IndyCar has lost more than half of its 2020 venues

By Asher Fair | Aug 1, 2020

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske, Laguna Seca, IndyCar (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images) /

The 2020 IndyCar schedule originally featured 15 venues, 16 tracks and 17 races. The series has now lost more than half of those venues.

As expected, IndyCar overhauled the 2020 schedule yet again earlier this week, eliminating the only three races which were scheduled to take place in September and turning three previously scheduled events (two in August and one in October) into doubleheaders.

The goal is for the current 14-race schedule, of which six races have already been run, to be the final schedule of the season, and it is believed that that will be the case, despite the fact that the series now has the entire month of September off following a packed August and ahead of a three-race October, which includes the season finale.

The race at Portland International Raceway on Sunday, September 13 was canceled, and the doubleheader at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20 was also canceled.

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As a result, a race was added at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, August 8 to go along with the previously scheduled race on Sunday, August 9, and a race was added at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Saturday, August 29 to go along with the previously scheduled race on Sunday, August 30.

Additionally, a race was added at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Friday, October 2 to go along with the previously scheduled race on Saturday, October 3.

The series has already run two doubleheaders this season, one at Road America and the other at Iowa Speedway. Through six races, the series has visited just four venues, with the first two being Texas Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (road course).

On the remaining eight-race schedule, there are now just four different venues present: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (two races), Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indianapolis 500 and two road course races), World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (two races) and the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida (season finale; was scheduled to be season opener in March).

In total, there are just seven venues encompassing eight tracks on this year’s schedule, with one, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hosting 29% of the races. There had been 15 venues encompassing 16 tracks and 17 races, with no venue hosting more than two events.

Venues that lost one race each include Barber Motorsports Park, the streets of Long Beach, California, Circuit of the Americas, Richmond Raceway, Exhibition Place and Portland International Raceway. Venues that lost two races each include the Raceway at Belle Isle Park and WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

No venues which weren’t already on the schedule were added to come up with the 14-race schedule. But taking the new schedule race by race, only eight of the races on it were on the initial 17-race schedule. Of those eight races, only three are slotted in their initially scheduled dates.

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Hopefully changing the 2020 IndyCar schedule is a thing of the past and the series can move forward with their current plans to run each of the remaining eight races and focus on a far more normal 2021 season. The first of these races is scheduled to take place at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Saturday, August 8, and it is the first of whopping five races in the month of August.