Gossage has apparently compromised from his previous stance, and renewed TMS’s deal.

An IndyCar race in Austin appears to be edging closer to reality.

The U.S.-based open-wheel circuit, whose cars scream down straightaways at up to 230 mph, is considering Circuit of the Americas for a future race, possibly as early as next year, according to published reports.

COTA Chairman Bobby Epstein’s take? Bring it on.

“It would become one of our crown-jewel events,” he told the American-Statesman. “I think it would be special for the series, too, with this city and this track.”

Epstein said he had two discussions with IndyCar officials in a recent 10-day stretch.

“We’re super interested,” he said. “We’ve had productive conversations. We’re talking to them. It would be exciting to see IndyCar come to Austin.

“They have choices. They have three or four places to fill a hole for next year.”

The Phoenix race was scratched from next year’s 17-event calendar for financial reasons.

IndyCar CEO Mark Miles told the Indianapolis Star the series is in talks with three tracks, declining to name them. COTA is widely speculated to be in that mix. There also has been some talk about a street-course race in San Antonio or Oklahoma City.

“We’ll move in earnest to get one of those tracks to fill out the 17th spot,” Miles said. “We don’t think it will take too long to complete,” indicating a decision could be made as early as Labor Day weekend.

The race would likely be in spring. COTA already is committed to the Pirelli World Challenge sports car series March 1-3 and the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas in a yet-to-be-determined April date.

“It would be tough for this to all come together in time for next season, but don’t rule it out,” Epstein said.

What opened the door for the possibility were provisions in a new four-year deal between Texas Motor Speedway and the Verizon IndyCar series. The Fort Worth track will hold a 2019 race for the 23rd consecutive season.

TMS surrendered its territorial exclusivity clause in exchange for a lower sanctioning body fee for the race, according to Gavin Faretra, track media relations manager.

That cleared the way for possible negotiations between COTA and IndyCar.

“The oval race in Fort Worth is a staple for them. But the two tracks are very different, with ours being a road course,” Epstein said. “We want to help build the sport and widen our exposure. I see it as a good match.”

TMS’ 2019 IndyCar race will be June 8 and again will be paired with the NASCAR truck series.

“This is and always will be ‘America’s Original Nighttime IndyCar Race,’” TMS President Eddie Gossage said. “Photo finishes and victory lane drama have been the standard over the years. No other track has seen as many IndyCar races over the last two-plus decades.”

Next year’s TMS schedule is now finalized. The fall truck race moves to the spring NASCAR Cup weekend to create a tripleheader with the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Tony Stewart dirt track event moves from the spring to the fall to complement the Cup and Xfinity playoff races.

One new venue, the return of an old friend, three Saturday night ovals, two stretches of three-races-in-a-row and the 103rd Indianapolis 500 highlight the 2019 IndyCar Series schedule, which will be officially released later today.

Circuit of The Americas outside Austin (pictured above), a state-of-the-art road course that hosts Formula 1 every year, is the new addition to the 17-race card — which starts in early March and ends in mid-September.

COTA had always been off limits to IndyCar because of a territorial agreement with Texas Motor Speedway but after some spicy negotiations between IndyCar and Texas boss Eddie Gossage, the longest-running oval (besides Indianapolis) got a discount on its sanction fee and IndyCar had a world class venue to replace Phoenix.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, which played host to CART from 1983-2004, is back on the 17-race schedule and replaces Sonoma as the season finale on Sept. 22.

Texas will be in its customary slot on Saturday evening June 8, while Iowa returns to a Saturday night fight on July 20 after trying Sundays and losing fans, while Gateway’s third consecutive Saturday night show will again be the final oval of the season come Aug. 24.

The 103rd Indianapolis 500 takes the green flag on May 26, following the sixth IndyCar Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 11, and the entire month including qualifying will be televised on NBC.

In July, Toronto, Iowa and Mid-Ohio will run on consecutive weekends and that will be followed by three in a row at Pocono, Gateway and Portland in August. The Grand Prix of Portland, which made a rousing return last weekend, again will run on Labor Day weekend.

Detroit remains the only doubleheader on the docket and Pocono returns for a seventh straight season.

In all, there are seven permanent road course races, five on street circuits and five ovals during the seven-month season, which also includes three weeks between races in June and July and a three-week opening from late July into August, which IndyCar hopes to shore up in 2020.

