2025 IndyCar News / Misc

Nathan Brown’s projected 2026 scheduled based off of recent paddock talk and reasonable presumptions:

March 1: Streets of St. Pete

March 15: Streets of Arlington

April 12: Barber Motorsports Park

April 19: Streets of Long Beach

April 26: Richmond Raceway

May 9: IMS road course

May 24: Indianapolis 500

May 31: Streets of Detroit

June 7: World Wide Technology Raceway

June 21: Road America

July 5: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

July 19: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca

July 26: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (Mexico City)

Aug. 9: Portland International Raceway

Aug. 16: Streets of Toronto

Aug. 30: Milwaukee Mile

Sept. 6: Nashville Superspeedway
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I don't understand the failure at Iowa. Haven't read anything about it but I suppose there are reasons.
As a fan watching on tv I thought it was great.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Arlington over COTA? My dislike of street courses influences my question.
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If they could get partners like the Cowboys and Rangers for an Austin race they’d be there.

Tony_K said:
I don't understand the failure at Iowa. Haven't read anything about it but I suppose there are reasons.
As a fan watching on tv I thought it was great.
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Kind of a combination of a lot of different factors.

HyVee has new leadership and pulled out of the sport, which was massive since they put so much into promoting the Iowa doubleheader, getting big names for pre- and post-race concerts, and making it essentially a corporate retreat for their employees. NASCAR finally brought a Cup race after many years of wanting from the local fan base and that naturally took some of the air out of the Indy weekend. Then, the racing was so bad on the newly repaved surface last year that a ton of people got scared off of buying tickets. Didn’t help that the comments made by drivers after the test there a few weeks before the races offered little to no optimism for improvement.

Fortunately, it did end up being a much better weekend than anticipated, but there were something between 6-8k in attendance for either race and that just isn’t sustainable.
 
All good points. I had forgotten about the concerts and HyVee being the promoter. Tuning in on the tv tends to leave you uneducated about all the behind-the-scenes stuff that lead up to a successful event.
 
Hopefully the Richmond event comes to fruition. I and a lot of others were disappointed the 2020 event never happened. I’d make it a point to go up there if they make that happen.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
SVG :D
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Sounds like Zilisch has been talked about in the paddock a little bit and even associated with a potential test at some point. I very much doubt he would attempt the double in his rookie Cup season, but he’s open to it at some point and Justin Marks has been vocal about wanting to field a 500 entry eventually.

 
Fox must be pleased with the results of its first year of coverage. I hope they don't try to introduce NASCAR-esque changes.

I'm quite surprised to learn the series is worth only around $400 million. Does any other major US sport have such a large ownership stake in the hands of a media company?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Fox must be pleased with the results of its first year of coverage. I hope they don't try to introduce NASCAR-esque changes.

I'm quite surprised to learn the series is worth only around $400 million. Does any other major US sport have such a large ownership stake in the hands of a media company?
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Penske bought the track and the series for about $300M before COVID hit. The value is much less in the series than it is in IMS itself.

It’s a pretty unique arrangement in the U.S., although Liberty Media obviously owns both F1 and now MotoGP.
 
If true, it tells me that Fox is looking out for itself more than about the sport itself. Guaranteed tv money for x years and influence. I hope I'm wrong.
 
Fox clearly sees their first year with Indycar as very successful We’ll likely have a home on network television for at least the next few years
 
rd45usa said:
If true, it tells me that Fox is looking out for itself more than about the sport itself. Guaranteed tv money for x years and influence. I hope I'm wrong.
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I think the biggest plus is having a dedicated partner with a vested interest in marketing and promotion. You’ve already seen a lot of it this year, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them take the mantle even more from Penske Entertainment in that sense. It’s not an area in which PE have been exceptional themselves.

I’d also expect more in the ‘big event’ space, including FOX leveraging their relationships with other properties such as with the Arlington street race.


nickp said:
Fox clearly sees their first year with Indycar as very successful We’ll likely have a home on network television for at least the next few years
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Through 2030 is what’s been reported. Next year might have some exceptions due to the World Cup, but it’s otherwise access to high visibility for much longer than they’re used to.
 
