Richmond Gone? (I say add New Hampshire)

Reading through Bruce Martin's article on Versus.com, it becomes apparent that Richmond will not be on the 2010 IndyCar schedule - that kind of thing happens when one side does not want to negotiate a new contract. From the mouth of Terry Angstadt, who talked to Martin:

“We absolutely wanted to race at Richmond. It is an important venue for one very important sponsor of ours and one of our teams. We were somewhat surprised at the lack of negotiation for that venue but that is something that we deal with.

“It puts two sides to put a deal together and we respect their decision. It is not being negotiated and they will not be on our schedule.”

It's a shame that the IndyCar Series loses one of its footholds in the South, but you could see this coming after the last two races there - the crashfest of 2008 and the parade in 2009.

So, where should the series turn to for 2010? I vote New Hampshire. With ICS adding Barber to the 2010 schedule, the series will still have a race in the South, just a different part of the Southern United States. It does not have a race in the New England area, and New Hampshire has an IndyCar friendly executive vice president in Jerry Gappens.

While Martin's article does not address New Hampshire, he does talk about the rumors surrounding the purchase of the Milwaukee Mile and whether or not Tony George is actively trying to raise money to purchase the IndyCar Series - definitely items worth checking out by clicking the link above.