until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
A points-scoring round at the Thermal Club private members' venue will be part of a 17-round IndyCar schedule in 2025.
In what is a largely unchanged calendar compared to this year's, IndyCar has also confirmed that the Nashville superspeedway - rather than the city's revised downtown course - will again close its season.
The Thermal Club was a pre-season testing venue ahead of the 2023 campaign and earlier this year hosted a $1million non-championship round with an experimental heat format that was met with mixed reviews.
But the circuit itself has enjoyed a positive reception from drivers, whose main gripe was instead that they did not want a non-championship round as the second event of the season.
The private club, where membership costs upwards of $5m, will essentially retain that slot on the calendar but has now been upgraded to a bona fide points-scoring event that will take place on March 23, three weeks after the traditional season opener in St Petersburg.
The Gateway weekend has the most significant year-to-year date shift, moving forward from an August 17 slot this year to June 15 for 2025.
The Laguna Seca round moves back more than a month from its June 15 slot this year.
It will be the last of five rounds in July, which also includes visits to Mid-Ohio, the Iowa oval double-header, and the Toronto street race.
Most of those tweaks are possible for 2025 because there is no clash with the Olympics, which IndyCar's current broadcast partner NBC has wall-to-wall coverage of this year from July 26 to August 11.
This year will be NBC's last as IndyCar broadcaster, as the series has announced a new deal with Fox Sports.
Despite Thermal's addition as a points race, the calendar remains at 17 points-paying events as the Iowa double-header is now the only such round on the schedule.
Milwaukee, which hosts two races this year, will scale down to just one contest.
Also confirmed is that there will be no race in downtown Nashville again this year.
The city was originally announced as the season finale host for 2024 but in February, six months after the reveal of a revised street circuit, the series said the race would move to the out-of-town oval.
Nashville's street race has been dependent on the Tennessee Titans NFL football team's stadium, which is being redeveloped - throwing up planning and logistical challenges.
That stadium work is due to be completed in 2027 which in theory would allow IndyCar to return to the city centre - potentially earlier in the season.
But when the change of venue for 2024 was announced, event sponsor and manager Scott Borchetta said "I think the less we use of downtown, the better", meaning the revised, as-yet-unraced layout initially revealed for 2024 may not be used.
IndyCar 2025 calendar
March 2 St Petersburg
March 23 Thermal Club
April 13 Long Beach
May 4 Barber
May 10 Indy road course
May 25 Indianapolis 500
June 1 Detroit
June 15 Gateway
June 22 Road America
July 6 Mid-Ohio
July 12 Iowa
July 13 Iowa
July 20 Toronto
July 27 Laguna Seca
August 10 Portland
August 24 Milwaukee
August 31 Nashville
