IndyCar: More oval races on the calendar

The 2022 IndyCar calendar consists of 17 races, only five of which will take place on classic American ovals, and the remaining 12 on urban or stationary tracks with road-like circuits.

For example, a week ago in California, on a ring road in the city of Long Beach, the third stage of the season was held, where former Formula 1 driver Roman Grosjean achieved a very creditable second place. Speaking of the future of the series, however, the owner, Roger Penske, who also owns the legendary track in Indianapolis, said there should be more oval races on the popular championship’s calendar in the future.

“I would be more inclined to expand the season’s calendar to include ovals rather than road or urban circuits, as this sets us apart from any other motorsport category,” says Penske. – The calendar should remain diverse, there should be city tracks, street tracks and ovals. I want this combination to continue in the future.

I don’t think the calendar will grow by four or five races – I think it will be fine if it expands to 18-19 stages. We will lose some races, because someone may not want to continue the cooperation, for example because of the position of local city authorities. On the other hand, the costs of promoters and teams are increasing, so I cannot accurately predict how many races we will have next year. But we are trying to work with the promoters to find out exactly what will be possible.

There was a race in Nashville (last year), a perfect addition to the calendar. Iowa has a great leg where we’ll have the kind of entertainment you normally only see in Las Vegas. Overall, we’re trying to improve our calendar and we’ll see what we can do.”

Penske is hopeful that once all Covid-19 restrictions are lifted, this year’s Indy 500 classic should be played to packed stands.

“In Indianapolis we should have a lot more than 200,000 spectators, probably 260,000 or 270,000, and that will be a real success for us,” Penske added. – We focus on 2019, when the stands were almost full. Most of the audience was in 2016, when the anniversary, the hundredth race was held. I don’t think we will reach that level this year, but there are already 10% more tickets sold than in 2019. And this is about the actual sales level, about tickets with seats in the stands.”

Round four of the IndyCar season will take place on the Alabama road-type circuit, while the fifth and sixth rounds will take place at the Indianapolis Oval. The Indianapolis Grand Prix will take place on May 14, and the Indy 500 will take place two weeks later on May 29.