Could this be IndyCar’s swan song at Pocono?
Attendance, two tragic crashes could weigh on race’s future in Pa.
When IndyCar racing returned to Pocono Raceway in 2013 after being away from the track since 1989, the warm and fuzzy feelings were similar to those of two long-lost friends who haven’t seen each other in decades.
“I’m happy to personally welcome Pocono back into IndyCar’s ever-evolving story,” racing legend and Nazareth resident Mario Andretti said that summer. “Whatever the changes, from one era to the next, Pocono has maintained its character and significance to me, and it always will.”
“This place was built by IndyCar for IndyCar,” then Pocono Raceway CEO Brandon Igdalsky said.
But six years later, the two old friends might be parting company again.
Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 could be the last IndyCar event for the foreseeable future.
Pocono and IndyCar are in the last year of a contract and while negotiations have gone on this summer, questions have been raised about IndyCar returning in 2020 to the 2.5-mile track with three different turns. Poor attendance and two tragic accidents in the six races since its return have put the race’s future in question.
In 2015, a freakish incident killed British driver Justin Wilson and last year a horrific crash caused major, life-altering injuries for Canadian Robert Wickens.
Still, several drivers have expressed their love of the racing at Pocono and hope it stays on the schedule.
“It’s not dead yet,” Marco Andretti said Friday morning during a media breakfast at Billy’s Downtown Diner in Allentown. “They’re still negotiating. There’s stuff still on the table. It would be good to keep it going. But it’s out of my hands.”
Andretti said Pocono is his favorite superspeedway.
“The race-ability is fun,” he said. “There are three totally different corners and you start feeling the tires degrade [between pit stops] and it makes the racing really good for the fans.”
Australian Will Power won the 2016 and 2017 races at Pocono and called it “a driver’s track for ovals.”
“It’s good for racing and good for strategy and good for driving,” he said.
Graham Rahal, whose father Bobby Rahal won the 1988 Quaker State 500 at Pocono, said he’s a traditionalist and loves the Long Pond, Monroe County, track.
“Obviously, I don’t set the schedule, but to me we need to be at venues the crowds come to,” Rahal said. “You look at Mid-Ohio [in late July] and we had a huge, huge crowd. There are many other races where we draw crowds. I wish we had a better crowd at Pocono to be quite frank. It’s a thrilling race. To watch the start there is unbelievable with four, five and six cars wide going into Turn 1. I’m biased, but I think it’s the best show put on at Pocono every year.”
The track does not release attendance figures, but this show hasn’t drawn nearly the same number of people as the first two NASCAR Monster Energy Cup races each summer.
IndyCar officials have ended races at other tracks because of poor attendance, including the race at Phoenix, which was dropped from the 2019 schedule after a three-year run.
“IndyCar has enjoyed its time racing at ISM Raceway, but attendance in the past three years has been disappointing despite considerable investment from both sides,” an official IndyCar statement said in announcing the decision.
“Our sport is driven by demand and where the fans want us,” Rahal said. “I’m sure that’s the biggest and heaviest part of the decision for IndyCar and what they’re going to do. But again, I love Pocono and it’s one of the most beautiful parts of this country and it’s a big market for our family with all of our dealerships in that area. Obviously, we’d like to see that continue.”
Pocono Raceway would also like to see it continue.
Several times this summer Pocono CEO Nick Igdalsky has said he wants to keep the open-wheel series on the schedule.
On Friday morning, Ben May, Pocono’s president, reiterated the track’s hopes.
“Our hope continues to be that this is not the last IndyCar race,” May said. “We’ve said many times that IndyCar puts on a spectacular show and our ticket sales have grown. ABC Supply has been a good sponsor and the crowd is growing. They know where we stand and the ball is in their court.”
May is hoping the 2020 schedule is released soon. He said Igdalsky has even floated the idea with IndyCar officials about holding a Pocono race every three years.
Next year for the first time NASCAR, which has traditionally run two races at Pocono, one in June, the other in late July or early August, announced it will have a doubleheader weekend in 2020.
If IndyCar moves on, that would leave the track with one racing weekend next summer.
“We don’t want to do that to our local businesses in the area,” May said. “Because the races are combined into one weekend, of course, it may affect some hotels and businesses. But the number of people coming into the region will remain the same, if not grow.”
May is hopeful the inaugural Pocono Air Show on the weekend of Aug. 24-25 will do well, but regardless, Pocono wants IndyCar back.
“We want to keep it, there are no two ways about it,” he said. “It just has to make sense for both parties.”