Edmonton race to move to Sat. July 26

Though no official date change has been announced, it's believed the former Champ Car World Series race in Edmonton, Canada will get the green flag on Saturday, July 26, as an Indy Racing League event.

Its current July 20th date conflicts with the IRL's Mid-Ohio event in Lexington and it can't go at a preferred afternoon start time on July 27, since it would conflict with the Brickyard 400, a televised NASCAR event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That race track is owned by IRL founder Tony George, who strives to have all IRL events on television and not to run them head-to-head against NASCAR. He certainly has no interest in running a NASCAR event at his own track in competition with an IRL race elsewhere.

The IRL schedule, currently sitting at 16 races, has an available Sunday on Aug. 3, but Northlands prefers to debut its new property in conjunction with its old standard, Capital Ex, which concludes July 26. The date shift means the City Centre Airport track will host qualifying on Thursday, July 24, and Friday, July 25, in advance of the Saturday racing, which includes CASCAR and Atlantics support series competition.