IndyCar CEO gives the latest on Indy 500 and the 2020 Season

IndyCar CEO, Mark Miles has given the latest on the upcoming 2020 IndyCar season.

Miles said the Indy 500 could run as late as October whilst he expects 12 to 15 races to be ran this year.

However, he remains cautious amid the ever-changing coronavirus pandemic: “We want to get back to racing for IndyCar.

“I think soon we’ll be able to confirm our expectation that we’ll be at Texas Motor Speedway in the first week of June. And then, we’ll see what’s next for IndyCar. Hopefully we can be at Road America.

“We very much hope that we can race in Toronto, but the Canadian authorities seem more cautious at the moment, or maybe that’s not the right word, but a little slower to open up so far than in the States. So I think that’s a question.

“We’re just going to take it race by race. We’re in touch with the promoters and the authorities to know what’s possible, and it changes all the time.“

Miles was more confident about holding races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the Indycar Series and the Indianapolis Circuit were sold to Roger Penske and his team last year.

“For IMS, you talk about contingencies, we’ve got (the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association) in June, we’re going to do the Brickyard, we believe, one way or another.

“The two ways are essentially without fans or with. We believe that that July 4 weekend, unless we get bad news, a set of negative developments with Perspecta, the COVID analysis from a health perspective, we ought to be able to figure out how to make the Brickyard work with fans.

“I think we’ll know a lot more honestly in the next two, three, four weeks about July.”

Indycar has confirmed that the Grand Prix of Long Beach, Barber Motorsports Park and Circuit of the Americas events have all been cancelled.

Iowa Speedway will now host a doubleheader race weekend on June 17-18 when it was originally slated for one race. Additionally, a second race has been added to the IMS road course—the IndyCar Harvest Grand Prix—for Oct. 3.

The number of races is a moving target according to Miles: “Some of the teams have said to us, ‘We’d really like to make sure we get at least 12,’ but there’s just no ironclad number; everybody’s going to have to work through whatever it is with their people, employees, drivers, sponsors and all the commercial interests, whatever it is.

“So yeah, I think it’s 12 to 15. Right now, it’s 15.

“We do think we have some flexibility in replacing events if additional events just can’t be staged. Doubleheaders come to mind as a way you could imagine making up for an event that doesn’t happen. If that occurs again. It’s pretty efficient.“

The Indy 500 has been postponed until 23 August and typically welcomes 300,000 fans. Social distancing is already being discussed to get at least some fans at the Brickyard: “So, there’s two scenarios, right? All or nothing, in terms of fans, but I wouldn’t completely reject the idea that we could come up with ways to provide for some distancing if that’s essential.

“We want to run the 500, however we got to do it. And yeah, we can’t run the 500 we know in a way that would provide for a lot of social distancing, but 1) maybe that won’t be required by late August or 2) maybe there is a way to work with our fans and provide the possibility of some spacing.

“Let’s make a list of 10 things we might imagine as possibilities,’ one of them would be if you can’t do it at the end of August, we do it later.”

The first Indycar race will take place on 6 June with pracitce, qualifying and the shortened 300 miles race at Texas Motor Speedway kickstarting the 2020 season.