Homestead event may move, change time
"[The Indy Racing League] is trying to condense the season some, and I don't know about the number [of events], but they are trying to have not such a long period of time between events," said Curtis Gray, Homestead-Miami Speedway president. "But we haven't heard from them [about a date change]."
The circuit won't release its 2006 schedule for at least another month, but if the IRL is looking to shorten the time period between events, the Homestead event likely could be moved back and run two weeks before the St. Petersburg road race. Assuming the St. Petersburg race keeps its first-weekend-in-April date, Homestead's event likely would be March 16-18.
The St. Petersburg race could move up in the calendar, but that would place the race, which runs downtown, in a conflict with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, whose spring training site is on the St. Petersburg race's grounds.
IRL team owner Roger Penske expressed an interest in the league running at night under Homestead-Miami's new lights, and Gray said he hopes the IRL will consider it.
"I think we would eventually like them to run at night," Gray said. "And I think the IRL will take note of how successful the NASCAR night races will be in November, and hopefully we can show them that South Florida is a good night-event market. That's not to say we wouldn't do a nighttime race [2006], but I'm just not sure about the dates." Sun-Sentinel