Well now that the 2014 IndyCar schedule has been announced i just thought i'd throw in my two cents as to what I think would make it better. Looking for feedback.

The 2014 schedule is:

March 30th St.Petersburg*
April 13th Long Beach*
April 26th Barber**
May 10th Indy Grand Prix**
May 25th Indy 500***
May 31st/June 1 Detroit (doubleheader)*
June 7th Texas***
June 28th/29th Houston (doubleheader)*
July 6th Pocono***
July 12th Iowa***
July 19th/July 20th Toronto (doubleheader)*
August 3rd Mid-Ohio**
August 17th Milwaukee***
August 24th Sonoma**
August 30th Fontana***

(* Street Circuit, ** Road Course, *** Oval)

Thats 18 rounds, including three double headers. It breaks down to 8 street circuit races (including all three double headers), 6 ovals and 4 road courses.

Overall I like the schedule. I think 18 is a good number of races, and for the most part I like the venues. One problem I have though is the double headers. IndyCar is (or at least should be) a premier racing series and double headers scream feeder series to me. GP2, Formula Renault and Formula 3 can have double header race weekends, but i don't wanna see that for IndyCar. Some fans might argue that more races are better, but i'd argue that the excitement of one premier race is better than two heat races. Also, historic races like the Detroit Grand Prix (a former F1 race) shouldn't be broken down into too races. By reverting the double headers back to single race weekends we're left with 5 street circuit rounds which i think is a perfect number on an 18 round schedule.

I would add a fifth road course to the schedule. I think there are too many great and/or historic road courses in North America that aren't being used for open wheel racing. My shortlist would be, Watkins Glen, NY (my first choice), Mont-Tremblant, QC, Laguna Seca, CA and Portland International, OR. I think Road America, WI and Mosport, ON would also be great but I think they might be too close to Milwaukee and Toronto respectively. Road America in Atlanta would be ok too. I personally would get rid of the Indy Grand Prix and add any two of the above road courses. I don't like having two races at Indianapolis as I feel that it takes away from the 500. Watkins Glen is a great track and hosted the US Grand Prix for 20 years as well as Indycar races for years. It needs an open wheel race. Mont-Tremblant is an under used track that has hosted Indycar races before as well as the Canadian Grand Prix in F1. Laguna Seca is another great track that has hosted Indycar. Portland is small and narrow, but had some of the closest Indycar finishes ever in the 80s and 90s. There's also no racing in the Pacific Northwest.

Personally I prefer the street/road courses but I also would like IndyCar to stick to its roots, and that means Ovals. I don't want IndyCar to become just an inferior version of Formula 1 like Champ Car was in the mid-2000s. I like how next year for the first time in a while all of IndyCar's races will be in the US or Canada. IndyCar should be thought of again as the American driving championship like it was back in the USAC and AAA days. I feel like the whole CART/IRL civil war was fought because IRL felt CART had too many road courses and international drivers and yet after years of fighting thats exactly what we have now. I think a few more ovals would help. I would bring back Phoenix International Raceway which hosted Indycar races from the mid-60s all the way up through 2005. Like some of the road courses i mentioned its got a lot of history. For the second Oval I would add either Dover International or New Hampshire MS. Both are one mile ovals. New Hampshire hosted a few Indycar races in the 90's and 2000s. Dover hosted one USAC Champ Car race in 1969. Personally i'm a little biased because I'm from New England and i'd like to see IndyCar there, but honestly Dover might be the better choice because it can cater to the Mid-Atlantic market now that the Grand Prix of Baltimore is gone. Also if they added a race at Watkins Glen or Mont-Tremblant, New Englanders wouldn't have that far to go. I think these oval races (especially since their on smaller tracks) should be around 200-250 miles in length to differentiate them from the longer races at Indy, Pocono, Texas and Fontana and make them easier to watch for people who aren't big fans of ovals.

Anyway, that's my idea of the perfect schedule. 18 races. 8 ovals, 5 street circuits, 5 road courses. All in the US or Canada. Like I said I'd really like to see a return of open wheel racing to Watkins Glen and/or Mont-Tremblant and I'd like to do away with the double headers. What are your thoughts? Are any of these ideas completely unrealistic?