As with many races around the world, the Indy 500 will be postponed from its traditional slot over Memorial Day weekend in May to August 23rd. Indycar’s biggest race is being moved to accommodate the impact of the Coronavirus or COVID-19.
“The reality is today we might still have been able to run as scheduled in May. We hope life is back to normal, or near normal, by then,” Mark Miles, chief executive of the company that runs IndyCar and the IMS, said.
“After protecting public health, our priority is absolutely about running the 104th Indianapolis 500 mile race in 2020. By rescheduling in late August we fully expect to be outside the window impacted by the COVID-19 virus.”
The new owner of Indycar, Roger Penske, said:
“The health and safety of our event participants and spectators is our top priority, and we believe that postponing the event is the responsible decision with the conditions and restrictions we are facing,” Penske said.
“We will continue to focus on ways we can enhance the customer experience in the months ahead, and I’m confident we will welcome fans with a transformed facility and a global spectacle when we run the world’s greatest race.”
The only surprise is it wasn’t delayed sooner really. The thing that is interesting though isn’t the rescheduled date for the Indy 500 as significant as it may be. Rather it is the rescheduled date for the Indy GP on the road course which is now set to be in July on the same weekend as the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race. The two sanctioning bodies have been talking for a long while now about the possibility of a joint weekend between the top class in NASCAR and IndyCar. It is nice to see it finally penciled in. Something good to… Read more »