Football
Associated Press 19y

IndyCar drops three races, cuts eight weeks

INDIANAPOLIS -- The IndyCar Series will cut eight weeks
and three events from its schedule in 2006, move its race at
Watkins Glen, N.Y., to the week after the Indianapolis 500 and
finish the season for the first time at Chicagoland Speedway.

The league is dropping races at California Speedway, Phoenix
International Raceway and Pikes Peak International Raceway, leaving
a 14-race schedule from late March through early September. Other
races, including one or more of the three left off next year's
schedule, could be added later, IndyCar president Brian Barnhart said
Tuesday.

"The primary reasons for the compacted schedule are momentum
and consistency," he said. "Scheduling our races on a consistent
basis in a compacted time frame will give us momentum from the drop
of the green flag in Miami into the month of May, right through the
heart of our season and into the championship point battle."

The series this year will end at Fontana, Calif., on Oct. 16.
Next season, the final IndyCar race will be Sept. 10 at Chicago, the
fourth venue to host the season wrapup. One of the main reasons for
the earlier finish, Barnhart said, is to avoid conflicts with the
NFL and the Major League baseball playoffs for fan attention.

"Those are just monster numbers to be competing against," he said. "I remember last year running our season finale at Texas. I was one of many that went back to the room and watched the Red Sox and the Yankees in the American League playoff championship. I don't think that's something we want to be competing against."

All of the 2006 races will be televised, seven on ABC, six on
ESPN and one on ESPN2.

Ken Ungar, the IndyCar's senior vice president, said a tighter
schedule of races had been considered for several years and that
the expectation of greater TV exposure was "the catalyst" for
making the change.

Watkins Glen president Craig Rust said he believed the race at
his track would gain a big boost by running the weekend after the
Indy 500.

"We think we can help continue the momentum out of the 500,
help the league continue that growth into summer," Rust said.

The Indianapolis 500 will be on May 28, and the race at Watkins Glen will be the first time the IndyCar has competed on the weekend immediately following Indianapolis. Barnhart said the quick switch from Indy's 2½-mile oval to the 3½-mile road course at Watkins Glen
should not be a major concern for race teams.

For the fifth straight year, the season opener will be at Homestead-Miami Speedway, on March 26 -- one of 11 races on oval
tracks.

The second race, on April 2, will be on a temporary street
course in St. Petersburg, Fla. Two other races will be on permanent
road courses, at Watkins Glen on June 4, a change from the previous
September date, and at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., on Aug.
27.

"You lose some date flexibility in this compression," Barnhart
said. "Not everything was able to get accomplished and end up
where we wanted to be. Whether it's Fontana, Phoenix or Pikes Peak,
if those issues could be addressed, those are markets we would
certainly look to make a return to."

Robbie Buhl, a co-owner of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, predicted
the new schedule would be popular with teams and drivers.

"If you have a good weekend before, then you carry on that
momentum," Buhl said. "If you have a bad weekend, you want to get
back in the car as quick as you can to erase that one. They want to
be in the car every day if they could."

^ Back to Top ^