COTA eyes IndyCar race (Update)

Eddie Gossage (L) is going to have a lot to say if IndyCar tries to race at COTA

UPDATE Circuit of The Americas, a nearly 3.5-mile road course near Austin, is interested in hosting a Verizon IndyCar Series race so long as it doesn’t conflict with an existing event. But COTA shouldn’t be concerned that–the race track should, instead, be worried about its 1.5-mile asphalt neighbor up north.

Track president Bobby Epstein said COTA would be interested in IndyCar so long as the track could make it work with a bunch of “calendar limitations," NBC Sports reports. But people can be quick to forget, as it seems Epstein has been: COTA’s neighbor 230 miles north near Dallas, Texas Motor Speedway, isn’t fond of sharing series with it. Texas Motor Speedway already has an IndyCar race.

Here’s what Epstein, whose track has hosted Formula One each fall since it opened in 2012, told NBC Sports:

“We didn’t want to have conflicting messages to the fans of competing products, I would say. I think we didn’t want to have competing products, and we still don’t.

“But if the calendar works out to where you could do perhaps IndyCar in the spring and F1 in the fall, then we should certainly look at the calendar and see if we can make it work out."

Because MotoGP’s COTA date takes place in the spring and the track doesn’t want a race in the summer or too close to F1, Epstein said there “are some stars that need to align" to make an IndyCar date happen. But he also has to avoid the wrath of TMS president Eddie Gossage, who doesn’t appear to have commented on Epstein’s recent IndyCar claims–although it’s only been a few days–but has been pretty adamant about keeping series for himself in the past.

Epstein said early this year that he’d been in talks with NASCAR officials about a potential COTA race, which would probably be incredible to watch considering NASCAR and road races make for a great show.

But with all those empty seats Gossage must be losing his shirt on the IndyCar race, and all those empty seats makes IndyCar look like a loser

But Gossage was not thrilled, citing a “regional protection clause" that keeps things like NASCAR from going to other tracks in the state during the series’ contract with TMS. He told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in March that TMS had dibs on NASCAR:

I don’t blame [COTA] for wanting NASCAR races, it’s just that they’re 20 years too late. I don’t think they know the business, or they wouldn’t be saying such things.

The anger from Gossage doesn’t make much sense, really. IndyCar ran the Houston Grand Prix, in Texas, in both 2013 and 2014, and these two tracks aren’t exactly straight-up competition. Texas Motor Speedway is a 1.5-mile asphalt oval, whereas Circuit of The Americas is a 20-turn road course.

Who cares about details, though! After getting mad about NASCAR being double booked with Austin’s F1 race, Gossage also said in 2014 he’d wave bye-bye to IndyCar if it added a race at Circuit of The Americas:

If IndyCar wants to run in Austin, (my response is) ‘God Bless You, it’s been a nice 18 years, have fun. We don’t need another (race) in the market to cause people to make choices and decisions.’

We have not only earned loyalty in IndyCar, we’ve paid dearly for it (in sanction fees), huge sums of money that nobody else in the history of IndyCar racing has been required to pay to keep it.

So, like we said, COTA: Good luck. If you’re really serious about snagging an IndyCar race, you’re probably going to need all the well wishes you can get. Alanis King/Jalopnik

COTA is a first-rate facility

10/20/17 The Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, would be interested in hosting a Verizon IndyCar Series race in the future so long as it could negotiate a number of calendar limitations, according to track president Bobby Epstein.

COTA opened its doors in 2012 as a new-build facility to host the revived United States Grand Prix, welcoming Formula 1 back to American soil after five years away.

Besides F1, COTA has also hosted MotoGP, FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events and the X Games, quickly establishing itself as one of North America’s premier racing facilities.

Speaking to NBC Sports, Epstein explained COTA has not chased an IndyCar deal thus far in order to focus on its current events, but would be open to hosting the series so long as the right date could be found.

“Our system was to focus on getting an open-wheel race built up and done successfully, and a motorcycle race going successfully. I think after five years, we’ve shown that we can build those," Epstein said.

“We didn’t want to have conflicting messages to the fans of competing products, I would say. I think we didn’t want to have competing products, and we still don’t.

“But if the calendar works out to where you could do perhaps IndyCar in the spring and F1 in the fall, then we should certainly look at the calendar and see if we can make it work out."

Epstein conceded that finding a suitable date to host IndyCar would be difficult given the pressures of other series’ dates and the Texan climate, but the circuit boss is keen to work on it in the future.

“We’re somewhat limited," Epstein said. “We’re not going to run a race in the middle of the summer. We’re not going to run an IndyCar race close to F1, which leaves really the spring.

“Our biggest opportunities are probably in May when they have their ‘500, and we’re rock solid with MotoGP on the calendar in April. There are some stars that need to align.

“I hope to work on it in the future. I think it’s something we could work on in the future."

One long understood and proverbial hold-up to a COTA IndyCar race has been the presence of Texas Motor Speedway on the calendar in June, as that track has been an IndyCar stalwart since 1997. Texas is the second longest active oval race on the schedule, only behind the Indianapolis 500.

As it is, COTA may need to find racing events to fill its 2018 calendar as a couple drop off after this year. Pirelli World Challenge switches from a September to a March 2018 date, and the track will not host IMSA nor FIA WEC races from 2018. NBC Sports