Failure at Iowa sparks latest 2026 IndyCar schedule question: Will Penske Entertainment be able to promote?

Indianapolis Star

10 hours ago

TORONTO — Perhaps less than a month away from releasing what in many ways could be a pivotal 2026 season schedule – for the ways in which it reflects Penske Entertainment's priorities and objectives for IndyCar in the short and medium term – series leadership faces several key questions, not the least of which is this: Is Penske Entertainment properly positioned to promote on its own as many races, if not more, than its charged with?
Because the camera shots of the grandstands at Iowa Speedway — the first race weekend, a doubleheader no less, that Penske Entertainment has spearheaded on its own outside the confines of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the city of Detroit — captured proof of what can only be called an unmitigated failure in doing what a promoter is expected to do first and foremost: promote.
And whether it's at Iowa Speedway, or Richmond Raceway or Phoenix Raceway or Homestead-Miami Speedway or any other oval track IndyCar might add to its calendar in the near future, it's hard to imagine Penske Entertainment being able to work out a deal that involves anything but series leadership having to put its neck out on the line and doing the hard work itself (i.e. a track rental and a self-promoted event) large in part because it's been so easy to point to examples of how difficult it is to make the IndyCar oval race business model work.
What just two years ago felt as if it might be IndyCar's best track on the calendar — and one that at the time came with maybe its most active, passionate consumer-facing brand as title sponsor and promoter, and an event that fit a well-defined niche (an oval race weekend not named the Indy 500 capable of drawing more than diehards out to the track) — all a sudden is believed to be on the chopping block, with multiple series sources telling IndyStar that Iowa is expected to be dropped from IndyCar's schedule altogether come 2026.
Some of that setback lives on the shoulder of a track owner (NASCAR) who stood by and watched Penske Entertainment lease the track and breathe much-needed life back into a venue that was starting to feel weathered and neglected, and then performed a single-groove repave with the sole purpose of maybe benefitting a series that had never run there at the expense of the one that had every year but once since 2007. IndyCar racing at Iowa Speedway that was maybe the best it had been in 2023 transformed into two of the series' worst events it's put on in 2024, and for those who watched those races either on TV or in the grandstands earlier this month, its no wonder IndyStar counted that the venue had sold fewer than 6,000 reserved grandstand tickets for each day — and that being on the ground and looking at the stands both afternoons made those ticket sales figures seem awfully generous.
But when the quality of your on-track product has taken a hit, and then what amounts to both your race weekend's title sponsor and its promoter pulls out of a multi-year deal it had just struck months prior, you can do one of two things: Dig in and fight for what you believe can still be a key event on the calendar, even if it's one that's going to require several years of extra hard work, nurturing in-your-face, outside-the-box promotion tactics that might not immediately bear fruit but which could plant seeds for a rebound; or scale back and turn race promoting into a black-and-white business proposition where finishing in the black, or at least as close to it as possible, is the be all end all.
I oftentimes hesitate to buy into the 'I didn't hear any radio ads/see any billboards/see any preview TV coverage' chatter we often see on social media from local race fans whenever an event flops. But the uniformity in so, so many responses — and the evidence provided by the simple images of what the Iowa Speedway grandstands looked like at a track that two years running now has sold out NASCAR and in an area that has such a vibrant short-track scene less than an hour away in Knoxville — made it clear there was more to be had. Is that an easy ambition in what's clearly a very competitive motorsports market and where recent impacts of the economy haven't been so kind?
No.
But there was one way to ensure that IndyCar would lose that battle and leave Penske Entertainment searching for its next oval track project, and that's assuming defeat and choosing not to come up with creative ways to try and get fans out to the track and build interest back in a track that can put Indy cars on display in a way few can.
Is that simply offering cheaper tickets and attempting to pack the place up before gradually, not drastically, bumping them up as demand rises? Is it finding creative ways to partner with Knoxville, whether helicoptering or somehow shuttling drivers after Saturday qualifying to the track for some hot laps and an autograph session in order to create front-of-mind awareness? Is it coming up with a special ticket package for those fans? Is it trying to get NASCAR Trucks to join in on the weekend and creating a far busier crossover-infused race weekend?
