The racing calendar is going to get crowded once competition returns and that could lead to some unique pairings later in the year.
NASCAR officials continue to plan for running all the races on the 2020 schedule once the COVID-19 crises eases and it is safe to do so. But other racing sanctioning bodies have also been impacted by the situation and many have released modified versions of their schedules again in hopes of getting back to the track later this summer.
The movement has already created some interesting combinations such as the planned July 4th doubleheader at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course featuring the Xfinity Series and NTT IndyCar Series.
It could open the door for similar pairings. NASCAR doubleheader weekends featuring two Cup races appear to be guarantees to achieve the goal of running all 36 point races. Pocono Raceway had already taken the plunge into the twin bill idea with a planned doubleheader June 26-27 but the interruption to the season will no doubt necessitate other tracks follow suit. Several proposed schedules floated by race teams have indicated Michigan and Dover as a couple of tracks who may be on the twin Cup race weekend plan in August.
More cross pollination of different racing series coming together like NASCAR and IndyCar at Indianapolis in July could very well be another by product of the scheduling shuffle. It’s an idea that generated much discussion in the off-season but may now become a front burner item out of necessity.
“I think it was interesting to see (Josef) Newgarden run around what they call the (Charlotte) Roval, and I think it was pretty exciting,” Penske said about the possibility of combined weekends. “I think some of the fans had never seen an IndyCar on an oval or a racetrack.
“Are those things we can do? Can we execute those so we bring value here to the speedway? Look, we’ve got to break some glass on some of these things, don’t we? We’ve got to try some of this. I’m prepared to take a risk. No risk, no reward in many cases.”
The latest revised IndyCar schedule has the series now opening at Texas Motor Speedway on June 6th, a traditional weekend that also includes the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series the night before. The possibility now exists of running the postponed Texas Cup race from March the day after the IndyCar event to make it a tripleheader weekend.
Richmond Raceway has an IndyCar date on June 27th presenting a similar doubleheader possibility with the April Cup race that needs to be rescheduled.
Until the situation becomes clearer on just when racing might resume no concrete schedule plan can be created. But with each passing week, the motorsports world will continue to investigate creative and feasible ways to get the product back on track. It may lead to ideas and concepts that in the past were considered flights of fancy.
However, what might of previously been viewed as a pipe dream may very well be racing’s new frontier hopefully sooner rather than later.
The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the Motor Racing Network.
