An updated 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule was released today, displaying calendar adjustments implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway remains the season opener with a night race on the 1.5-mile oval Saturday, June 6. The next race on the INDYCAR calendar will be the GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course Saturday, July 4.

“Our teams and athletes are ready to get back on track and will deliver world-class action at Texas Motor Speedway and the Racing Capital of the World,” Penske Entertainment Corp. President & CEO Mark Miles said. “We appreciate the opportunity to begin our season during these unprecedented times, and I’m confident we’ll put on a great show.”

The REV Group Grand Prix at Road America has been rescheduled from June 21 to July 11-12, becoming a double-header with championship points races Saturday and Sunday on the iconic, 4-mile road course.

Two events have been canceled for 2020 due to local restrictions surrounding the pandemic: the Indy Richmond 300 on Saturday, June 27 at Richmond Raceway and the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday, July 12 on the streets of Toronto.

The season finale will be the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, Oct. 25, a new date recently announced after the originally scheduled season opener March 15 in St. Pete was postponed due to the global health crisis.

The 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season will begin Saturday, June 6 with the Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway. INDYCAR’s stars will take the green flag at 8:45 p.m. (ET).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, INDYCAR will run a condensed schedule with practice, qualifying and the race taking place on the same day. The event also will be conducted without fans in attendance. This will be the 24th consecutive year in which INDYCAR has raced at the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth, Texas.

To accommodate the one-day schedule, the length for the race at Texas Motor Speedway has been adjusted to 200 laps rather than the previously announced 248 laps.

The remainder of the updated, 15-race INDYCAR calendar for 2020, announced April 6, remains on schedule for competition.

In the “real” racing world the month of May is famous for staging the Indianapolis 500 event and so at 2.30pm on Saturday, 2^nd May, to mark the culmination of the  the IndyCar iRacing Challenge the final round was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  As in the previous five rounds of the Challenge, the cars lined up two abreast for the rolling start, unlike the legendary Indy 500 event we are all familiar with which has a traditional start grid comprising three cars abreast.  It was a wild experience in the virtual world of iRacing which fully lived up to its category.

With eight of the participating drivers having won the real Indy 500, only three of the 33 drivers who took the start for the sixth and final round of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge had no previous experience on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, and Alex Palou, from Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, was one of the three.  Based on his five previous iRacing performances – where he finished fourth on 4^th April at the virtual Barber Motorsports Park; where he led four laps and finished tenth on 11^th April at Michigan; and where he led a lap and finished ninth the previous Saturday, 25th April, at the Circuit Of The Americas – Alex was considered to be a “dark horse” for a surprise victory, especially having won an iRacing practice session at the Indy Speedway oval two days prior to the race.

Palou started the race at Indianapolis on the fourth row of the grid in P8, but after five laps of battling for position, his car was squeezed against the wall.  He recovered, and even led the race for three laps, but by lap 55 when in sixth position it was necessary to pit for fuel.  He rejoined the race, but just three laps after his pit stop there was an incident in front of him on lap 58 which forced him into a spin and ultimately a crash causing a lot of damage to his car. He managed to overtake a few of the seriously damaged cars on track, but was finally classified P26 having only completed 59 laps of the 70 lap race.

The six rounds of the IndyCar iRacing Challenge having come to an end, we now await the start of the real 2020 IndyCar season.