IndyCar: Five reasons destroying Walt Disney World Speedway was a mistake

By Asher Fair | Oct 13, 2017

24 Jan 1999: A view of the cars during the Disney World 200 IRL race at Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida. Mandatory Credit: Andy Lyons /Allsport /

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FORT WORTH, TX – JUNE 10: Will Power, driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

FORT WORTH, TX – JUNE 10: Will Power, driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) /

Another oval

IndyCar currently has just six ovals on the schedule. They race at Phoenix International Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park. Three of those race tracks are superspeedways, and three of them are short ovals.

The series used to race on many more than just six ovals, and there have been many calls for IndyCar to race on more ovals each season, including superspeedways like Fontana and Michigan for IndyCar to potentially bring back the Triple Crown.

While it’s not a superspeedway, Walt Disney World Speedway would have been a good option, and it would have been a good option for pretty much every other reason listed in this article in addition to the reason on this slide as well as the reason listed below. Plus, the 2018 aero kit is supposed to enhance the racing on short ovals, which is what the track was.

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Walt Disney World Speedway would have given the series another oval track and it would have caused the schedule to be composed of seven oval tracks, which would be a step in the right direction after it had just five oval tracks in 2016, the year after the track ended up being permanently done away with.

Why would this have been a step in the right direction? Because with seven oval tracks, which would have been tied for highest total since the 2010 season with the 2011 season, the series would have had momentum at adding more oval tracks onto the schedule, including superspeedways.

And given the fact that the seventh oval track could have been Walt Disney World Speedway, which, as mentioned in many of the other slides in this article, would boost the popularity of the sport, many other oval tracks across the United States could have bought into that hype and attracted crowds the likes of which the series has not seen at oval tracks recently aside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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Unfortunately, none of these reasons will do much good since Walt Disney World Speedway has indeed been torn down, unless of course another speedway ends up being built on the grounds of the Walt Disney World resort, which is highly unlikely, at least at any time in the near future.