Because whatever it is, it's not leaving scores of locals feeling as if they're caught off guard on a race weekend they hardly knew was coming, while also making for one of, if not the most expensive, race weekend tickets among Midwest IndyCar races at what is also for the series' hub of fans in Indianapolis the farthest one of those races away and one that's tough to turn into an action-packed weekend both at and away from the track when comparing Des Moines to Nashville, St. Louis, Detroit and Milwaukee.
Maybe it's not offering up a way to watch Ed Sheeran perform with some racing action on the side, but it's clear from Hy-Vee's abdication of its race weekend role that wasn't exactly a worthwhile business proposition. Now, is there a chance Penske Entertainment executives had already privately decided headed into its Iowa Speedway doubleheader that the track was not long for IndyCar's schedule? It's always a possibility, and it would explain why this felt on the outside strictly like a business venture where the bottom line took precedence above all. Even still, you would hope that every time your series is on track with a pair of national network windows, you'd go above and beyond to portray the healthiest image of your sport as possible.
After all, prospective tracks and promoters out there are watching, and they're no doubt wondering why a series that positions itself as one in growth mode and on a new, better trajectory struggled so mightily to draw interest at a track it's now raced at 23 times since 2007.
And now that Penske Entertainment is believed to have moved on to eyeing other oval prospects to replace Iowa, it's likely again to be charged with the responsibility of renting a track and promoting the event itself — a proposition that clearly wasn't easy at Iowa and one that has made adding ovals to IndyCar's schedule in recent years difficult.
It's the central issue of why there didn't seem to be a clear-cut logical option between pressing on through tough times at Iowa and moving on: You may be right in thinking that market is no longer rich enough in IndyCar fandom, at a time when NASCAR has proven it's king, but hell or high water, Penske Entertainment is going to have to put the second word in that company name to use and transform its approach elsewhere into a risk-taking, money-spending, outside-the-box-thinking, ever-present-in-market promoter in order to keep this same balance of types of races on the calendar.
And as Penske Corp. president Bud Denker said, that's very much a vision of the sport in the short-term.
'We don't want to lose ovals,' Denker told IndyStar ahead of the Iowa race weekend. 'But they're limited, so do you partner with NASCAR somewhere else?
'You also need to look at the market those are in, because we don't want to oversaturate yourself in certain markets.'
Insider sources: IndyCar working to finalize Mexico City for 2026 schedule as partial Iowa replacement
So where could that be?
According to a series source, Penske Entertainment has discussed a return to Phoenix Raceway, a NASCAR-owned track IndyCar last visited from 2016 to 2018 for a poorly attended short saga, in recent weeks among options the series could pursue as it considered whether to pull the plug on its efforts in the Des Moines, Iowa market. Richmond Raceway — another NASCAR-owned oval, like Iowa and so many others — has also been a frequent topic of conversation within the paddock, the irony of Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles' quotes 11 months ago of 'We're not going back to places like Richmond … I don't want to go to places we've been' not withstanding.
But the problem with the pursuit of any new oval is this: If the track itself had wanted IndyCar in the recent past, meaning it felt hosting an IndyCar race and paying the series a sanctioning fee was a good business proposition, then I'm quite confident the sport would already be there. Series leadership has enough conversations around the racing world and is well-connected enough that if IndyCar was truly sought after by an oval track, it would've moved mountains to be there.
In the face of what a potential new oval track host witnessed earlier this month at Iowa, it seems unlikely any prospective oval track host would change its tune after years of not rolling out the red carpet for the series.
And so it begs the question: Why would yet another stab at Phoenix, or Richmond or Homestead-Miami or anywhere else be different? When it comes to Phoenix, you're talking about a market and a track IndyCar was at less than a decade ago and left at the end of a single three-year deal, a tenure the series explicitly said ended due to poor attendance brought on by IndyCar's struggle to put an entertaining product on track. As its recent schedules have shown, NASCAR visits that track within the first four weeks of its schedule — the fourth race of the year this year, a model that next year would have it falling March 8.
