Miles, Newgarden, Carpenter Talk 2017 IndyCar Schedule

The 2017 IndyCar schedule was released Thursday, and Mark Miles addressed it with the media alongside drivers Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter.

The 2017 IndyCar schedule is out now and everyone has thoughts on it. League boss Mark Miles joined Beyond The Flag on a conference call to explain how the new IndyCar schedule was put together.

Ed Carpenter Racing teammates Josef Newgarden, who is third in the championship hunt, and Ed Carpenter also participated in the call to give the drivers’ perspective on next year’s plans.

Miles had previously commented on the importance of consistency in assembling the 2017 IndyCar schedule and reaffirmed that as a priority. “I think it’s fundamental,” he said. “It’s really important to growing the sport because the foundation of the sport is the quality and the growth of our races, our events in the cities where we compete.”

“All of the existing races have contracts for more than 2017,” he revealed, “so I expect they’ll be back not just for ’17 but in the future, as well.”

The trio were phoning in from St. Louis, which will see a return of IndyCar racing next August when the league comes to nearby Gateway Motorsports Park for the first time in more than a decade. Miles praised the current situation with Gateway that allowed it to get back onto the IndyCar schedule.

“I couldn’t have been more pleased with what we saw today,” he enthused, “where every sector of the community on both sides of the river turned out, and there’s great anticipation and enthusiasm.

“Elected officials from Washington, through their state legislature and local mayors, all the not-for-profits that make an urban center what it is that are interested in growing the community, from the chamber [of commerce], to their convention folks to develop downtown St. Louis, they’re all here, and a significant number of private sector business leaders were here.

“All the components seem to be coming together from an event perspective, and probably better that the drivers than I speak about the track, but Curtis Francois bought the track I think in 2012 or so, repaved it [and] has done a terrific job in making improvements,” Miles added.

“Those of our fans who think of it from many years ago will be delighted with what they see. It’s a terrific place, and it was designed for IndyCar racing. It’ll be a compelling race for sure, another short oval we’re pleased to add.”

So what do the drivers think of adding back Gateway?

“I think it’s going to be a really good track for the current IndyCar,” said Carpenter, who previously tested at the facility. “It’s a very unique and demanding track. Turns 1 and 2 are very tight. 3 and 4 are a little more open.

“Having probably a little more downforce than the cars had when they were last here in 2003, I think it’s just going to be a good thing for the quality of racing, the quality of show that we can put on for the fans.

“And from the enthusiasm that we’ve seen here in St. Louis today, I think we’ll be looking for an exciting event.”

Below you can check out full video of the last open-wheel race that was run at Gateway:

“Having Gateway added on is just a bonus for me,” agreed Newgarden. “It’s one of those type of tracks that I really like. I think it’s going to put on a great show for IndyCar, and it’s going to add more to the diversity of what we already have.”

The Tennessee native also spoke to the overall quality of the new schedule, which once again contains a balance with now six oval tracks, six road courses and five street courses.

“I think from a driver standpoint, the IndyCar Championship is really kind of a dream championship if you seek to be the best at all disciplines,” Newgarden said. “If you seek to be the best and the most well-rounded driver within the world, I think IndyCar is really the only championship that offers that.

“I like the challenge that when you’re working with your team, your engineer throughout the season, you have to be able to switch between a street course, road course and an oval back-to-back-to-back every weekend in facing a challenge of going from one to the other every time. It’s not easy for a lot of people to do, and I think experience shows really well in IndyCar, and the reason it does show well is because of the challenge that you have with the diversity of the schedule.

“I think we’ve had that for the last four and this being my fifth year in the IndyCar Series, I think that’s been one of the great things we’ve been able to talk about within the series,” he added, “and going forward you’re going to see much of the same.”

The only real significant shift in the lineup is that the Phoenix Grand Prix will now be run later in April, which Miles explained is due to the fact that Phoenix is also hosting the 2017 NCAA Final Four.

“When Phoenix came on for this year we knew that in 2017 Phoenix would host the NCAA Final Four, and we agreed with them that it’s better to avoid that in that community,” he told us. “That’s a lot of fan choice and a lot of focus from the local media.

“That’s the reason that it changed from ’16 to ’17. I think that makes sense. And I think the schedule still works fine for our competitors,” he continued. “We are looking at what that might look like in ’18, and whether [Phoenix] stays more or less where it is or whether it goes back to the ’16 date.”

Small details like that are the primarily reason that IndyCar backed off from its original plan to announce the 2018 schedule along with the 2017 schedule, although Miles reaffirmed his belief that all the tracks currently on the roster are contracted through 2018.

“I loved the idea of putting out the ’17 and ’18 calendars at the same time, and we were really close to doing it, and that’s exemplified by the fact that I’ve already told you that I expect everybody that’s on the calendar for ’17 to be on the calendar for ’18. But there are still a couple of details like the one I mentioned with Phoenix,” he said.

“And we do think there’s still some prospects that need a little more time to be fully developed for both international and other domestic opportunities for ’18. So we decided not to [announce].”

Something else not in the cards is any alterations to the 2017 IndyCar schedule.

“I don’t expect that, and I don’t know where that would come from,” Miles declared. “At least the Verizon IndyCar Series Championship I think is set.“