IndyCar: 3 tracks that got absolutely screwed by the pandemic

IndyCar tracks that got screwed: Richmond Raceway

If you think that Circuit of the Americas got screwed after hosting the series for only one season and then being wiped off the calendar beyond that despite plans for a second race in 2020, you at least have to remember that it did have the opportunity to host preseason testing.

Compared to what Richmond Raceway got, that opportunity was a massive one.

The four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) oval in Richmond, Virginia had the opportunity to be the subject of a few press conferences about a return which ultimately never happened. That’s about it.

The race was slated to take place in late June, marking IndyCar’s first event at the track since 2009, but it was canceled altogether for 2020. It didn’t make it back onto the 2021 schedule. In fact, this year’s schedule contains an all-time low three oval tracks.

Half of the four oval races on this year’s schedule are scheduled to take place in one weekend, and there is only one other race aside from that doubleheader at Texas Motor Speedway which isn’t the Indy 500, with that being the race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.

Iowa Speedway, which hosted a doubleheader in 2020, will not be back in 2021 either, but not specifically as a result of the pandemic.

That track is unfortunately, however, the only track to host a race in 2020 that didn’t make it back onto the 2021 schedule.