Read a nugget in the RACER mailbag today that Rob Walton, principal owner of the Broncos and of Walmart fortunate, is involved in the prospective 2027 Denver race, and that it’ll be anchored by Mile High Stadium in all likelihood.

racer.com

The RACER Mailbag, August 6 | RACER

Fox's buy-in, caution lengths and street races vs permanent tracks among topics in the RACER Mailbag this week.
racer.com racer.com

Some other recent rumblings are that Toronto could become an airport event next year. There are five World Cup matches at BMO Field so I guess it’s a matter of not having enough setup time around Exhibition Place.

Also, Ricardo Escotto Sr. is out of the picture and Penske Entertainment taking the lead on getting Mexico City across the finish line.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Some other recent rumblings are that Toronto could become an airport event next year. There are five World Cup matches at BMO Field so I guess it’s a matter of not having enough setup time around Exhibition Place.
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Seems to me there's a ton of advantages to an airport layout. More flexibility of layout, better overall surface with no manhole covers or railroad tracks or poorly paved potholes, more runoff room, more space for teams behind pit walls.

But I'm noted for my dislike of street courses.
 
One of the top free agents and top seats go off the board. Eight Top 10s in the last nine races for Marcus.

Having finished out the final year of a multi-year deal with Chip Ganassi Racing this year while on loan to MSR, it's presently unclear whether Armstrong's latest contract is solely with MSR, or whether he remains contractually linked to CGR, with whom MSR has a technical alliance.
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How long before we get a cucumber. 😁
racer.com

IndyCar expands post-race technical inspections | RACER

The IndyCar Series has taken another step in introducing a new technical inspection process with its cars after impounding four entries following the most recent race at Portland International Raceway.Working in concert with its chassis supplier, Dallara, the cars of championship winner Alex...
racer.com racer.com
 
Rember the old saying about the #1 Lotus being the best car in F1 and the #2 being the worst? That's where Red Bull is right now. It would be suicide to take that route. Look at the careers that car has ruined. I'm betting Alex is probably too smart to fall for that.
 
Unpopular comment: I'd love to see it happening. New cars are coming next year that will be hugely different than the current one.
This could turn out to be a huge missed opportunity. If Palou never makes the jump to F1 fans will always ask themselves how good he could've been against the best in the world.

That's why I and many others are ecstatic about Toprak Razgatlioglu making the switch from Superbikes to MotoGP next year.
 
He's 28 and has done everything in IndyCar worth doing, some multiple times. Give F1 a try and hope to show enough talent to become lead driver somewhere. If it doesn't pan out he can be back in his early 30s.

Seems to be working for SVG.
 
Palou going to Red Bull makes a hell of a lot more sense than the rumor of Andretti/TWG sending Herta to F2 next year.

There are very few F1 teams worth leaving CGR for, and Red Bull is one of them - in spite of the history associated with their second seat, and my own belief that they’re not poised to succeed with the new regulations next year. You get to go up head-to-head with the best open wheel driver in the world, and that opportunity doesn’t come around often. And if Red Bull do happen to get it right next year, you’re competing for a world championship.

If it doesn’t pan out, you can be sure every high-paying IndyCar team in the paddock will be champing at the bit to hire him back over here.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Palou going to Red Bull makes a hell of a lot more sense than the rumor of Andretti/TWG sending Herta to F2 next year.

There are very few F1 teams worth leaving CGR for, and Red Bull is one of them - in spite of the history associated with their second seat, and my own belief that they’re not poised to succeed with the new regulations next year. You get to go up head-to-head with the best open wheel driver in the world, and that opportunity doesn’t come around often. And if Red Bull do happen to get it right next year, you’re competing for a world championship.

If it doesn’t pan out, you can be sure every high-paying IndyCar team in the paddock will be champing at the bit to hire him back over here.
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As long as Verstappen is there the second car will never be allowed to beat him. Verstappen will get all of the best cars and preferential treatment regarding stuff like team orders and race strategy.
 
Marcingak said:
As long as Verstappen is there the second car will never be allowed to beat him. Verstappen will get all of the best cars and preferential treatment regarding stuff like team orders and race strategy.
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The cars are fundamentally the same, minus timing differences in how updates are trialed and/or rolled out. The disparity really comes from the type of driving style and car Verstappen prefers versus what other guys do, and there’s only so much you can do to fix that with setup changes. Albon has described him as having really unique sensitivity that lets him drive much more on the nose of the car than the rear. Other drivers just haven’t been able to handle a car that’s so responsive on the front end.
 
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