ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- IndyCar has canceled its season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. IndyCar released a statement less than one day after taking measures to hold the event without spectators.
IndyCar also canceled or postponed the next three races through April.
- Grand Prix of Alabama - Barber Motorsports Park (Apr. 3-5)
- Grand Prix of Long Beach (Apr. 17-19; was postponed yesterday)
- IndyCar Challenge - Circuit of the Americas (Apr. 24-26)
“After careful consideration, including regular communication with our event promoters, health officials, and the city administrations in our respective race markets regarding COVID-19, we have made the decision to cancel all NTT INDYCAR Series events through April.
This begins with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg which was to begin today and run through Sunday, March 15 and continues through the AutoNation INDYCAR Challenge at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas which was to take place April 24-26.
Although we are disappointed to delay the start to this INDYCAR season and will miss our incredible fans who support us each year in St. Petersburg, Birmingham, Long Beach, and Austin, the safety of our fans, participants, staff, partners, and media will always remain our top priority. We will continue to coordinate with public health experts and government officials as we determine the appropriate plans for resuming our schedule.”
Hey, friends. This is a bummer and I share in the disappointment with all the fans and pro athletes across the globe. But let’s work through this together, be good (intelligent) humans, and come back to have some fun in a couple months. #allandretti #indycar https://t.co/b0i7tWrUis
— Alexander Rossi (@AlexanderRossi) March 13, 2020
Shortly after issuing the statement, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles spoke with the media via teleconference to update the situation.
“Obviously this is an incredibly fluid situation,” Miles said. “The entire world is dealing with it. It changes by the hour. The President of the United States is going to make another statement later today (declaring it a National Emergency). We certainly don’t know what’s coming. It just underscores I think the gravity of the situation.
“We are so excited about this season. We remain that. We’re going to race as much as we can race. It was clear to us from overnight and this morning that the right thing to do right now was to suspend our competition, really all on-track activity through April.”
Miles stressed IndyCar will attempt to run “as complete a schedule” as possible, meaning some races that are currently canceled may be held later in the year.
“We’ll do whatever is possible to do to create the fullest season,” Miles said.
However, street course races at St. Petersburg and Long Beach may have a difficult time because they aren’t permanent facilities and have to be constructed every year.
“I will say that Long Beach has said they’re canceled,” Miles said. “We don’t see any opportunity to reschedule later in the year.
“Long Beach could not stage an event because of the California local governmental regulations. We’re in close regular multiple-times-a-day communication with all of our other races, particularly before May. They were finding it increasingly unlikely that they were going to be able to stage races.
“We’re in touch with all of our business partners and couldn’t be more appreciative of the support of NBC and NTT and Firestone and Honda and Chevy. They’re all businesses. They are dealing with the situation themselves both as a business and as an employer and with their customers, including us. So, there’s a lot of empathy and a lot of support.”
As Penske Entertainment CEO, Miles is essentially CEO of IndyCar, the same role he held when it was owned by the Hulman-George Family. Roger Penske and the Penske Corporation own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500.
“Roger Penske and I had a call with all our team owners about 30 minutes ago,” Miles said. “Obviously they want to race, and we want to race. We really hate that we can’t give our fans what they want right now. But there’s a very strong sense of cohesion inside the INDYCAR paddock we’re doing the right things.
“We’re doing what we have to do right now.”
With all racing canceled through the end of April, that means the season won’t start until the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The first race would be the IndyCar Grand Prix on May 9.
“I would just say we are absolutely focused on May,” Miles said. “We’re still in St. Petersburg, Florida. I’m with Doug Boles. We’re all going to go home and keep doing what we do. We’re going to be absolutely ready. That’s with the normal schedule. We will obviously evaluate everything every day by the hour. We’ll make any changes we have to make.
“But our mindset and our efforts are completely dedicated to being ready to put on a great show throughout May.”
Action at St. Petersburg for IndyCar was set to resume on Saturday morning. The support series teams hit the track early Friday morning, before the entire event was canceled.
When asked what the tipping point was, Miles responded “it’s the combination of things from last night and further into this morning. I won’t point to any one thing.
“What’s happening in the country broadly, we just felt like it was the right thing to do to not allow the opportunity for the racers to go racing here.”
With about 250 team members in the paddock, IndyCar was not over the “sizeable crowd” gathering limit, but there remained a risk that those participants could spread the virus if they have it without realizing it.
“From the participants’ point of view, the drivers and the teams, that was part of our consideration earlier,” Miles said. “But really I think what happened subsequently was the sense that it’s not responsible to ask people to get together.
“You have communities all over the country that are saying they don’t want 250 people, gatherings of 250 people, even for private events. So that’s where we are as a country right now.
“I think our drivers would be at much less risk. But mass gathering social events are being called off.
“There’s a public health risk any time people are getting together. That’s why since our announcement, our prior announcement that we were going to race without the crowd, we learned that Disney was shutting down, we saw THE PLAYERS Championship and Ponte Vedra go from their announcement they were going to play a major tournament for them without a crowd to canceling.
“Really there isn’t a sporting event left that feels comfortable running even without fans. I just think that’s reflective of what’s going on in the country and in the world.”