What started out as a great morning in the circle city soon grew somber. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced on Thursday that the historic Fourth of July weekend will remain in place, but also doing so behind closed doors. That was a real punch in the gut for racing fans as a collective group. This whole last 3-4 months have been among the worst of our lifetimes. From a worldwide pandemic altering our lives in every way that we knew it, to a country divided, to riots and protests to racial injustice and everything in between.

Now, we get more bad news.

This was going to be the first time that we would have seen the NASCAR Cup Series and NTT IndyCar Series share the same venue on the same race weekend. For the first time ever, we would have been able to see NASCAR use the 2.439-mile road course layout for the Xfinity Series race on Saturday in part of a doubleheader day with the GMR Grand Prix Indy Car race as well. On Sunday, would have been the Brickyard 400.

Now, all will still take place, but without fans in attendance. It’s a deflating announcement that’s for sure, one that’s also costly and confusing.

This would have been a prime opportunity for all race fans to unite. We could have had two disciplines of racing (oval and road course), two different types of series (NASCAR and IndyCar) all in one place. A chance for fans strictly of one or the other to maybe add the other respective series to their repertoire. Plus, it would have been the “official” spring out of this COVID-19 pain in the ass.

On May 1, Indiana announced their five phase plan of reopening the state. The fifth and final phase had a tentative date of July 4 which would allow for social gatherings of 250 or more people. The IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader day was July 4 and the Brickyard on July 5. While no one was expecting IMS to lift everything and open to full capacity, it was expected that they would be able to allow race fans back in a limited capacity. Even if it was a fourth of the capacity, you’re still talking 40-50k being able to come through the gates.

What’s confusing is, we’re a month after that announcement and a month before the historic weekend and nothing has changed in terms of the planning. In fact, Indiana is opening quicker than they expected. The phase that we’re in now opened a couple of days earlier than the initial tentative date. But, we get no fans a month from now?

What changed?

The city of Indianapolis is what changed. They’re the ones holding this all back.

“While we certainly worked diligently to run our events with spectators, we reached a point where we needed to make a final decision because the race weekend is less than a month away,” Penske Entertainment Corp. President & CEO Mark Miles said. “Today it’s not possible to be confident that Indianapolis will be at Stage 5 of the state’s reopening plan by the Fourth of July weekend.

“We are extremely appreciative of the time and expertise Governor Holcomb, Mayor Hogsett and state and local public health officials have given us over the last few months. This was a collaborative process and a decision we’re all aligned with after thorough review of the situation. We remain committed to welcoming the world’s greatest fans to the Speedway for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in late August.”

See, Indianapolis is behind on the plans. While I get there’s more cases here in Marion County than anywhere else in the state, you also have to look at Indianapolis is the biggest most concentrated city in the state too. The whole Indy being behind every other city in the surrounding counties is confusing and frustrating. I can go from my house in Greenwood and go to church, then get a haircut, take my wife to get her nails done, go eat lunch at any restaurant of our choosing act as normal as possible in this “new normal” world we live in. But, before June 1, if I crossed County Line road, a place that has a lot of these business in stones throw between Greenwood and Indianapolis, I couldn’t do any of the above.

Same for all parts of town. If you visit any county that borders Marion County, you could do anything you wanted — albeit in smaller capacities. In Marion County, you couldn’t. They’re a couple of weeks behind and what IMS is saying is that they don’t think Marion County would have been to Phase 5 by July 4 and needed to make a decision now on what to do.

That’s what’s really going on. Will the state as a whole be there by July 4? All signs point to, yes. Nothing has changed. There’s 92 counties in Indiana and 89 of them will be able to reopen still on the Fourth of July weekend if all stays status quo. Unfortunately, IMS is in Marion County and they’re one of the three counties lagging behind and aren’t showing any intentions of speeding up.

Driver and team owner Ed Carpenter pretty much admitted that he feels that way too.

“I was disappointed,” Carpenter said of the news. “I was very hopeful that we were going to be able to have fans for that event in some capacity, IMS hosts the largest single-day sporting event in the world. I was hopeful we could put forward some plan that could allow some spectators to be there to join us.

“But the track, the series worked with the city and state and decided this was the best solution. Obviously the Indy 500 is a priority. I’d be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t disappointed. I was very optimistic we would be allowed to have some fans and sponsors there.

