IndyCar: Series still targeting international races for February

IndyCar is not giving up on their idea of international races for the series in February according to president of competition and operations Jay Frye.

The last few years of racing have provided a bit of a renaissance for the Verizon IndyCar Series. With increasing car counts, new chassis and aero kits, and increased support from sponsors and manufacturers, the series is making inroads with the American motorsports fans. But the series doesn’t want to just appeal to the domestic base, but also to a group of international viewers and clientele.

One of the grand ideas of IndyCar’s new guard was the introduction of international races in February to kick off the season. But thus far, that has not materialized despite plenty of options being available. But according to president of competition and operations Jay Frye, there is still a lot of hope and optimism that this idea can still come to fruition.

In an interview with Autosport, Frye spoke of the hurdles of racing in the United States and February and how the series could make an international trip work for the teams:

"There’s a lot of things going on in February with us, NASCAR, so where do you go? There’s only a handful of places you can actually race in the United States in February because of the weather. If we can go out of the States, start the year for a couple of races in places where the climate is fine in February then it could be a really good way to start of our year.We’d all figure out how to make it work but if we had a couple of races at the start of the year, warm destinations, that kind of thing could kick us off. We get to St Pete and the North American part of our series and just roll through the calendar."