IndyCar: International plan still on

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IndyCar insists that there is scope for additional international races in the future despite the omission of the rumored Middle Eastern race from the 2015 schedule.

The series unveiled next season's calendar on Thursday. It opens with a new international race at Brasilia in March before moving to the first U.S. race of the year in St. Petersburg.

A February event in Dubai has been under consideration for several months, but despite its absence from the calendar, Mark Miles, CEO of IndyCar parent company Hulman & Co, said that he is still aggressively pursuing international expansion.

"We've said for some time that I think there's the potential for maybe four international races in the period after the [NFL] Super Bowl in early February into as late as the middle of March," he said. "Then once we get to that point, this schedule moves the series into North America and stays there until the finale and the championship is decided.

"We're very pleased that Brasilia is the first race to join us in this strategy at the beginning of March. I can tell you while Brasilia is alone at this point for 2015, there are ongoing, very active conversations that are serious with three other countries.

"We remain bullish and more confident than ever in our ability to expand that part of the series in February."

COMPACT SCHEDULE WILL EASE

Miles also said that the extraordinarily compressed nature of the 2014 schedule will be relaxed over the coming seasons. The 2015 schedule is a small reflection of that, with the championship set to be contested over 25 calendar weeks next year as opposed to 22 weeks in 2014.

The series plans to achieve part of that through opening the season with the earlier international events, and from 2016 onward it intends to finish it on the Labor Day weekend, which falls on the first weekend of September.

"Our intention over time is not just to start earlier, but it is to have the culmination, the finale of the championship, in the States on Labor Day weekend," Miles said. "This calendar doesn't do that. It concludes with Sonoma the week prior. But we intend to own the Labor Day weekend.

"There are, again, very active discussions with possible new cities that would be joining the series that particularly want to be on the Labor Day weekend. They think it will be perfect for them.

"Our options as they are developing are in major markets, they're in great timezones from the point of view of the broadcast of the finale.

"We're very, very bullish about being back with the finale in a great market on Labor Day weekend for 2016."