It was bump day for the Indy 500.
The Indianapolis 500 is now a summer event. The Monster Mile could be set for a monster-sized NASCAR weekend spectacle of racing. And a supersized shakeup of the schedule looms whenever NASCAR and IndyCar resume in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Indianapolis 500 was postponed Thursday until Aug. 23 and won’t run on Memorial Day weekend for the first time since 1945. The Indy 500 was positioned as the middle race of a Triple Crown of racing on Memorial Day that kicked off the biggest day of motorsports with Formula One’s Grand Prix of Monaco and ended with NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600. The race now falls outside of May for the first time in its 104-year history.
“With a number of postponed sporting events being rescheduled in the summer and early fall, it’s frankly very difficult to find three consecutive weekends as we traditionally have in May,” Penske Entertainment Corp. President and CEO Mark Miles said.
The Indy 500 now shares the race weekend calendar with ... the Drydene 400. Yes, the crown jewel of IndyCar will serve as the opening act for the NASCAR Cup race at Dover International Speedway, that track better known as the Monster Mile that has suffered with dwindling attendance and had its dates shuffled around the schedule.
“The good news is they can sit in the grandstand and watch the Indy 500 and stay and watch our race live,” Dover President Mike Tatoian said. “What a perfect day that would be for a motorsports fan. Watch it live on your phone, sit in the grandstand and enjoy a hot dog.”
Chew on this, Dover still doesn’t have a new date for its May race, one of seven NASCAR weekends already postponed before the series is scheduled to resume May 9 at Martinsville Speedway.
As each confined weekend ticks off, and the death count from coronavirus up to about 1,200, that target seems more and more unlikely.
