If taking a better look at the 2010 calendar, one would notice that there are 9 road courses to hold Indy races, as compared to 8 ovals. Consequently, the championship's officials made a decision to award two crowns at the end of the season: one for the oval course champion and one for the road course champion.
“IndyCar offers one of the most challenging and diverse schedules in all of motorsport. We want to recognise the drivers that master the disciplines that make up this sport. We feel this platform will give added value to events on our schedule and creates more momentum behind the drivers and teams that excel at ovals and road races,” said Randy Bernard, chief executive officer of the IRL.
However, the two awards will not replace the one given to the overall champion of the series, but only complement it. So we might find ourselves in a situation where three different drivers will win each contest: overall, road/street course and oval course.
After the first 4 rounds of the 2010 season, all held on road/street courses – Brazil, St. Petersburg, Barber Motorsports Park and Long Beach – championship leader Will Power is 42 points ahead of teammate Helio Castroneves in the road/street course race also. There will be 5 more non-oval events this season, including Watkins Glen International (July 4), Streets of Toronto (July 18), Edmonton City Centre Airport (July 25), Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Aug. 8) and Infineon Raceway (Aug. 22).
As far as oval courses are concerned, the first race held on such a circuit will be the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway (this weekend), followed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway (May 30), Texas Motor Speedway (June 5), Iowa Speedway (June 20), Chicagoland Speedway (August 28), Kentucky Speedway (September 4) and Twin Ring Motegi (September 19).
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