Partnering with NASCAR and slipping a race in between your season opener (St. Pete, March 1) and the new Grand Prix of Arlington (March 15) isn't exactly what your schedule needs when you're looking at three open weekends shortly after (more on that in a minute). So are you running less than a month after NASCAR? As Iowa and Texas have shown in the past, that typically doesn't go well.
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Following its March race date earlier this year, Homestead-Miami is in the process of undergoing significant renovations to ready the track to host NASCAR's season finale in 2026, a timeline that would appear to make a spring IndyCar date an unlikely proposition.
Could Richmond be an option? Up until this year, the track had annually hosted a pair of NASCAR weekends since 1959 (outside the pandemic-altered 2020 season) — one in the spring and one in the fall — before the stock car series' addition of its Mexico City race weekend led to slashing Richmond's spring date. The series will still run there for its penultimate regular season round on Aug. 16.
With that in mind, you could argue those charged by NASCAR to operate the track might now be that much more interested to take on an IndyCar race weekend — especially when the track was slated to host IndyCar's return in 2020 before the pandemic, combined with poor early ticket sales and the lack of a title sponsor made for an uphill battle for the sides to continue as the landscape changed significantly.
In recent years, NASCAR has run there anywhere between late March to late April, hinting at the potential for the track to perhaps be able to help fill one of a pair of multi-open-weekend gaps that appear to exist on IndyCar's known spring schedule. Richmond also offers proximity to several major metro markets (D.C., Philadelphia and New York City among them) and some semblance of an East Coast presence.
Outside the prospect of Penske Entertainment possibly having to host Richmond instead of Iowa, it's biggest drawback would seem to be how quickly plans for IndyCar to run there five years ago were abandoned and that they weren't picked back up once the pandemic settled, but outside of turning its Milwaukee Mile race weekend back into a doubleheader, something Penske Entertainment made a point to roll back for 2025 following IndyCar's return last year, several sources in the paddock view it as perhaps the sport's best option to keep a roughly similar count of oval races on the calendar.
So where does that leave IndyCar's schedule?
Persistent rumors linger as to the futures of the streets of Toronto — as has been the case the last couple years, brought on by consecutive one-year deals — as well as poorly attended road course races at Portland International Raceway and Laguna Seca.
Over the course of the weekend, multiple sources have said they've been told by series officials that both Portland and Laguna Seca will remain on next year's schedule, with Laguna Seca expected to slot in as the precursor to IndyCar's trip to Mexico City that series officials are believed to be targeting for July 26. As Fox broadcasts the 2026 men's FIFA World Cup next summer with a championship match broadcast scheduled for 3 p.m. ET July 19, Lagun Seca would appear to offer a race that could be held at 6 p.m. or so, given its West Coast location that could give IndyCar a significant ratings boost running the wake of the World Cup final.
Though it's a lengthy trip of roughly 1,700 miles to reach the border from Monterey, California, and then 700 more to Mexico City from there, it's roughly the same distance the NASCAR paddock traveled in their voyage to Mexico City earlier this year straight from Michigan International Speedway.
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It's less clear where Portland may slot into the calendar next year, though with the series expected to position an off weekend following IndyCar's visit to Mexico City, it could make sense to slot it back into the second weekend of August, identical to how it falls this year.
The prospects of Toronto returning looms as the largest and most uncertain question mark. In recent years, the city and the promoter have elected to operate on successive one-year deals that haven't been approved until August or later of the year prior, and a search of city public records indicates no deal has yet been struck for 2026. Next summer, Toronto's BMO Field is slated to host several Group Stage matches for the World Cup, as well as an elimination round fixture July 2. The stadium, notably, backs right up to several stretches of the Toronto street course, leaving some in the IndyCar paddock to suspect that running the race in it's typically mid-to-late July slot — and building the track in the weeks beforehand — could be untenable.
Could that jump forward a month into mid-August? That was the prevailing belief leaving the track Sunday among several members of the paddock, and it would seem there could be room on IndyCar's calendar there for it. Whether the city would ultimately want to see it return is unclear.