2019 IndyCar Series schedule

March 10 — St. Petersburg, Fla.

March 24 — Circuit of The Americas, Austin, Texas

April 7 — Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala.

April 14 — Long Beach, Calif.

May 11 — Indianapolis GP

May 26 — Indianapolis 500 500

June 1-2 — Detroit GP, Belle Isle (doubleheader)

June 8 — Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth (Saturday night)

June 23 — Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.

July 14 — Toronto, Ontario, Canada

July 20 — Iowa Speedway, Newton (Saturday night)

July 28 — Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio

Aug. 18 — Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pa.

Aug. 24 — Gateway Motorsports Park, Madison, Ill. (Saturday night)

Sept. 1 — Portland International Raceway, Portland, Ore.

Sept. 22 — WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif.

Michael Andretti says that Fernando Alonso racing in IndyCar would bring notoriety and attention to the series, similar to that achieved by Nigel Mansell in 1993.

Hurricane Gordon allowing, Alonso will make his IndyCar road course debut at Barber Motorsports Park in an Andretti Autosport-Honda on Wednesday, and team owner Michael Andretti said he’s eager to see the two-time Formula 1 world champion commit to the IndyCar Series.

“That would be great, I hope he does want to do it,” he told Motorsport.com. “I think he still hasn’t made his decision yet. Hopefully he enjoys his time in the car and he’ll want to do it.”

Hinting that he’s keen to see an Alonso/McLaren combo technically collaborating with his squad, Andretti said: “I think it would be great for our series, our team, I’d love to work with him again because he was really a lot of fun to work with at Indianapolis last year.

“We’ve always been ready for a five-car team if we have to be. That wouldn’t be a problem. But we’ll see what happens. There are still a lot of things that have to happen yet, but hopefully it will be good in the end.”

This suggests that rumors about McLaren using Chevrolet engines, and thus partnering with either Harding Racing or Ed Carpenter Racing, remain wide of the mark. Further evidence was Andretti's dismissal of speculation over Alonso’s relationship with Honda, despite the friction that developed between the driver and the manufacturer at McLaren in 2015-’17. Said Andretti: “Honda has no problems with Alonso, no problem there.”

Were Alonso to tackle the whole 2019 IndyCar season, Andretti said he expected him to be on the pace immediately.

“I think so,” he said. “He was very competitive at Indianapolis, and Indianapolis is a difficult race track and he did very well there. Obviously on road courses he’s going to be strong, so I see no reason why he can’t be competitive right away.

“I think it would be huge for Indy car racing, for sure. I think it would be very similar to what happened when Mansell came over in the early ’90s. It brought a notoriety to Indy car racing and I think it helped it grow. I’m hoping that Fernando, were he to decide to come here, it would be a similar thing.”

Tony Stewart missed an offer to drive in the 2019 Indianapolis 500, and he can only blame his own bad email habits.

That's what we learned from Smoke's conversation with Rutledge Wood while the Brickyard 400 was under a rain delay yesterday. According to Stewart, his idle chatter about wanting to race at Indy again led to some unexpected offers.

"I did what I normally do," Stewart said, as transcribed by Racer. "I let my mouth open before I thought about what I was saying and mentioned that I was open to the possibility again, and I realistically am."

And apparently, when Stewart mentioned his interest in racing at the Indianapolis 500, it led to some offers. "I’ve talked to Michael Andretti; Roger Penske says I still have an open invitation. I think Ganassi would put me back in a car," Stewart told Wood.

"But an email I didn’t expect was from Bobby Rahal and David Letterman to come and run in one of their cars. And I don’t do emails, so I haven’t even responded to Bobby Rahal yet [...] I just found out I had an email from him."

C'mon, Smoke. When Mr. Rahal emails you, you don't let that message collect dust in your inbox.

Regardless of the above-mentioned offers, Stewart doesn't intend to run at the 2019 Indy 500. "I’m not doing it to just do it," he told Wood. "I want to do it to try to win the race. If you’re really going to do that, the IndyCar Series is so competitive right now, and the drivers and teams so even and so tough, you’re not going to just stroll in here like they used to do in the ’70s and ’80s and do a good job," Stewart said.

