Bob Pockrass
Fox Motorsports Insider
It seems that another long break has a leg in the Indycar series calendar.
That is because it is is Another long break at the schedule.
Two weekends between each of the first four races, the Indycar season can feel a bit disjointed.
But don’t worry, this is the last one for a while. Looking towards the rest of the season in terms of schedule, there are no more breaks:
-Curre on consecutive weekends on the track: Barber (May 4), Indianapolis Road Course (May 10), Indy 500 Qualification (May 17-18), Indianapolis 500 (May 25) and Detroit (June 1).
-No free week and then consecutive weekends at St. Louis (June 15) and Road America (June 22)
-No free week and then consecutive weekends in mid-Ohio (July 6), Iowa Doublehead (July 12-13), Toronto (July 20) and Laguna Seca (July 27).
– And then a free weekend before the season ends with three races in four weeks: Portland (August 10), Free weekend, Milwaukee (August 24) and Nashville (August 31).
So prepare for your filling or Indycar races. And there will be cars on the track on Wednesday and Thursday this week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500 tests.
With the next races and tests of Indy 500, there are six questions for the coming weeks:
1. will anyone catch Alex Palou?
Kyle Kirkwood won Long Beach and went from being 48 points behind Alex Palou in the 34 -point classification, thanks to the fact that Palou finished second. The key to Palou will be the amount of advantage that he can build in the next two weeks and then manages the oval (two of the next three races), since he still looks for his first victory in an oval. Only Kirkwood and Christian Lundgaard are within a points race (Max is 54 in a race) or Palou.
2. Will Penske set up a return?
It has a strong start to the Penske team, but it has promising bone glimpses. Josef Newgarden finished second in St. Pete, Scott McLaughlin got the post in St. Pete and Will Power improved 23 points in the last two races from their classification positions. But there are frustrating moments of bones, such as Newgarden’s belts on Long Beach, McLaughlin’s shipwrecks and hybrid problems in the wreck of Thermal and Power’s advantage in St. Petersburg. The team needs to qualify better, since drivers have an average initial position of 13.4. The good thing is that Indianapolis, where the team is traditionally strong, is just around the corner.
3. Who will be nervous after the test?
There are 34 cars admitted to the Indy 500 and that means a driver will lose the field. There are seven pilots who are making unique: Marco Andretti (Andretti), Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter Racing), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank), Jack Harvey (Dreyer Reinbold), Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer Reinbold), Kyle Larson (Arrow McLaren) and Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman). Everyone should be in solid cars. And if all are fast, who among the full -time pilots could fight?
4. How will Larson’s second attempt be different in double?
Kyle Larson is in his second year trying twice, and as long as there is no rain on the day of the race, he should be better. It should be relatively comfortable in the car from the beginning. But Ferwer’s representatives still have his competition. At least Indycar has now established the parameters of what Tony Kanaan has to do to replace Larson. Last year, there seemed to be confusion about what was required for a substitute driver to climb the car.
5. Should you worry about hybrid in Indy?
This will be the first time that the hybrid engine will be used in Indianapolis. It shouldn’t be a big problem, but you never know. The best thing will be if you talk and pilots can go to 100 percent, as special at the end of the races, with the ability to make the passes that have created the greatest show in the races.
6. When will the 2026 calendar be announced?
Last year, the calendar was announced in mid -June, together with the start of the agreement with Fox Sports. One of the main approaches must be the theme of that piece: the long breaks in the middle of the races in the first two months of the season. That should be fixed with St. Pete and the new race in Texas (Arlington) that occurs on consecutive weekends or with only one week in the middle. If Mexico City is added, that is a possible April race (although it is possible to replace the term).
Bob Pockrass covers Nascar and Indycar for Fox Sports. Decades have passed engine sports, including more than 30 Daytona 500s, with periods in ESPN, Sporting News, Nascar Scene Magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow it on Twitter @Bobpock.
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