Texas Motor Speedway will not host its June IndyCar race if fans cannot attend
Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage said Thursday that the IndyCar race his track is scheduled to host the first weekend in June would only occur if fans were allowed to attend.
“At some point we have to make a decision, but it’s not time yet,” Gossage said. “We wouldn’t consider running IndyCars without fans in the stands.”
The sports world continues to struggle with how to move forward amid the coronavirus pandemic, a situation that clearly has no fixed end date. Sports leagues, executives, unions, athletes and other interested parties have explored the idea of having sports return without fans being able to attend events, but the concept is not without its challenges.
Unlike in NASCAR, race tracks do not receive a portion of IndyCar’s TV revenue. So, while it might make sense for tracks to host NASCAR races with no fans, the incentive isn’t there when it comes to IndyCar races.
TMS is scheduled to be the first site for IndyCar to return to racing with the Genesys 600 on June 6. The NASCAR truck series is scheduled to run the SpeedyCash.com 400 on June 5.
IndyCar canceled the two races in Detroit scheduled May 30-31, the events preceding TMS’ race weekend. The Detroit races are among five races that IndyCar has canceled, including the AutoNation IndyCar Challenge at Austin’s Circuit Of The Americas scheduled for April 26.
The series’ signature event, the Indianapolis 500, has already been moved from May 24 to Aug. 23. The season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Fla., that was supposed to take place on March 15 has been postponed as well.
TMS has already postponed its opening race weekend with a NASCAR triple-header scheduled March 26-29. A makeup date isn’t known at this point, although Gossage believes TMS would be more in line for a weekend race date opposed to a possible mid-week date given the size of the tracks.
“Everything is on the table,” Gossage said.
Johnson’s take
NASCAR great Jimmie Johnson took part in a conference call on Thursday, a day after the sport celebrated his career on “4/8.”
This is supposed to be Johnson’s final full-time season, although those plans are subject to change amid the disruption caused by COVID-19.
“I really don’t have an answer,” Johnson said. “It’s up in the air just as so much is in the world right now.”
Johnson offered his views on a other notable storylines right now, including the idea of returning to racing with no fans.
“It’s not the ideal situation by any means,” Johnson said. “I know our sport, among every other sport out there, is going to be faced with that decision. For me, it’s a real simple answer. There are millions that watch on television, and I don’t want to deprive the greater sum because we can’t have the fans in the stands. And I get it. I want fans in the stands. They deserve to be there. We want them there. There’s an energy that comes with it.
“But we are in uncharted territory and we’re going to have to do things a little different than what we’re used to. And if we can get back to the track months before because fans aren’t in the stands, and provide our sport to millions and get people back to work and some normalcy going on in our country and our industry, I’m definitely for that.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 12:54 PM.
