IndyCar at Richmond throwback: 'That was not a race'

IndyCar added Richmond Raceway to its 2020 schedule. But races at the track have a history of fitting Dario Franchitti’s claim: “That was not a race.”

IndyCar released its 2020 schedule on Sunday afternoon, and the only change as far as tracks was concerned compared to the 2019 schedule was the addition of Richmond Raceway and the loss of Pocono Raceway.

Richmond Raceway, the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) oval located in Richmond, Virginia, has hosted nine IndyCar races in the past, but it has not been on the schedule since the 2009 season.

However, upon the conclusion of this nine-year tenure, Dario Franchitti, who finished the 2009 race at the track in second place, apologized to the fans in his post-race interview for how poor the racing was.

Here is what he had to say, according to NBC Sports.

"“That was not a race.”"

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Unfortunately, even though the winning margin of teammate Scott Dixon was only 0.311 seconds, he was right, and his statement, while focused on the 2009 race, could be applied to much of the track’s nine-year run with IndyCar.

In 2001, Buddy Lazier won the race by almost five seconds after leading 224 of its 250 laps. The race featured only two lead changes, and the only other leader, Eliseo Salazar, crashed while leading the race late, resulting in the second and final lead change.

In 2003, Dixon led all 206 laps of the race. In 2006, Sam Hornish Jr. took the lead on lap 39 of 250 and never looked back. In 2007, Franchitti won after leading 242 of the race’s 250 laps. Then in 2009, Dixon held off Franchitti, leading the final 161 of the race’s 300 laps.

Over the course of Richmond Raceway’s nine-year tenure with IndyCar, there were a mere 24 lead changes, and not all of those lead changes were even on-track passes. Only one race featured more than four, and only one additional race featured more than three. These two races featured nearly half of these 24 lead changes.

Perhaps the racing will be better now with the new UAK18 aero kit; after all, it has been more than a decade since the series visited the track. However, don’t be surprised to see a ton of criticism directed at IndyCar if it isn’t, especially considering the fact that the event is bound to get a lot of hype and build-up.

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Will the new UAK18 aero kit produce better IndyCar racing at Richmond Raceway, or will fans and drivers be left with the same disappointment that previous races at the track produced to the point where the drivers are apologizing to them for wasting their time?

IndyCar at Richmond throwback: ‘That was not a race’

By Asher Fair | Sep 3, 2019

IndyCar added Richmond Raceway to its 2020 schedule. But races at the track have a history of fitting Dario Franchitti’s claim: “That was not a race.”