“It’s a unique situation. The governor’s plan, where the state will be with their phases, would have allowed it. The city of Indianapolis and the mayor and the leadership there has a different view, so this is where we are. We’ll make the best of it, hopefully see fans shortly after that.”

Doug Boles, President of IMS, issued a statement to race fans on Thursday morning.

“After extensive consultation with local and state health officials, we have made the difficult decision to run these events without fans in the stands due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Boles said. “As a result of this decision, we have also canceled the Driven2SaveLives BC39 USAC Midget race and the FGL Fest concert.

“While the State of Indiana plans to enter Stage 5 of its “Back on Track Indiana” plan on July 4, opening sporting events to fans with social distancing, Marion County – home to IMS – moved to Stage 3 ten days after the rest of the state, and we cannot be confident that it will be ready to move to Stage 5 by the holiday weekend. This approach follows national trends for larger communities, and we must follow those guidelines and the leadership and judgement of our city and state officials during this challenging time.

“Customers with tickets to the impacted events will receive an email from the IMS ticket office with instructions for claiming tickets to our 2021 events, an account credit good for all future events at IMS, or a refund.

“You – our fans – are what make this place so special, and we will greatly miss welcoming you next month for this historic NASCAR-INDYCAR double-header weekend. We are, however, excited that all three races will be broadcast on NBC and hope you will tune in throughout the holiday weekend.

“You’ll also notice that this year’s edition of our marquee NASCAR race has a new name –the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered by Big Machine Records. This new name is a reflection of our title sponsor’s commitment to support front-line workers and make hand sanitizer available to the public in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“We look forward to welcoming fans to the track in August for the 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and the other events related to the race beginning with practice on Wednesday, August 12, and qualifying the weekend of August 15 & 16. And on Oct. 3, the NTT INDYCAR Series will return again to IMS for the INDYCAR Harvest GP. Thanks to the many investments and improvements underway at IMS, the facility has never looked better, and we can’t wait to share it with you later this year.

“Thank you again for your patience and support, and we hope you and your loved ones continue to stay safe and healthy this summer.”

So, while every county outside of Marion County and two others, one up near Chicago and the other well north of Indy, can likely reopen on July 4 and have gatherings over 250 and no limits on really anything, the racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be behind the times. I mean, what’s going to stop folks from tailgating near the Speedway to hear the cars and socially distance? Why do we watch riots and protests on our local news of people demonstrating on the streets downtown without masks but we can’t attend racing? I mean, I get the whole protesting thing and I’m not here to get into a debate with anyone on whether that is right or wrong and their stances, this is a racing article and I’m sticking to racing here. The only thing I will say about that is, they have their right to do that just as racing fans should have their right to go to IMS to have a much needed distraction to get back to some sort of normalcy. After all, that’s what we were told the plan would be but the Marion County mayor is holding this all back.

I get why the mayor has the planning like he did and I get that the coronavirus is serious, but the governor’s plan is still his plan and the lack of trust in that plan is showing more now.  Is it politically motivated? Could be. One is a republican and the other a democrat. If that’s the case, shame on both of them for making racing fans suffer on this.

I also get the tracks scheduled so far that hosted no fans. I truly do. Three of the first four NASCAR races back were newly scheduled races. They weren’t even on the original schedule. Plus, in May, we weren’t ready yet to have fans come back anyways.

But, now that we’re in June, states are saying they’re open to having outdoor sporting events have smaller crowds back. IndyCar’s race in Texas could have had a limited capacity of fans but neither the series nor track officials had time to pull it off.

I get Bristol, Atlanta Pocono and now likely Homestead/Talladega having no fans at their races. One place you really can’t have a race at and have no fans is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s the only place that’s going to pull on the strings of most race fans to see racing happening there and them not being in person to witness.

While the Indianapolis 500 wasn’t ran two weeks ago, the key there was it wasn’t ran. It was moved. We all didn’t have to suffer of watching the biggest sporting event in the world take place behind closed doors. While the Brickyard has suffered a massive drop in attendance over the last decade, it’s still a race at IMS. While the GMR Grand Prix’s crowd pales in comparison to the Indy 500 attendance, it’s still IndyCar’s on the famed grounds. Now, race fans will have to suffer on July 4 and July 5 and watch a race on that hallowed property without them being there. It would have been better for that race weekend to just be moved, but I get NASCAR, IndyCar’s and IMS’s hands are tied at this point.