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Pocono confirms it will host IndyCar race in 2016

Pocono, IndyCar execs hopeful of larger crowds after early races drew poorly.

PERHAPS the fourth time will click for the Verizon IndyCar series and Pocono Raceway.

As the Daily News, citing Racer.com, reported Tuesday, IndyCar will return to Pocono next year on Aug. 21, officials confirmed. Brandon Igdalsky, Pocono's president and CEO, sounded confident that attendance will increase for the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono.

Igdalsky said the reaction from social media "and renewals flooding into our ticket office" are early indicators that attendance will be up. The largest crowd in IndyCar's first three years back at Pocono was estimated in the 20,000 to 25,000 range. Pocono's two NASCAR Sprint Cup races draw around 60,000.

"Once we start running our promotions in the spring, it's just going to build," Igdalsky said on a conference call.

Neither Igdalsky nor Mark Miles, IndyCar's CEO, would say whether Pocono is paying a smaller sanctioning fee to host next year's race.

The Pocono race will be IndyCar's only race in August. Igdalsky said the race is scheduled in a window between the final competitive events at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the closing ceremony. NBC is televising the Olympics. The Pocono race will be on NBC Sports Network. This year's race also was run in late August.

"Fans saw such a tremendous race," Igdalsky said. "IndyCar is the premier open-wheel series in America, and they'll be racing (again) on a track built for IndyCar."

Miles said, "I'm really pleased Pocono is on the schedule." Miles said the series now is balanced with five ovals, five street courses and five road courses.

One new course, a street race in Boston on Labor Day weekend, is on next year's 16-race schedule. Phoenix and Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wis., return to the lineup

The 100th Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for May 29. The series finale is Sept. 18 at Sonoma, Calif.

- Bill Fleischman