Yahoo Autos IndyCar seeking clarity on Argentina race plans
With the calendar having crossed over into 2024, the NTT IndyCar Series finds itself with a growing urgency to answer whether its teams will need to plan and budget for a trip to Argentina to put on a non-championship race after the season ends on September 15.
The post-season visit to the Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo road course, which also plays host to an annual round for the MotoGP series, has been tentatively scheduled for October.
But sources tell RACER the focus of holding an Argentinian IndyCar race could shift to 2025 as the country adapts to a new president in Javier Milei who, while finding his political footing, has been a big advocate for restricted governmental spending. It means receiving financial support for the event through Argentina’s tourism fund could prove to be a challenge in the first year of Milei’s presidency.
As such, RACER understands recent conversations on the subject have included whether it would be best to push forward for a 2024 launch or table the trip to Argentina until next year.
“It’s a good question,” IndyCar and Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER. “I don’t have anything on that, except to say that it’s a current topic. And there, we’re communicating with Argentina and vice versa to get to the best answer.”
IndyCar’s last flyaway event took place in 2013 when it raced on the Brazilian streets of Sao Paulo. The series’ desire to add at least one international round outside of North America is well-known, with outreaches taking place on an annual basis. Among those, Argentina has presented the most sustained interest by IndyCar, and according to Miles, its teams will soon have an answer on whether they will be racing beyond the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville in September.
“I expect it’ll be a couple of weeks, or maybe less, before we’re ready to publicly clarify the situation,” he said.