"I would want to run an oval race sometime in this coming year to get ready for 2020 if I’m going to do it" he continued. "I’ve learned never to say never, but doing the math, I’ve realized that 49 is probably not a really good age to try to resurrect an IndyCar career. But who knows. I’ve done a lot dumber things than that."

As Racer points out, Stewart had a promising debut at the 1996 Indy 500, starting from pole and leading 31 laps before withdrawing due to mechanical problems. Stewart took fifth place at the '97 race, and finished in the top 10 in 1999 and 2001.

"We've talked to him, although I don't know where it will lead, if anywhere," Coyne told Autosport. "But I'd say he's cautiously interested."

Asked if discussions had been about the whole IndyCar season or just road and street courses, Coyne said: "The whole season, yeah."

Coyne added that the Wickens shunt had affected driver interest.

"It's affected all of us, hasn't it?," he said. "People understand about laying it all on the line for the Indy 500 and everything that comes with it.

"But racing in front of 12,000 people at 220mph at some of these other tracks, it's fair to ask what we're doing, why we're doing it."

If McLaren’s desired IndyCar Series program comes to fruition next season, Stoffel Vandoorne could be its full-time solution. With McLaren Racing set to move forward in Formula 1 without Fernando Alonso and his Belgian teammate Vandoorne, team CEO Zak Brown says the Spaniard isn’t the only option he’s considering for the program.

“Yes, I think he’s an extremely fast driver, very consistent,” he told RACER. “I think he’d make a great sports car driver and a great IndyCar driver. I think he’d make a good Formula 1 driver, we just had a difficult two years.”

With the 2015 GP2 champion looking unlikely to land with another F1 outfit, Brown believes Vandoorne would be open to a career reboot in North America.

“Yes, we have a good relationship,” he continued. “Obviously, it’s difficult when you don’t renew someone, but he’s a professional. We’re fans of his. McLaren would definitely race with Stoffel in other racing series and I think it would be great to see his story continue with McLaren.”

Brown and McLaren are said to be a few weeks away from making a final decision on whether an IndyCar program will go forward in 2019. Brown also says McLaren has options to partner with Honda Performance Development for an IndyCar engine supply.

“We’re close to a decision, we’re close to a decision,” he added. “We’d be happy to work with Honda, yes.”

Alonso’s plans for 2019 remain unclear, beyond his commitments to Toyota through the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. Brown’s business partner Michael Andretti has said he expected Alonso to make a second run at winning the Indy 500 next year, but the two-time F1 world champion has not declared whether a full-time IndyCar campaign will fill his first season away from grand prix racing. It could, provided McLaren commits to IndyCar, provide Vandoorne with an unexpected opportunity to try his hand at the complex and diverse challenges posed within IndyCar’s 17-race calendar.

Esteban Ocon is not interested in a IndyCar race seat next season, even if talks with Williams fail to keep him in Formula 1.

The Mercedes youngster is facing an uncertain future, with Lance Stroll expected to replace him at Force India following the team’s takeover by a Lawrence Stroll-led consortium. Williams is one of the final viable seats remaining as Toro Rosso and Haas are not options for Ocon, and he believes it would still be a good move even with the the team’s recent struggles.

“Yes, there are talks with Williams obviously,” Ocon said. “The talks are there, but no, I can’t say it would be a downgrade. Williams is a great team. They have been world champions in the past, they have been fighting with us hard last year, and they’re having tough times, but all teams have tough times.

“For sure, it could be an option to be on the bench next year, but even if that’s the case, I would be back in 2020 and I would be back stronger and prepared.”

With Toto Wolff also suggesting Ocon could be left without a seat next season, the Frenchman ruled out a year racing elsewhere, with IndyCar not something he would consider.

“I’m not interested. I’m interested in Formula 1. That’s the only thing I want to do. That’s my only focus.

“I like racing, I like cars. I think [IndyCar] is a great series. But the only thing I look at is Formula 1. It’s my only target. My only target is to be world champion one day. There is nothing else that counts really.

“Also I think it’s looking at Robert [Wickens], who I know very well, of course it breaks you a bit… Anyway if that wasn’t the case, I would not look at IndyCar at all.

“If I’m told I’m not racing in the next couple of years in F1, then yeah, I need to leave. I need to work. But what I’m trying to do is if I’m not racing next year is to come back in F1 in 2020. I feel like there is nothing for me to learn away from F1.”

