As Penske Entertainment brass continue to work to put the finishing touches on its 2024 IndyCar calendar, the series runs the risk of seeing its longest continuous-running stop (outside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) not being run — even for just next year.
After 27 consecutive visits, dating back to the Indy Racing League’s stop as part of its 1996-97 campaign, and 36 races overall, there’s a legitimate chance Texas Motor Speedway will be absent from IndyCar’s final 2024 schedule.
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As sources explained to IndyStar, NASCAR is eyeing March 24 for its stop at Circuit of the Americas — a race that, for the past couple years, has been run and promoted by TMS. With Easter weekend immediately following, IndyCar had April 7 slotting in nicely to the current schedule.
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But TMS, having seen its slate of NASCAR Cup series stops trimmed in recent years from two races to a points-paying race and the All-Star race (2021-22), and this year just one single, is said to have been reevaluating when to hold that event.
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Shifting that Cup and Xfinity weekend out of the playoffs and back to the spring — a move that, if IndyCar’s race was scheduled as wished, could have the two largest racing series in the country on back-to-back weekends at the same track.