IndyCar: The last time a race was canceled

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, IndyCar’s 2020 schedule was altered, and that included the first cancellation of a race in several years.

IndyCar had planned to get the 2020 season underway on Sunday, March 15 on the streets of St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, Florida in front of an empty crowd as a precaution given the current state of the coronavirus pandemic.

But that 110-lap race around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile (2.897-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida ended up not taking place at all, and IndyCar proceeded to call off the next three events on the schedule as well.

The 90-lap race at the 17-turn, 2.38-mile (3.83-kilometer) Barber Motorsports Park natural terrain road course in Birmingham, Alabama was scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 5.

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That won’t happen.

The 85-lap race around the 11-turn, 1.968-mile (3.167-kilometer) temporary street circuit on the streets of Long Beach, California was scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 19.

That won’t happen; in fact, that race was called off even before the season opener was abandoned.

Finally, the 60-lap race around the 20-turn, 3.427-mile (5.515-kilometer) Circuit of the Americas natural terrain road course in Austin, Texas was scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 26.

That won’t happen, either.

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As of now, the season is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, May 9 with the 85-lap race around the 13-turn, 2.439-mile (3.925-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in Speedway, Indiana, but this could change as well.

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All four of these races have officially been canceled as opposed to postponed. When was the last time an IndyCar race was canceled?

Many fans think back to the fatal 15-car crash that took the life of Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas Motor Speedway back on Sunday, October 16, 2011 when they think of an IndyCar race being canceled. But there were actually two cancellations since then, and one was actually fairly recent.

In 2012, there was scheduled to be a race on the streets of Qingdao in China on Sunday, August 19, but the promoter called off the race. IndyCar wanted to add another race to the schedule to replace it, but that did not end up happening.

But even more recently, the 2015 season opener was canceled. This race was scheduled to take place at Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Brasília, Brazil on Sunday, March 8, three weeks before the season actually ended up getting started on the streets of St. Petersburg.

This event was canceled by newly elected officials in the Federal District after the incumbent governor from the Workers’ Party was defeated and replaced by the candidate from the Brazilian Socialist Party.

IndyCar attempted to salvage a race in Brazil by sending representatives to Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna (Goiânia) in Goiânia-Goiás, Brazil since fuel and tires had already been shipped to the country for the race, but that did not pan out.

Neither track has ever hosted an IndyCar race to this day, and the most recent race in Brazil is still the race on the streets of São Paulo back on Sunday, May 5, 2013.

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Unfortunately, there is no clear answer as to when the 2020 IndyCar season will get underway, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later, and above all, hopefully the conditions will allow that to be the case in the very near future.