IndyCar – Considering the future role of superspeedways

Note: Over this long IndyCar off-season, I will be creating a series of articles designed to start some perhaps difficult, but important conversations we should be having about the sport. While my position in the articles will lean toward the devil’s advocate side of the issues discussed, know that my intent isn’t to purposely be negative to the sport I’ve loved since my first visit to IMS in 1977. I wish to start the discussion about how the sport can move forward through some of the significant challenges it currently faces.

In some ways, this has been a good year for IndyCar, and in others it’s been one of the worst years. The introduction of the long awaited aero kits for the Dallara DW12 chassis developed by Chevrolet and Honda brought visual differentiation to the cars and opportunities for engineers to outsmart their counterparts, or to get the solution very wrong. Competition this season was strong, with ten different race winners from seven different teams, and a championship battle that went down to the dwindling laps of the final race. Lastly, although the TV ratings still are not where the league and many current and potential sponsors would like to see them, NBCSN showed significant growth of their viewership this season with the final race at Sonoma producing the best ratings yet on the premier-tier cable network.

The season also saw a lot of the darker side of motorsport. At Indianapolis, the Chevrolet aero kits proved to have little yaw stability and a tendency to force the car airborne and become inverted during a spin. This resulted in eleventh-hour changes to the qualifying format for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, a change that greatly upset, and understandably so, the Honda teams who had not experienced any of the aerodynamic issues that plagued the Chevrolet-affiliated teams. During a practice session, James Hinchcliffe experienced a failure of his right-front rocker arm at the entry to Turn 3. The failure removed his ability to turn the car as he struck the SAFER barrier at nearly full speed. The impact seriously injured Hinchcliffe, severing his femoral artery. He will be able to return to IndyCar racing next season thanks to the remarkable skill and speedy response of the safety workers and medical response crew. The worst of the season happened at Pocono Raceway when Justin Wilson was struck by the nose cone of Sage Karam’s destroyed race car. The impact claimed Wilson’s life.

Motorsport has always been dangerous, and it always will be. We must never become complacent and think that it isn’t. There does need to be a consideration of whether the risks we ask the drivers to take is worth the reward of victory. The fastest, and potentially most dangerous, race on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule is also the most prestigious, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Over a third of a million fans come to the Speedway on the Sunday before Memorial Day, the TV ratings are strong, and the race paid a purse of $13.4 million in 2015. It is dangerous. It is exhilarating, and it is rewarding. Juan Pablo Montoya, and Team Penske, earned $2.4 million for their victory at the 500 this season, and their sponsors, Verizon, Shell, and Hitachi, were rewarded with excellent exposure for their brands.

Indianapolis isn’t the only superspeedway on the schedule, however. There is also the race at 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, the 2.0-mile Auto Club Speedway, aka Fontana, the 0.875-mile high-banked Iowa Speedway, and the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway. The strength of track attendance at many of this year’s road and street circuits, stood in sharp contrast to the struggle to sell tickets to the superspeedway events. The worst of these was the race at Fontana where an estimated 5000 people showed up to watch what was one of the most exciting and engaging oval races in many seasons. The attendance at Iowa was decent, but not as strong as it has been in the past, ticket sales at Texas continue to wan, and although Pocono saw growth, they still did not have a strong turnout. Certainly racing on road and especially street circuits is dangerous, and we’ve seen tragic accidents at these type of venues, but the risks taken on these twisty tracks do not compare to the level of risks taken by drivers on the superspeedways. With the increased speeds, topping a sustained 220+ mph, and racing wheel-to-wheel inches from the wall, the potential for mayhem is much higher. It’s what makes oval racing so exciting to watch, and exhilarating to drive. When there’s only 5000 people in grandstands capable of holding tens of thousands, one has to question whether the risk of racing at these venues is worth the reward.

In addition to the lack of fans, there’s also the lack of financial reward. While the Leaders’ Circle plan of revenue sharing, $1.25M per year per entrant in 2015, is helpful for the duration of the season as a whole, the $30k bonus payout for 1st place for any given race is a paltry sum when one considers the financial cost of simply putting a car on the track let alone the risks being assumed by the driver. The Indianapolis 500 Mile Race still pays a traditional purse with the top finishers securing a seven-figure payday, but for every other race on the schedule, including the superspeedways, the reward for hanging it all out there and taking home the victory only covers the cost of the tires for the weekend.

Now I love a great oval race, and we have had some this IndyCar season, but I am apparently in an ever shrinking minority. If the drivers were taking these risks for the 100k+ crowds that we used to see at superspeedways like Michigan and Texas, then I could certainly argue with a clear conscience that racing on superspeedways, while dangerous, is worth doing for those willing to participate. When the crowds are only in the low 10s of thousands (if they even break 10k, looking at you Fontana), the prize money barely covers the cost of tires, TV ratings struggle to peak 500k viewers, and the risks are so incredibly high, I have to question whether the juice is worth the squeeze. Keep in mind, that I ask this question not from the perspective of the drivers, but from the perspective of the series and the promotional partners. If you have not read it yet, Tony Kanaan wrote a beautiful piece, Why We Race, on why race car drivers do what they do.

Superspeedway racing has always been an integral part of CART, the IRL, and the modern blendified IndyCar Series. It’s what makes North American open-wheel racing unique in motorsport, but in these risk-adverse times, can the league continue to have events like Fontana and Pocono on the schedule? I don’t know. I hope so, and I hope the fans return to watch these style of races, but that sure doesn’t seem to be the trend. What are your thoughts? Is superspeedway racing still a critical part of Indy car racing, or is it a style of racing whose time has passed?