The Indy 500 Has Been Pushed Back To August

Covid-19 has forced the postponement of another major motorsport event, with the Indianapolis 500 now set to take place at the end of August

Dan Thorn

27 Mar 2020

All three of motorsport’s triple crown events have now been affected by coronavirus - Le Mans will take place in September, the Monaco Grand Prix has been cancelled, and the Indy 500 has been postponed for three months. It’ll now take place on 23 August.

It was always going to happen. Even with the greatest of optimism, the Indy 500 remains pretty much a month-long event and with the current global situation, there was no way the race was going to go ahead on its traditional May date. Series and circuit owner Roger Penske said in a statement:

“The Month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is my favourite time of year, and like our fans, I am disappointed that we have had to reschedule the Indianapolis 500.
“However, the health and safety of our event participants and spectators is our top priority, and we believe that postponing the event is the responsible decision with the conditions and restrictions we are facing.
“We will continue to focus on ways we can enhance the customer experience in the months ahead, and I’m confident we will welcome fans with a transformed facility and a global spectacle when we run the world’s greatest race.”

The IndyCar Grand Prix has also been rescheduled to the beginning of July. With the Indy 500 being moved, the series will almost certainly have to move (or cancel) the races at Mid-Ohio and Gateway, both of which were scheduled to take place during August.
Meanwhile, the drivers should probably start preparing for some sort of virtual Indy 500. I mean, what else are they gonna do?

A version of this article was originally posted on WTF1

Comments

Perfectly reasonable and its a good way to make sure the drivers and the 250,000 people who go there are safe!

Is anything not going to be pushed back by now? I think the only actual variant that’s not redundant is whether or not the event is cancelled, and if not, when it’s going to be pushed back.

If they push back the Olympics, you can be pretty sure there isn’t a single event that’s going to be kept on the calendar as is.

That said, I’m curious to know if they’re also going to push back the Coca-Cola 600 to August 23th. It’s been held for decades now on the same day as the Indy 500, plus the Coke 600 is the lengthiest race in the NASCAR season.