IndyCar changes start times for five races

After starting the season with a bang, with viewership exceeding 1,4 million for the opening round in St. Petersburg, viewership for subsequent races plummeted, before stabilizing around 900 for the final round in Indianapolis. Some of the early races of the season were head-to-head with NASCAR Cup Series or other sporting events, such as the Masters Golf Championships, at Augusta.

In order to avoid these situations from recurring at the end of the season, five changes to the start time have been announced, starting with the Gateway round, which will take place on June 15. Initially scheduled for the American afternoon, the event will take place from 20 p.m. local time (2 a.m. in France). A night event on a Sunday is a new feature for theIndyCar, all on the day Americans celebrate Father's Day.

A week later, on June 22, the Road America race will start two hours earlier, at 19:30 p.m. French time, rather than 21:30 p.m. A similar scenario for the races on July 6 and 13 at Mid-Ohio and Iowa, with starts at 19 p.m. instead of 20 p.m., and finally in Toronto, on July 20, where the race will start two hours earlier, at 18 p.m. French time, rather than 20 p.m. No change, therefore, unsurprisingly, for the 109th edition of the Indianapolis 500, which will take place at 18:45 p.m. on May 25… if the weather cooperates a little more than it has been currently since the start of the tests this Tuesday!

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