Ocon also eliminated Formula E from consideration if he doesn’t secure a Williams drive next season, having raced for Mercedes in DTM while awaiting his first F1 chance.

“We never know what can happen in the future, but I’ve been in that situation of waiting, but I was in a different situation. I hadn’t tried Formula 1 before. I didn’t race, I didn’t drive and have results or be prepared.

“When you are in those kind of transitions, you try to get as much experience before you go to F1, and DTM was very, very useful for me, and prepared me very well for F1. I feel like I’m ready now, and I don’t need those bigger experiences. I think I have enough experience now.”

Right now, an IndyCar race car is powered by an engine capable of producing between 550 and 750 horsepower. There's an additional 60 hp waiting in the wings with the Push-to-Pass feature. That's not enough, apparently. IndyCar drivers have been clamoring for more horsepower, and it looks like that wish is set to come true.

The current 2.2-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 is slated to run through the 2020 racing series. After that, according to NBC Sports, IndyCar is going to up the displacement to 2.4-liters. With Push-to-Pass enabled, the drivers will have over 900 horsepower at their disposal. And the forced-induction 6-cylinder engines will sing a mighty song up to the 12,000 rpm redline.

IndyCar plans to run these larger, more powerful engines starting in 2021. The series will continue to use them through the 2026 racing season. Engineers at Honda and Chevrolet are excited to develop these new racing motors, as it allows the automakers to align their marketing efforts, road car technology, and motorsports know-how to a greater degree.

Jim Campbell, who is General Motor's Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsport, says "The 2.4-liter, twin-turbo V-6 engine formula that will be introduced for the 2021 season will continue to showcase relevant technologies that we incorporate in our production engines. The opportunity to transfer learnings in performance, reliability, and efficiency between the racetrack and the showroom is very important to Chevrolet."

Honda's President of Honda Performance Development Art St. Cyr adds "The new IndyCar engine formula should be exciting for the fans and an interesting technical challenge for Honda Performance Development. While the overall architecture remains similar to the current engine, the increased displacement will bring many changes, including a notable increase in power that should please all fans of the sport. In addition, it provides our designers and engineers with an opportunity for significant development, which is a challenge we welcome at Honda.”

IndyCar switched to a 2.2-liter V-6 back in 2012. That first version of the engine utilized a single turbocharger. Just two seasons later, the second turbo was added. Now the extra displacement will allow GM and Honda to push power output to new heights. With the cars already capable of hitting speeds as high as 240 mph at Indy, it will be interesting to see if the new engines deliver even greater top end speeds.

Regardless, the extra power will certainly afford more passing opportunities for the drivers, and more exciting racing for the fans.

Current Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson has secured a drive in IndyCar next year with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

Ericsson will be dropped by Sauber at the end of the year to make way for Kimi Raikkonen, bringing the Swede's five-year Formula One career to an end. He signed a deal to continue as a reserve driver for Sauber but has made no secret of his desire to continue racing in another a series.

On Tuesday, SPM announced Ericsson will drive the No.7 Honda for the team in 2019 alongside James Hinchcliffe.

"It's a great honour to be picked as one of the drivers at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and IndyCar for the 2019 season," Ericsson said. "It feels like a perfect step for me and my career after five years in F1. I can't wait to start work with SPM and all the people in the team which I've heard a lot of good things about. They've had some great success over the years, and I'm looking forward to work hard to continue and improve on that path.

"The racing in IndyCar looks great and I feel really excited to be part of it in the future. It will be a lot to learn including new tracks, oval racing, etc. I know it won't be easy, but it's a challenge I'm very much looking forward to and I can't wait to get started."

SPM co-owner Sam Schmidt added: "Ric [Peterson] and I are excited to welcome Marcus to the team. He has a ton of experience racing in the top levels of motorsports, so we believe that he will be able to contribute to our development program that began in earnest in 2018.

"While the circuits on the IndyCar schedule will be brand new to him, particularly the ovals, we have a lot of confidence and trust in his eagerness to learn along with his work ethic. We think he and James [Hinchcliffe] will be a good fit to push one another and fight for those wins."

SPM confirmed the No.6 Honda remains open for Robert Wickens, who was driving for the team this year until he suffered severe injuries in a violent accident at Pocono Raceway in August.