The many oval tracks IndyCar has lost since 2010
By Asher Fair
IndyCar is set for its fewest oval races ever in the 2021 season. Take a look at the many oval tracks the series has lost since 2010.
After coronavirus pandemic restrictions led to a massively overhauled 2020 IndyCar schedule, the season featured 14 races, of which six were contested on oval tracks.
The 42.9% oval makeup of the schedule was the highest since the 2010 when there were eight oval races out of 17 races on the schedule (47.06%).
But over the last decade or so, IndyCar has seen more and more oval races leave the calendar, and the 2021 schedule has brought us back to that unfortunately reality.
There are just four oval races at three venues on the 17-race 2021 calendar.
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There are two at Texas Motor Speedway, one at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Indy 500) and another one at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. There has never been a schedule with such a low oval race total in IndyCar history — unless you want to throw the Champ Car years into the mix.
Even excluding places such as Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway, where IndyCar last raced in the 2000s, the series has lost more than a dozen oval tracks that hosted races at some point from 2010 to 2020.
Here’s a list of all 13 and when they last hosted the series.
- Kansas Speedway — 2010
- Chicagoland Speedway — 2010
- Twin Ring Motegi — 2010
- Homestead-Miami Speedway — 2010
- New Hampshire Motor Speedway — 2011
- Kentucky Speedway — 2011
- Las Vegas Motor Speedway — 2011 (race called off after Dan Wheldon’s death in a lap 11 crash)
- Auto Club Speedway — 2015
- Milwaukee Mile — 2015
- Phoenix Raceway — 2018
- Pocono Raceway — 2019
- Iowa Speedway — 2020
- Richmond Raceway — Was supposed to host a race in 2020 for first time since 2009; didn’t and isn’t on the 2021 schedule.
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Following two road/street course races to get the 2021 season underway, IndyCar is set for two of its four oval races of the year this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. The first, the Genesys 300, is scheduled to take place this evening beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET while the second, the XPEL 375, is scheduled to take place tomorrow evening beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET. Both races are set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network.