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2019 IndyCar schedule will have 17 races at 'good mix' of tracks - Miles
The Phoenix experiment didn't work, but Mark Miles says the 2019 IndyCar schedule will still have 17 races and plenty of diversity.
A day after ISM Raceway announced it wasn't going to host an IndyCar race next year, Miles addressed the past and future with RACER on Saturday night.
"We gave it our best shot at Phoenix for three years and so did [track president] Bryan Sperber and his people but we just didn't feel like the prospects for growth were there," said the president and CEO of Human & Company after IndyCar served as the co-promoter for three years.
"It's too bad it didn't work out but I'm excited about our schedule for 2019 and we'll have 17 events and a good mix."
Obviously, the first question is what IndyCar will do to replace Phoenix, which was the second race on the Verizon IndyCar Series calendar this season but drew another poor crowd on April 7.
Could a track like Homestead-Miami Speedway be the answer? It's where CART and the Indy Racing League both opened and closed their seasons during a 15-year span from 1996 to 2010.
IndyCar needs a warm weather venue as well as an oval, while Homestead-Miami hosts the NASCAR finale every year but could use another major event.
The season opener at St. Petersburg figures to remain in place but the finale could either be Gateway outside St. Louis or another oval or road course.
Robin Miller
Robin Miller flunked out of Ball State after two quarters, but got a job stooging for Jim Hurtubise at the 1968 Indianapolis 500 when Herk's was the last roadster to ever make the race. He got hired at The Indianapolis Star a month later and talked his way into the sports department, where he began covering USAC and IndyCar racing. He got fired at The Star for being anti-Tony George, but ESPN hired him to write and do RPM2Nite. Then he went to SPEED and worked on WIND TUNNEL and SPEED REPORT. He started at RACER when SPEED folded, and went on to write for RACER.com and RACER magazine while also working for NBCSN on IndyCar telecasts.
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