Going in Circles

One common thread amongst some fans of IndyCar racing -- especially some of the older fans -- is the encroachment of a large number of road and street courses into the IndyCar Series' schedule.

Certainly, IndyCar racing was built on the oval tracks found throughout the United States, from the massive oval at Indianapolis down to the old half- and quarter-mile tracks frequented by the United States Auto Club. However, twisty tracks have found their way into America's open-wheel lore, with former Formula 1 hosts Watkins Glen and Long Beach, scenic Road America, Laguna Seca, and the old Riverside course. Certainly, some of the right-left events are ill-conceived and probably don't belong on the schedule. But great events at places like The Glen, Long Beach, St. Petersburg, Toronto, and Barber Motorsports Park have more-than-earned their spot on the calendar.

Perusing the schedule on IndyCar.com brought me to a realization far more troubling to me than the fact that there are more road courses than ovals being raced on this year. When I look at the oval tracks on which the IndyCar Series will race this season, the one glaring issue I see is that almost all of the oval tracks are very similar to each other. Here's a little diagram I threw together to illustrate:

Of the eight oval tracks on the schedule this season, only two have a lap distance that isn't 1.5 miles (Indianapolis and Iowa). Of the six 1.5-mile tracks, four of them are laid out in a nearly identical fashion: Kansas, Texas, Chicagoland, and Kentucky -- the chief difference among them being Texas' quad-oval and 24° banking. Motegi and Homestead are both 1.5 miles with traditional oval layouts (two turns and two straights, though Motegi is asymmetrical), but Motegi is the only one of the 1.5-milers with an appreciably different banking configuration from the other five.

So, what has happened to bring us to the point where there is so little diversity in open-wheel's ovals?

• First of all, there was a point where someone plugged some stuff into a computer and figured out what they thought was an ideal layout for an oval track for both the fans and the drivers: a 1.5-mile tri-oval with banking between 15° and 20°. The first track to be laid out in this fashion was Las Vegas Motor Speedway, followed by Kansas, Kentucky, and Chicagoland. Three of those four appear on the current IndyCar schedule, and Las Vegas actually opened with an IndyCar race in 1996.

• Those four tracks were loosely based on the layout of Charlotte Motor Speedway. CMS' owner, Speedway Motorsports, Inc, decided to establish a sort of company identity by having their properties in Atlanta and Texas match Charlotte's steeply-banked, quad-oval layout. Atlanta and Charlotte appeared on past IndyCar schedules (Atlanta dropped for poor attendance, Charlotte dropped after promoter Humpy Wheeler refused to bring IndyCar back after a loose wheel killed a spectator). Texas is still raced on and is an important staple of the IndyCar schedule.

• There has been a ton of attrition for some of IndyCar's more unique tracks: International Speedway corporation has gutted the fantastic oval at Nazareth, PA, and turned Pikes Peak into a tiny track day facility; ISC also took away a traditional spring date at Phoenix by adding a second NASCAR Sprint Cup date, then essentially kicking the IndyCars to the curb; California (which can hardly sell tickets to its NASCAR race) and Michigan were wrecked by a lack of promotion by track management and lack of interest from ISC; Richmond was killed by a lack of interesting racing and local company Phillip Morris reducing its involvement in the series; Nashville's unique 1.33-mile concrete oval was plagued by attendance issues and scrapped from the calendar; the mile oval at Walt Disney World, in spite of holding the inaugural IRL race and boasting decent early-spring crowds, was turned into a racing school; finally, America's oldest permanent racetrack, Milwaukee, has been wrecked by poor management and a desire for the State of Wisconsin to re-purpose the expensive facility.

Many of the old-schoolers will tell you that American Open-Wheel Racing needs to have a schedule of at least half-ovals. What they fail to mention is that part of the deal is to have a diverse set of ovals. For comparison, take a look at a diagram of the oval tracks from the final season before the original 1979 "Split":

Of nine oval tracks raced on that season, there were seven unique configurations. Three tracks were 2.5 miles (Ontario, Indianapolis, Pocono), two were 2 miles (Texas World, Michigan), and two were 1 mile (Phoenix, Milwaukee). The only two tracks at the supposedly ideal length of 1.5 miles were Atlanta (pre-renovation) and Trenton, but you can see in the diagram the wild difference between the two: Trenton's right-hand dogleg on the backstretch.

Obviously, we can't return IndyCars to that exact set of racetracks; Phoenix, Michigan, and Milwaukee appear closed to the IRL, Texas World has been essentially replaced by SMI's bigger facility, and Trenton and Ontario no longer exist. There is a small chance that Pocono could someday host an IndyCar race, but it needs to be repaved and the first turn would prove somewhat dangerous to IndyCars. What we need, though, is a new approach with new tracks.

(Disclaimer: this is all an "in an ideal world" scenario...obviously there are some economic considerations to think of here)

My IndyCar oval schedule would ideally have no two ovals that fit into the footprint of each other. My only exceptions would likely be Kentucky and Chicago, which serve good areas and provide fine racing. For the rest of the schedule, diversity must be re-introduced.

So are my tracks with reasons for being on the schedule:

• Indianapolis: well...duh!
• Texas: IndyCar's best oval outside of Indianapolis from a promotion and racing standpoint.
• Chicagoland: Another fine facility with great racing serving a major metro area.
• Kentucky: From all accounts, a fantastic facility. The racing is pretty darn good, too.
• Michigan: I don't care what ISC wants as far as MIS is concerned, this is a track that must be on the schedule, especially if American manufacturers find their way back in.
• Homestead: Another major metro area, good weather, decent enough racing. Needs better promotion, though.
• Iowa: Neat little facility with good crowds and a very outside-the-box lap distance (7/8 of a mile)
• Phoenix: Like Michigan, needs to be on an IndyCar schedule. Run IndyCars with a USAC Silver Crown undercard.
• Loudon: This is the one track that's actually shown interest in the IRL recently; why the league hasn't jumped at it is beyond me.
• Nashville: Never the most exciting race (though a new car could help that), but this track is undeniably unique; also home base for Firestone.
• Rockingham (NC): A really unique track that just isn't used for anything right now, but is very much ready to go.
• Rockingham (UK): IndyCar has been making money off of Brits since Dario Franchitti and Dan Wheldon hit the scene, and this would make a neat flyaway race on another unique oval.
• Motegi: If Honda is still a major supplier, you gotta keep 'em happy.

Wish list: Nazareth, Pocono, Milwaukee.

So there you have it. It really is time to get some tracks that are a little different into this series and bring back the spirit of diversity that IndyCar schedulers used to show. Is my solution ideal? Probably not. However, I think we'll find by the end of the season that the oval portion was sorely lacking because of the sameness of the tracks.

Long Beach is coming! See you then!