Mid-Ohio IndyCar race date to move?

With 25,000 in attendance at Mid-Ohio Sunday, 15,000 of which were brought in by Honda, Mid-Ohio President Craig Rust is looking to move the IndyCar race date for next year. Not the NASCAR race, that's too important to move, just the IndyCar race, which has had the first week in August date forever.

"We're fortunate the race has been on the same date for a number of years now, and so, people are used to it," track President Craig Rust told the Mansfield Journal.

But …

"I'd still like to get some separation between it and the NASCAR race. It wouldn't bother me to work with IndyCar to make the event a couple weeks earlier," he said. "I would not do it later. A solid summer July date, I think, would work well."

This will be the third year in a row that the track's two biggest spectator events, IndyCar and the NASCAR Xfinity Series, will be held within a three-week span in August.

With no major sports car racing and no more Superbikes on the schedule, Mid-Ohio has plenty of flexibility with its summer.

"We like our date," Rust said. "August is good, but there's competition to get media attention because Cleveland and Cincinnati with the NFL is kicking up, and this year, with (Ohio State football) out of the gate, we're going to have to start hearing about playoffs."