IndyCar 2024 in review: Exhibition races are a mistake that distract from the championship

In a bid to expand its repertoire of events (and make some business-to-business deals happen at the same time), IndyCar introduced an exhibition race at Thermal Club in California in 2024. The race, branded as a $1 million challenge, ultimately fell flat in the eyes of fans — and drivers.

Rather than learn from the messy event and move forward, though, IndyCar seems to have doubled down on the exhibition concept, with CEO Mark Miles even proposing a slate of international exhibition races during the off-season to whittle away at the six-month off season. But betting too much on these exhibitions may prove to be a costly mistake.

IndyCar 2024: The year of the exhibition race

An exhibition race is, in effect, a non-championship race event run for a monetary prize as opposed to points that can later count toward a championship. These events can take place for several reasons: To trial a new venue, to build hype for the series, to give drivers a shot at a huge prize purse, and more.

But IndyCar’s 2024 $1 Million Challenge at Thermal Club felt more like a behind-the-scenes business exchange than it did an actual racing event.

To understand why, let’s first take a look at what a successful exhibition concept can look like, starting with two annual events hosted by the NASCAR Cup Series. NASCAR kicks off every season with the Clash, an exhibition race designed to build hype for the season. Partway through the season, it also hosts the All-Star Race, a $1-million prize event consisting of a field of winners and champions.

These events were introduced during the peak of the Cup Series, when fans truly couldn’t get enough of NASCAR and when NASCAR wanted to keep those fans at the track for as many events as possible. While modern fans are more critical of the necessity of these non-points-paying events, they’ve stuck around as an homage to tradition.

Formula 1, too, has had a long history of hosting non-championship events. They were a way for drivers to make money outside of the championship (which, in that period, lasted between nine and 15 races). They were a place for teams to debut technology. They also made it possible for Formula 1 to try out a new venue, to see how it would handle the high-powered racing machinery.

But the reason why F1 phased out non-championship races in the early 1980s — and why some folks are critical of NASCAR’s modern non-championship events — is that these events require a massive amount of money to put on, all for very little payoff.

More from IndyCar:

👉 IndyCar CEO has promised international races before — but is it different this time?

👉 Zak Brown takes aim at IndyCar in new letter: ‘There’s more we can do to elevate the sport’

IndyCar’s exhibition at Thermal, though, failed to have any of those redeeming features.

First and foremost, the series had a difficult time raising the entirety of its $1 million prize and quickly changed to marketing from “$1 million for the winner” to “$1 million spread out among the field.” Victor Alex Palou secured $500,000 for taking a Thermal win, but many teams and drivers were highly critical of the fact that Thermal’s narrow track surface led to more crashes and damage than the prize purse justified.

That’s because Thermal isn’t a track designed for racing. Thermal Club is a luxurious country club-like facility that allows wealthy individuals to purchase a house overlooking its race track or golf course, with the draw being that those folks can take their supercars for a spin any time they want.

Having spoken to media on site at Thermal, it sounded as if the purpose of the event was for IndyCar teams to wheel and deal with the wealthy folks who have property at the club track. I’d heard from a few different sources that team owners walked away from the event with some new investors — but it ultimately resulted in the feeling that the event was the sponsorship equivalent of a job fair.

Money makes motorsport go ’round, of course — but it’s hard to get fans interested in an event that isn’t designed to produce compelling racing. It’s hard to convince them that they should care about a race team taking home some extra funding courtesy of a behind-the-scenes dinner.

Rather than learn from the messy Thermal event, though, IndyCar CEO Mark Miles is instead pitching a mini-season of non-championship events as a halfhearted way to satisfy increasing demands for international events.

“What we are going to try and do is have some international events that we can tie together in the offseason,” Miles told the Indy Star earlier this month.

In Miles’ view, grouping together a handful of international events would make it much simpler for the sport to justify a jaunt outside of America. It makes sense; if it’s going to cost a few million dollars to head off to Brazil for a weekend, why not spend a little more and go off to Argentina right after? It’d likely be easier to negotiate sponsor funding if the series looks ready to commit to an international swing.

But why shouldn’t those races count for the championship?

It’s hard to wrap your head around. If IndyCar is already going to the effort to organize a race in a different country, and if it’s already going to be bringing out its full slate of teams and drivers, shouldn’t that event count toward something bigger? And if the prize purse isn’t big enough or the event doesn’t matter for the championship, why should teams bother sending their best talent and equipment away for no real payoff?

Romain Grosjean was already vocal about his frustration at being involved in a crash at Thermal, saying, “ Who is going to pay for the damage? We come here with no points on the line, we do nothing wrong and the car is completely smashed. What is that? It’s not what I signed to IndyCar for.” Imagine the sentiment if he’d also gone through the hassle of flying all the way to Argentina for that.

IndyCar has been roundly criticized for its lack of direction, for its seeming immunity to experimentation — but while the Thermal exhibition deserves some credit for being something new , there’s also no shame in admitting that it wasn’t worth the fuss.

In fact, admitting the faults in the exhibition format will be critical — especially when it comes time to put on an international event.

Read next: Alex Palou challenges for ‘greatest of all time’ title with third IndyCar championship