IndyCar shortens 2014 season in its struggle to attract fans

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IndyCar fans might want to keep their blinking to a minimum this year, or they might miss the shortest full season in top flight North American open wheel history.

The series' 2014 season gets underway this Sunday in St. Petersburg, Fla., and ends five months later in Fontana, Calif., on Aug. 30. Toronto is only Canadian date on the calendar, with the return of its July 19-20 doubleheader on the streets of Exhibition Place. Apart from the three-race inaugural Indy Racing League (IRL) season in 1996, you have to go back to 1957 to find a full schedule as short as the one IndyCar put together for 2014.

The series has called this a transition year as it implements a new strategy to get the fans back, which should see an expanded schedule in 2015. It contends that shrinking the season will entice fans to pay more attention to the series for a shorter period of time. It is also thought that fewer gaps between races will keep IndyCar top of mind throughout the summer. In addition, the condensed calendar means the series avoids going head-to-head with the National Football League.

Whether it will work remains to be seen.

The huge problem with the five-month schedule is the other side of the equation: IndyCar will be dark for more than half of 2014, starting late and then closing its doors before Labour Day while other racing series keep going. It also creates a challenge to teams trying to attract sponsors, since they can only promise five months exposure from a full-season commitment this year.

As a comparison, Formula One began its 2014 season two weeks ago in Australia and will wrap up its 19 races on Nov. 23 in Abu Dhabi. North America's racing juggernaut, NASCAR, runs a 36-race schedule from mid-February to mid-November.

In fact, NASCAR's 10-race playoff style Chase for the Cup that decides the season champion begins two weeks after IndyCar turns out the lights. Although the stock car series made major changes to the Chase format this year, including a winner-take-all final race, shortening the season to avoid going up against the NFL was never seriously considered.

In addition, concentrating all the races in a five-month period is no guarantee that fans will flock to their televisions to watch, something that's been the series' Achilles' heel for the past two decades.

Frankly, IndyCar has hardly recovered from the public relations disaster brought about by then-Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss Tony George who founded of the IRL in 1996 as an alternative to the Championship Auto Racing Teams Series.

The 13-year battle between the IRL and CART (later Champ Car) eroded the credibility of open wheel in the U.S., opened the door for NASCAR's dominance, and relegated IndyCar to what seems to be second-class status in the pecking order south of the border.

The most irreparable damage in those years was to the Indianapolis 500. In the eyes of most fans, the biggest race in the world instantly transformed into a ragtag gathering of no-name drivers from no-name teams who had no business driving in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing." The Indy 500 has never regained its mystique despite the exciting racing and stellar fields of late.

The bottom line is that IndyCar just can't seem to convince U.S. racing fans that it's worth the time. It's an unfortunate reality because IndyCar's remarkably strong driver line-up easily produces the best racing value for money when it comes to top series in North America.

Technically Speaking

Although there's little doubt that James Hinchcliffe would love to start the 2014 season on Sunday by posting a second consecutive win on the streets of St. Petersburg, it may be a tall order this time around. The 27-year-old Canadian scored a sensational win in the Florida city last year, notching up a well-deserved maiden IndyCar win after pressuring Penske's Helio Castroneves into a mistake late in the race .

With Hinchcliffe's Andretti Autosport squad switching from Chevy to Honda motors this year, it wouldn't be surprising if the team needed a couple of races to iron out all the kinks. Yes, anything could happen, but fans shouldn't be disappointed if Hinch can't repeat his first race glory in 2014.

The same should go for Target Chip Ganassi fans and those cheering for its No. 1 driver, defending 2013 champion Scott Dixon, after the team did the opposite swap to Andretti, adding Chevy engines to their cars after running Hondas.

Random Thoughts

With only about 26 entries confirmed so far for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 in May, it seems likely that there will be three Canadians in the 33-car field for the first time since 1995. In that year, Scott Goodyear, Paul Tracy and Jacques Villeneuve flew the Maple Leaf.

IndyCar regular James Hinchcliffe will be joined by two veterans in one-off rides for the race, Alex Tagliani driving for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, and 1995 Indy 500 champion Jacques Villeneuve, who will drive for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. If the rumours of Paul Tracy's return for another shot at the Brickyard turn out to be true, 2014 will mark the first time in the history that four Canucks take the green flag at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

By the Numbers

Several Formula One drivers will reach significant milestones in their careers this season, including McLaren driver Jenson Button, who will start his 250th grand prix next month at the third race of the year in Bahrain. When the Briton made his debut with Williams in 2000, he was the fifth youngest driver ever to participate in a grand prix.

At the same race, early championship leader Nico Rosberg notches his 150th F1 start into his belt. The German won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 16. He made his F1 debut with Williams at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix, scoring two points for a seventh place finish.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean will hit the 50-race plateau in Spain at the season's first European stop in early May. The French driver is on his second stint in F1 after starting the final seven races of 2009 for Renault following the departure of Nelson Piquet Jr. from the team. He was not retained by Renault for 2010, but returned to the same outfit – rebadged as Lotus – in 2012.

Later this summer, Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen takes part in his 200th career grand prix when he lines up on the grid at Austria's Red Bull Ring. The Finnish driver made his first grand prix start more than a decade ago in 2001 and should already be past the 200-race marker, but he took two seasons off to go rallying after the 2009 season before returning to F1 in 2012. He started his first F1 race with the Sauber team and went on to win the 2007 world title driving for Ferrari.

Räikkönen's teammate in his title year, Felipe Massa of the Williams team, will start his 200th race in F1, one stop after the Finn when the lights go out for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Williams is the Brazilian's third F1 team after he spent the past eight seasons at Ferrari after racing his first three with Sauber.

Like Grosjean, Toro Rosso's Jean-Éric Vergne gets his 50th grand prix into the books this year at the 11th stop of the season in Hungary. The French driver has spent his entire time in F1 with Toro Rosso and was in the running to be four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel's teammate this year until the job went to Daniel Ricciardo.

After that, the next driver to hit a significant number of career starts is Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who will make his 150th grand prix appearance at the second stop of the 2015 F1 season.

The Last Word

There must be something in the water at racing series headquarters after IndyCar became the third to make radical changes to its points system before the 2014 season.

First there was F1's nutty idea of spicing up the final grand prix of the season by making it worth double points. The F1 brain trust thinks that will make the finale more exciting and possibly drag the title fight to the last race when it otherwise would be decided beforehand.

NASCAR didn't succumb to the double point scheme and instead decided to transform its 10-race Chase for the Cup playoff into a quasi round robin knockout. Of the drivers making the playoffs, all but four drivers will be eliminated before the final race of the season in Miami. The top finisher in that one gets the crown.

Not to be outdone, IndyCar announced last week that three of its races would be worth double points. The series' trio of 500-mile events will now award 100 points to the winner, rather than the normal 50. Included is the season finale in Fontana, along with the Indianapolis 500 and the July event in Pocono.

On the surface, it seems like a good way to heighten excitement. The big problem with these schemes is that they all have the potential to penalize a driver for one mistake or one bad race, while rewarding good fortune.

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