2017 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule
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RacerrecaR
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Only 35% of the schedule is ovals? No wonder why their ratings have fallen harder than NASCAR's. Bring back Milwaukee, Richmond, Auto Club, and Homestead if you want great racing. But of course that would make too much sense.
FLRacingFan
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Ratings have gone up though, and people don't show up at places like Fontana. Milwaukee is dead, Frye is trying to work his NASCAR/ISC connections to get back to Homestead and Richmond like he did with Phoenix and Watkins Glen.
Only 35% of the schedule is ovals? No wonder why their ratings have fallen harder than NASCAR's. Bring back Milwaukee, Richmond, Auto Club, and Homestead if you want great racing. But of course that would make too much sense.
LewTheShoe
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No thank you to Fontana and Homestead, where you'd lift your foot from the floorboard only to pit for refueling. That is not real racing. That is essentially a 500-mile straightaway. Bleh.
RacerrecaR
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Agreed. We already have F1 for an open wheel road course series. If I want to watch an open wheel series that is predominately (or completely) a road course series, I'll watch that. For some inexpiable reason I have never been a fan of Indy cars on road courses or street circuits.
DUN24
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FTFY
DUN24
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Lately, they've put on better shows than F1.
No no you didn't. I miss the days of Indy pack racing
wilson89
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I heard Robin Miller I think say Milwaukee couldn't even get 5,000 people to show up last time. I doubt there will ever be a race there again
DUN24
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Lol, but it was literally broken.
I like variety. Love pack racing, love road course and street courses. Too each their own, though.
FLRacingFan
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Fans need to put their money where their mouth is. It's that simple. Some of the oval races that are held look like FIU football games in comparison to some of the road courses and street circuits resembling FSU games.
Not to mention restrictor plate-style pack racing every week was a terrible product. Almost no variety whatsoever outside of a few short ovals. Seeing a big blob run around for a couple of hours together at places like Michigan, Kansas, Chicagoland, Kentucky, Texas, Homestead, etc...I don't miss it. Couldn't get into it. Made for some artificially exciting finishes but it wasn't a great product overall. Very stale after a little while. And contrary to what Eddie Gossage thinks, I think the Texas races of now with the current cars are way better than the old IRL races. IndyCar has hit on a pretty good ratio of ovals:street circuits:road courses, a lot of people think. One or two more ovals and one more road course and it'll be just about perfect.
Not to mention restrictor plate-style pack racing every week was a terrible product. Almost no variety whatsoever outside of a few short ovals. Seeing a big blob run around for a couple of hours together at places like Michigan, Kansas, Chicagoland, Kentucky, Texas, Homestead, etc...I don't miss it. Couldn't get into it. Made for some artificially exciting finishes but it wasn't a great product overall. Very stale after a little while. And contrary to what Eddie Gossage thinks, I think the Texas races of now with the current cars are way better than the old IRL races. IndyCar has hit on a pretty good ratio of ovals:street circuits:road courses, a lot of people think. One or two more ovals and one more road course and it'll be just about perfect.
FLRacingFan
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And leave America without a domestic open wheel road racing series? Abandon American classics like Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Watkins Glen? IndyCar is usually more entertaining than F1 when it comes to road courses anyways.
LewTheShoe
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I agree with FL about pack racing... bleh. Boring and artificial, and also unduly dangerous on the banked Nascar-friendly tracks. Sad about Milwaukee, can't draw a crowd despite the great racing. The last race there was a classic open wheel race, one of the best in many years, and just about nobody saw it.
Road America is a great venue for IndyCar, and Watkins Glen too. I'm less keen on the slow and narrow tracks like Mid-Ohio and Sonoma, but what are you gonna do? I get that. But the street circuits really suck IMO, tight little Mickey Mouse tracks more suited to go carts. Part of my displeasure is the current cars, so aero dependent with ungainly huge front wings just waiting to scatter carbon fibre over the roadway.
IndyCar needs to (1) lose ~67% of its downforce, and (2) find a way to have competing car builders (chassis builders), IMO. I'd favor a rules package inspired by the original Daytona Prototype concept... relatively low tech and low cost chassis from several builders. Actually, not unlike the Nascar approach to chassis. IndyCar's efforts to present itself as "like F1" is a complete non-starter, made worse by a spec chassis where all come from the same production batch. Just my $0.02.
Zerkfitting
Team Owner
I'd like a good mix of ovals and road courses, I've never liked any street course. Hopefully they do some testing to see if the reduced down force NASCAR is trying works on Indycars.
FLRacingFan
Team Owner
They did an aero test last month at Mid-Ohio. In all likelihood there will be an aero freeze for 2017 with a new spec aero kit introduced in 2018 that will move some topside downforce to the underfloor and also have less overall downforce.