IndyCar: Richmond Raceway addition to 2020 schedule looking more likely

The return of IndyCar to Richmond Raceway is looking more likely for the 2020 season, and a deal should reportedly be reached soon.

Richmond Raceway last hosted an IndyCar race in June of 2009, but there have been rumors for several months now that that could change as early as next year.

Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern confirmed that a deal between the track and the series should be reached, presumably in the near future, barring what he described as an “unforeseen hiccup”.

Here is what Stern had to say.

'@IndyCar is in advanced talks with @RichmondRaceway to hold a race there in '20, per sources, and a deal should be reached barring an unforeseen hiccup.

➖ Richmond on/@PoconoRaceway off is a potential scenario but IndyCar and Pocono insist publicly that they are still talking. pic.twitter.com/BUbtO58CJ0
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) August 1, 2019

At the end of May, IndyCar vice president of promoter and media partner relations Stephen Starks confirmed that IndyCar and Richmond Raceway had had “high-level conversations” about the series returning to the track next year.

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The four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) Richmond Raceway oval in Richmond, Virginia hosted its first IndyCar race in the 2001 season, and it hosted one race each year from then until the 2009 season before it was removed from the schedule.

There had been additional rumors that the addition of Richmond Raceway to next year’s schedule would lead to Pocono Raceway being dropped, but this has not been confirmed. In fact, IndyCar is still in talks with Pocono Raceway for the 2020 season and beyond despite the likelihood that a race will be contested at Richmond Raceway.

After being left off the schedule since the 1989 season, Pocono Raceway has hosted on IndyCar race each season since 2013. The 2019 race at the three-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Long Pond, Pennsylvania is scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 18.

Assuming all of the oval tracks on this year’s schedule, including Pocono Raceway, return to next year’s schedule, the addition of Richmond Raceway would result in six oval races being on the 2020 calendar.

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Will Richmond Raceway be on the IndyCar schedule next season for what would be the first time in 11 years? Regardless, will Pocono Raceway return to the schedule for what would be the eighth consecutive season?