the Cumberland River. There aren't many suitable roads on that side of a river for a street race in downtown Nashville. There is Broadway, but you cannot use much of that considering how big of a thoroughfare it is for tourists. IndyCar was only going to use part of it on the 2024 redesign. The rest of the roads on that side are pretty narrow.
The best option is something akin to the current Detroit course, and we know how much Detroit is celebrated. I think this is one event that is just going to be gone, and it is disappointing because it would have been fantastic to see IndyCar race on such a location and have it as a season finale. It is truly the event IndyCar was hoping for in its finale and it just fell short of becoming a reality.
8. I still cannot get over the blindness from IndyCar that all it needed was one race to avoid a month gap in spring, and the rest of the schedule is pretty evenly balanced. Yeah, I keep going to it. It is such an obvious thing to clean up and there is no way it cost too much to rectify.
The 2027 season will have three consecutive race weekends, a week off, and then alternating race weekends before the month break. Come May, it will be five consecutive weekends at the racetrack between the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Indianapolis 500 practice and qualifying, the Indianapolis 500, Detroit and Gateway. Once IndyCar hits summer, it will have a week off after the five-week slog, but then it will be back-to-back races, alternating race weekends and off-weekends over the next seven weeks before a back-to-back to end the season with one of those weekends being a doubleheader.
That is a pretty good schedule. There are only four instances of consecutive race weekends. When you think about how 2026 worked out, next summer will be a breeze even with the travel. There is a week off before and after Barcelona and then and off-week between Portland and Markham, and and off-week between Markham and Milwaukee.
It is a sensible schedule... and all IndyCar needed was one race in spring so there wasn't a glaring hole. Come on!
9. One thing I heard this summer on Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s podcast this summer when discussing races and some being night races and others not being and how that affects attendance was as simple as people just want to be comfortable at an event. No one wants to go to a race in the scorching sun.
I would like to see IndyCar adopt that ethos when it comes to scheduling. Nashville should have been in a time better than July. That race wasn’t even going to be a night race if it ran as scheduled this past July. It was going to be a twilight race and still be rather warm.
Late-April or early-May would have been a better spot for Nashville, and considering IndyCar’s current dilemma, it appeared to be a no-brainer. That should still be the case if the Music City Grand Prix is able to return as a street race, and that should be the case for every possible race moving forward.
If Homestead is on the radar, it should not be considered as an August date, the same way running Loudon in April should not be in considered. A race shouldn’t just be added and act like mission accomplished. Put a race on the schedule best suited for the event and will attract people. If you give them good weather that is nine-tenths of the battle of drawing a crowd.
10. Beyond Barcelona, the lack of Nashville and a lost oval event, it is the same IndyCar calendar we have been staring at for almost two decades. There were no other changes. Portland didn't move to March. Road America didn't become the finale. We were so close to nothing happening with the calendar, which would have still annoyed many, but it is hard to get too angry over losing nothing.
We are all going to be fine. We are going to see the same races we have always seen. We are going to have an oval race and then wonder why it is months until the next one. Detroit is going to be a mess. Álex Palou is going to win five times. Maybe the Markham circuit will be done on time this year. It is going to be a season just like many before it. You will not be surprised at all.