Watkins Glen has been a frequently mentioned venue that some believe could serve as an option if a race like Toronto or Portland fell off in 2026 — particularly for Toronto, given its proximity to the Northeast, though it's a road course, not a street course. Both unconfirmed races are put on by the busiest promotional group in the series outside Penske Entertainment: Green Savoree Racing Promotions. How would dropping one of their events go over? Could you have them promote a replacement at Watkins Glen, and avoid putting the promotion of yet another race on Penske's plate?
Of course, Miles said 11 months ago that there was 'no (expletive) way' IndyCar was going back to Watkins Glen … then again, he said that sitting in an RV in the infield of the Milwaukee Mile, a track the series was returning to for the first time in nearly a decade. Looking at The Glen's calendar, though, with an IMSA weekend in late June and the expectation of a NASCAR one in August, that could be a tough needle to thread and ensure you could draw a proper crowd, something IndyCar struggled to do when it last visited as a last-minute fill-in for the much-maligned Boston street race for Labor Day weekend races in 2016-17.
As IndyStar reported Sunday, Penske Entertainment is prepared to drop its hopeful Mexico City race weekend into a post-World Cup late-July slot, adding the latest crucial piece to an ever-evolving IndyCar schedule that's beginning to have major events, not just races, in just about every month on the schedule: Arlington (March), Long Beach (April), Indy 500 (May), Mexico City (July) and the Nashville Superspeedway season finale (August/Labor Day weekend).
The missing month there? June, the target for which Penske Entertainment hopes to place a Denver street race around the Broncos' Mile High Stadium next summer, according to multiple paddock sources — an event that appears to have gained traction, at least in part, to the hype around IndyCar's to-debut Grand Prix of Arlington that will run around the homes of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers (which was designed off the successes of Formula 1's Miami Grand Prix that has showcased the Dolphins' stadium).
Looking at the final pieces of the puzzle, the most glaring issue with what's known, believed to be known or presumed regarding IndyCar's 2026 calendar are the four consecutive unspoken for weekends between Arlington (March 15) and Long Beach (April 19). Until the latest news, Penske Entertainment was believed to be holding the weekend between Easter (April 5) and Long Beach for Mexico City. With those plans scrapped, an early April slot for Barber would seem to make the most sense, when considering that NASCAR's Talladega weekend (when looking at recent history) would track for April 26, and the Birmingham area is slated to host a PGA Champions Tour tournament in Birmingham the weekend of May 3 put on by the same promotional company that runs IndyCar's Barber race weekend. In order to maximize attendance, interest and media coverage, going head-to-head with either would be unwise, as would running in the South on Easter.
Barring the addition of a new race the first weekend of May, the Sonsio Grand Prix (May 9) appears slated to kick off a several-week stretch of the paddock competing at the track, and without a Month of May precursor like Barber for next year, Penske Entertainment could look to tack on a pair of consecutive races immediately following the 500, as it's done before. We already know the Detroit Grand Prix will run May 31, but the ability to sneak the series' World Wide Technology Raceway date in before the start of the World Cup would seem wise (June 7) before the prospect of an off weekend as the World Cup kicks off, and then a trip to Road America. Precisely which weekend Mid-Ohio will fall is unclear.
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Therein lies the IndyCar 2026 scheduling jigsaw puzzle at play, a chess board that could seemingly offer as many as four new venues, with at least one more shortly on the way.
Below is what a 2026 IndyCar schedule could look like, based off of intel from multiple paddock sources as well as well-informed presumptions. Race dates that have been formally confirmed by the series (or from IMSA's 2026 schedule) are in bold:
March 1: Streets of St. Pete
March 15: Streets of Arlington
April 12: Barber Motorsports Park
April 19: Streets of Long Beach
April 26: Richmond Raceway
May 9: IMS road course
May 24: Indianapolis 500
May 31: Streets of Detroit
June 7: World Wide Technology Raceway
June 21: Road America
July 5: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
July 19: WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca
July 26: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (Mexico City)
Aug. 9: Portland International Raceway
Aug. 16: Streets of Toronto
Aug. 30: Milwaukee Mile
Sept. 6: Nashville Superspeedway