MILLER: On the right track

Yeah, yeah, it took longer to get out than desired (relax, the first race still isn't til March), there is still a big gap between July 29 and Aug. 19 (unless Mexico City fills it), and a week between Portland and Sonoma probably isn't as cost effective as many would like.

But Phoenix and Long Beach are only a week apart in April, so that's a big expense positive, and it's pretty much a cut and paste from this year.

Miles is a lifetime tennis guy who's spent the past four years trying to learn the nuances and politics of IndyCar racing along with volleying television, schedules, promoters and owners' egos. OK, he's never going to be able to recite Indy 500s winners from 1950 until now but he's paying attention.

He came in enamored with ending the season in Sonoma (pictured, above), having the banquet in San Francisco and making it a big weekend party for sponsors and a few friends and family. Your eyes don't lie and I know Miles could see there wasn't a lot of atmosphere, people or drama the past three years and it felt like anything but your championship-deciding finale.

At the same time he and most of the IndyCar nation were still trying to grasp what they'd seen a couple weeks earlier at Gateway (pictured, top). After a 14-year absence, we'd watched a gung-ho trio of Curtis Francois, Chris Blair and John Bommarito resurrect IndyCar racing with fantastic promotion, an enthusiastic crowd of 42,000 and a ballsy pass from Josef Newgarden to stake claim to his first championship.

It felt like a big deal because it was. It had early action and late drama and people stood and cheered like the old days. I don't care if 40 percent of then came from Indianapolis or Indiana – they came and they liked what they saw.

It's exactly the place for IndyCar to close out 2019 and listen to what Miles said a couple weeks ago: "I'd like to see our season end with our three strong formats culminating with an oval."

Bingo. You swap a parade where nothing ever happens without some crazy caution to a short oval where anything can happen. You end up on a traditional IndyCar track in the heartland of your fan base. You play in front of a big house, not an empty one.

And the timing is perfect because Sonoma's three-year contract is up after 2018.

I know there's also talk of moving Phoenix to the end and track president Bryan Sperber has been pushing hard to make PIR work the past two years but it appears to be too much to ask to replicate Gateway's gonzo attack and success.

Not sure if Miles and Frye – a big advocate of finishing on an oval – want to move a street race or add a street race to couple with Portland to close things out (tip of the hat to Sonoma for sticking with IndyCar in what has become NASCAR country) or even if they've got that far down the road but they're on the right track.

Literally and figuratively.