The reality of what’s happened to Indy car racing during the past 25 years really hit home Saturday night in Fontana. It was kinda like a big fan club meeting, yet not nearly enough people to be called a crowd had gathered to watch the Verizon IndyCar Series championship decided and it had all the atmosphere of a glorified tire test.

It wasn’t Auto Club Speedway’s fault; they didn’t want to be running on Labor Day weekend in 98-degree temperatures but that was the date mandated so the season could end in August. You know, the way the Boston Consulting Group planned it.

It was the third straight 500-mile finale in southern California and third different date – starting in September of 2012, moving to October of 2013 and landing on the last weekend of August in 2014. And, with MAVTV re-upping as title sponsor for two more years, it’s likely moving to late June in 2015 if Auto Club Speedway President Gillian Zucker pulls the trigger. Four years and four very different dates; nothing like a little consistency to help sell the product…

But, as helter-skelter as the Fontana slot has been, at least it can be considered a staple on the schedule – by IndyCar standards, anyway. Because if you have any doubts why Indy car racing has fallen off the national map it’s because it’s all over the map.

Phoenix launched the CART series in 1979, but is now just another former Indy car track.Since 1990, counting CART, IRL, Champ Car and IndyCar, 50 tracks, races or cities have come and gone. Ponder that for a moment. FIFTY! Four different locations in and around Miami, Denver, Chicago and Houston failed twice in different spots along with Brazil, Mexico and England. One-time Indy car strongholds like Phoenix, Michigan and Elkhart Lake are now “NASCAR tracks” and although Pocono is shared by both groups, it’s clearly stock car country. Baltimore and San Jose were gone before anybody missed them and the experiments in Belgium, The Netherlands and Dover quickly faded into red.

During this same time frame NASCAR has only lost two old standbys (North Wilkesboro and Rockingham) while adding nine tracks and expanding to 36 races.

More importantly, people can plan their year off the NASCAR schedule since it’s barely changed in 25 years other than a few adjustments for warm weather venues. The only real confusion was moving Darlington off Labor Day but now it’s back. Besides the Indianapolis 500, IndyCar’s only constants that rival NASCAR’s have been Mid-Ohio in August or September since 1983, Long Beach in April since 1984, Toronto in July since 1986 and Texas Motor Speedway since 1996.

Gypsies have more stability than America’s fastest form of open-wheel racing and next year is going to be a prime example. If the tracks can be completed in time, there will be new races in Dubai, New Orleans and another stop in Brazil. Houston is gone, Toronto is shaky because of the Pan-Am Games and Fontana is 50-50.

Now this isn’t something Mark Miles created; he inherited this vagabond way of life just like Randy Bernard, who went back to Milwaukee, Fontana, Pocono, Detroit, Loudon and Las Vegas while adding Baltimore. It’s a tough nut to crack – finding a track or city willing to pay your sanction fee and incur the expenses yet still be able to survive. Baltimore drew great crowds and lost millions. Loudon was empty and gave up after just one year while Milwaukee, Pocono, Iowa and Fontana are fighting for their lives.

Miles has a chance to try and put the right pieces in place. He did a good job of getting the month of May on ABC and he may be able to score some decent money for the teams with Dubai and Brazil. But he’s got to listen to reason and to his teams, fans and promoters – not an East Coast consulting group that has no clue about IndyCar’s audience or culture. Almost no one in the paddock thinks it’s smart or good business to end the season on Labor Day weekend (hence it’s real tough to find anybody that wants the season finale in 2015) and five months between the end of one season and the start of the next is suicide.

So here are a few suggestions:

• Give Fontana an October race. As well as it was promoted last month it could draw 30,000 in a couple years.
• Let Mike Lanigan take his Shell sponsorship to Austin and don’t kowtow to Eddie Gossage’s threats; he’s got no leverage anymore because his Texas Motor Speedway crowd continues to dwindle.
• Politely tell Roger Penske his Belle Isle double-headers moving back in June and put Milwaukee the week after the Indianapolis 500 like it was for 70 years. It keeps your momentum from May and you might pack that place again some day.
• Figure out some kind of compromise with Jim France to share the weekend with the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship at Elkhart Lake (ABOVE) and you’ll have your second largest crowd of the season.
• If you can’t find money for a proper Triple Crown payout and field at least 28 cars, do away with the 500-milers at Pocono and Fontana (and maybe replace them with twin 150s).
• Turn all the oval events other than Indy into one-day shows to save promoter and teams money, plus ramp up the energy, and fill the gaps between sessions with Indy Lights and Pro Mazda events, where appropriate.
• Nobody wants to run eight weeks in a row (that’s the rumor) so there needs to be some nice spacing between races like in Formula 1.
• End the season in the Eastern time zone if possible, in late October or early November. And make it a venue that can get a crowd so there’s some kind of big-time atmosphere.

Miles has to understand that the National Football League is NOT IndyCar’s competition. It’s NASCAR, F1 and sports cars and the people who make time to watch IndyCar during June and July will do so in September and October.

I said a few months ago IndyCar has to realize that, other than the Indianapolis 500, a good race-day crowd nowadays is 30,000 and, other than Long Beach, Barber and possibly the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, nobody else drew that many in 2014 by my count.

An IndyCar race is a tough sell right now so Miles needs to give the promoters a fighting chance. Choose a good, smart date and stay with it because consistency is a promoter’s ally and IndyCar is running out of those.

FORMER TRACKS & CITIES FOR INDYCAR SINCE 1990

Portland, The Meadowlands, Cleveland, Denver-1 (downtown), MIS, Vancouver, Elkhart Lake, Nazareth, Laguna Seca, Australia, Phoenix, Loudon, Miami (Tamiami Park), Brazil-1 (Rio de Janeiro), Madison, Ill., Motegi, Japan, Chicago-1 (Arlington Park), Houston-1 (downtown), Monterrey, Mexico, Germany, England-1 (Rockingham), Montreal, England-2 (Brands Hatch), Denver-2 (Pepsi Center), Mexico City, Las Vegas-1 (street race), Miami-2 (downtown by harbor), San Jose, Miami-3 (Homestead), Mont-Tremblant, Canada, Houston-2 (Reliant Center), Belgium, The Netherlands, Las Vegas-2 (oval), Miami-4 (downtown by America Airlines Center), Orlando, Pikes Peak, Charlotte, Atlanta, Dover, Richmond, Nashville, Chicago-2 (Joliet, Ill.), Kentucky, Kansas City, Watkins Glen, Edmonton, Brazil-2 (Sao Paulo), Baltimore.

FORMER NASCAR TRACKS SINCE 1990

Rockingham, Wilkesboro.