2015 IndyCar schedule due out Thursday, and could Dubai be on? - MotorSportsTalk

It’s the story that needs to drop for planning purposes across several championships in 2015: it’s the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule.

Derrick Walker, IndyCar’s president of competition and operations, has told MotorSportsTalk and other media outlets the plan is to have the schedule out by the end of the month, we now have a specific day planned.

Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star reported in his Q&A this morning the schedule will be announced Thursday, August 30. That adds up for the end of the month. An IndyCar spokesperson confirmed the schedule release date of Thursday.

Of note, Auto Club Speedway has indicated a public unhappiness for its 2014 Labor Day weekend date; Andretti Sports Marketing president John Lopes told me of Milwaukee that he didn’t see date equity as a problem because the event “hadn’t found the right date yet.”

Confirmed races thus far include:
3/8 Brazil
3/29 St. Petersburg
4/12 NOLA
4/19 Long Beach
4/26 Barber
5/9 GP Indy
5/24 Indy 500
5/30-31 Detroit
6/6 Texas (Sat. night)
8/2 Mid-Ohio
8/30 Sonoma

Races currently without officially confirmed dates include Pocono, Iowa, Toronto, Milwaukee and ACS. It is not anticipated that the series will add additional events beyond those either already confirmed or having been on the 2014 schedule.

DUBIOUS DUBAI?

There is one outstanding wild card, and that is the mooted, on-again, off-again, potential international race in Dubai. Noted Twitter IndyCar link hound Matt Archuleta (@Indy44) found this nugget on, of all things, Carlos Huertas’ website.

Searching for any info on #IndyCar at Dubai found this on Carlos Huertas web site-> http://t.co/StOXfht08W pic.twitter.com/hR8jgV0lHx

— Matt Archuleta (@indy44) October 26, 2014

Huertas – the unheralded, quiet Colombian rookie who won Houston race one this season – has made almost no overtones or undertones about wanting to return to IndyCar for a second season. But that Dubai date, February 22, would fall almost completely in line with the wishes and desires of Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles – head of INDYCAR’s parent company – wanting to start the season in February.

From an overall team standpoint, a Dubai race would make some sense as it would allow for some winter running and give the previously announced Brasilia, Brazil race a pairing in terms of the teams running their cars without the new-for-2015 aero kits. And it would give the crews an actual race to be at prior to March.

The one catch from an overall motors standpoint? February 22 is the Daytona 500, NASCAR Sprint Cup’s marquee race, and a day that draws more on-site media coverage than most other events.

IndyCar would essentially be resigning itself to a season opener halfway around the world, on at a poor hour for most U.S. fans (you think the kvetching at Fontana was bad? This would be worse), and with a past history of announcing international races that have often come up snake-eyes in terms of it actually happening.

I’m not sure if this is a previously stated mantra, but a good way to describe motorsports at times is: “as the money flows, so the series goes.” And one would hope the financial benefit of running a Dubai race would offset the potential poor PR or lack of media interest that could follow for a season opener on the same day when most racing fans’ eyes are fixated on Daytona.

Follow @TonyDiZinno

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Read more about SuperMotocross