2024 IndyCar Schedule: Milwaukee & night ovals back, Texas on hiatus

The NTT IndyCar Series announced its 2024 schedule Monday, featuring a return to the Milwaukee Mile short oval in Wisconsin for a doubleheader, two nighttime oval races and the addition of the Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge.

Altogether, the 18 race schedule features the most significant non-COVID related changes and additions in quite some time.

The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg still opens the season on March 10. Two weeks later the series heads to Thermal, California, for the first-ever $1 Million Challenge in an event at the ritzy Thermal Club. The event will feature a unique yet-to-be-announced format, and won't offer any championship points — only the $1 million prize for the winner.

Long Beach, Barber, the Month of May and the Detroit Grand Prix remain unchanged. Road America moves one week earlier to June 9, now followed by a second west coast trip to Laguna Seca on June 23.

Mid-Ohio keeps its July 4 weekend date, with the Iowa Speedway doubleheader weekend following. The first Iowa race is expected to be under the lights on Saturday night.

The Toronto Grand Prix follows the next weekend, followed by a month-long break for the Paris Summer Olympics.

IndyCar returns after the break with the second nighttime event at World Wide Technology Raceway on Aug. 17. Next, the third west coast trip to Oregon's Portland International Raceway moves up one weekend to Aug. 25.

The return to Milwaukee comes as a doubleheader on Labor Day weekend. The new layout on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee, rounds out the championship schedule two weeks later.

The series will not race at Texas Motor Speedway this season. The Indianapolis Star's Nathan Brown reported last week the series and Speedway Motorsports Incorporated, the owner and operator of the facility, could not come to an agreement after the track expressed desire to move its lone NASCAR Cup Series event to April. It's expected that will happen, and TMS declined to host its two biggest events in back-to-back weekends in the spring.

Though the series loses Texas, and a nearly month-long gap in April remains on the calendar as a result, it is expected to return next year in some format, and if SMI decides to re-profile the chastised oval, it likely can do so over the summer and fall of 2024. The 2023 Texas IndyCar race this April was arguably the best since the TMS repave in 2017, with passing and a second lane developing throughout the race to create entertaining and competitive event.

Despite the Texas conundrum, the schedule features much of what the series and fans have been clamoring for: night races and more total events.

A rumored non-points race in Argentina next fall would boost the 2024 calendar to 19 races, and a return to Texas in 2025 puts it up to 20 — a number Roger Penske has expressed desire to reach but not surpass.

The biggest new championship wrinkle? Three of the last five races happen on ovals, and Milwaukee followed by Nashville all but promises to break some hearts in the paddock before the season is over.

*Non-points event