Never say never.

That’s the mantra from Auto Club Speedway in California and Las Vegas Motor Speedway concerning a possible return to the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule. There are no active negotiations for either West Coast track to return next season, but both are popular suggestions from the fan base when it comes to adding ovals to a road- and street-heavy schedule.

Auto Club hosted four straight action-packed events from 2012-2015, including the championship race for the first three iterations, but attendance tapered off as the date shifted closer to the summer as IndyCar worked to avoid racing in the fall. Finding the perfect date race was part of the challenge. The event was contested in September, October, August and then June during its most recent run on the schedule. The daytime June attendance figures were dreadful.

Due to warmer temperatures during the summer, the race was held at night for the first three years, placing IndyCar in a compromising position when its champion was crowned at midnight on the East Coast. But the June race took place during the afternoon in temperatures that exceeded 90 degrees.

The final race was watched in person by maybe 10,000 and change in the 68,000-seat facility.

It was an unfortunate dynamic because the races were some of the most exciting on the schedule. For that reason alone, Auto Club Speedway president Dave Allen would be open to the idea if the right date and situation ever presented itself again.

"I love IndyCar racing," Allen told Autoweek earlier in the month. "I love open-wheel racing, and I've always said that. All the races we had over the years, CART and IndyCar were tremendous. And we still have the world record for qualifying speed at 241 mph, which is incredible.

"We keep the channels open, and if a date came open that made sense and if it made business sense for IndyCar, we would do that. We're always open to IndyCar. Jay (Frye, IndyCar president of competition and operations) and his group, which has had some changes, are trying to keep open-wheel front facing and alive and well. We're keeping an eye on it. And to answer the question, I have an open mind to it because I'm an IndyCar fan."

A Las Vegas return is complicated by several factors.

The 2011 event was the first scheduled at the Nevada track since 2000 but was stopped after 12 laps when Dan Wheldon was killed in a multicar incident. There were two more years remaining on the deal signed by IndyCar and LVMS, but the agreement was scrapped in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

Speedway president and general manager Chris Powell says he never closed the door on an IndyCar comeback.

"We have made them aware over these past several years that they are welcome to come back," Powell told Autoweek. "If they ever choose to come back, we certainly would entertain that. They were the ones, when Randy Bernard was running things, who said this was just too soon, it's too raw, so we've been patient."

However, Vegas added a second NASCAR weekend for September, complicating the possibility that it could add any additional events.

"The second NASCAR date changes our flow a little bit," Powell said. "Because it's challenging to sell enough tickets that many times over the course of the year. Keep in mind that we don't only have the March NASCAR weekend, the September NASCAR weekend, both tripleheaders; but we have NHRA and we're going to a four-wide and that's the penultimate race of their playoffs in September.

"So the September NASCAR weekend might have squeezed out the possibility of IndyCar coming back. But listen, we never say never."

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