An IndyCar Colombia race is a long way from being signed off, the series has insisted, after the mayor of Barranquilla told an audience in the city that a street event had already been secured for April 2028.
Alejandro Char made the announcement at the launch of the Magdalena River Crossing project, as first reported by Colombian outlet Revista Semana, placing the prospective race on the Gran Malécon riverfront. “IndyCar is coming to race here,” Char said.
“It will be racing outside of North America for the first time, and in April 2028, IndyCar will race here, right by the river.”
How close is an IndyCar Colombia race?
Not close at all, on the sanctioning body’s own account.
In a statement given to Motorsport.com, IndyCar said it is “frequently approached by parties interested in discussing IndyCar racing internationally”, had met Barranquilla representatives in Indianapolis but had “not yet visited the city”, and remained “in the earliest stages of due diligence with this and other prospective opportunities”.
It added: “We are a long way from an agreement and any assumption otherwise is premature.”
Barranquilla’s riverfront pitch
Char framed the event as a milestone for a waterfront that has been converted from industrial warehousing into a tourism and sporting showpiece.
The mayor’s “first time” billing overstates the history, however: the IndyCar Series has previously run outside North America, most recently at São Paulo in 2013, and before that in Japan and Australia.
Any expansion talk sits well behind the immediate business of the 2026 season, which reaches rounds 16 and 17 at the Milwaukee Mile this weekend with Alex Palou closing on a fifth title, before the Laguna Seca finale on 4-6 September.
