Three nights a booking team can date
The Indianapolis 8 Hour runs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 9 to 11 October 2026. The venue sells three gate days: Friday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., 27 hours in total.
The working clock runs longer than the sold clock. Paddock and garage hours open at 6:30 a.m. Friday and close at 9:00 p.m., and on Saturday they run 6:30 a.m. to midnight. A crew working the Saturday close needs a third night, and the published clocks put the stay at Thursday 8, Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October.
The 480-minute race runs 12:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Registration and USAC operate from 4910 W 16th Street across six dated windows, and those windows total 56 hours.
The demand the weekend carries
SRO publishes a provisional entry of 29 cars across nine manufacturers, stamped 15 September 2026. The weekend closes the Intercontinental GT Challenge and GT World Challenge America titles, and it sits twelve days after the series' Barber Motorsports Park round on 25 to 27 September.
The series first raced at the speedway in 2020. The 2027 American round moves to a Texas 8 Hour on 7 to 8 May. A revenue team reading the calendar holds two events inside three weeks, and the second carries the title weekends.
What the venue publishes about rooms
No room block, no rate and no booking cut-off for the weekend appear on the venue's pages. Its lodging answer is a telephone number: Visit Indy on 1-800-556-INDY. The 8 Hour section carries no lodging page.
The group page sets the terms a property can quote. New purchases of 20 or more tickets carry up to $40 in savings, a $5 retail discount, a personal group sales representative and group block seating. Reservation costs nothing. Cancellation runs until the final payment date, and full payment falls 30 days before the race, which puts the 2026 deadline at 10 September. Paid tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.
Race-day parking starts at $10 a vehicle, and Lot 2 on Georgetown Road sells three days for $25.
The rate the city publishes
Engine puts the Indianapolis average nightly rate at $128 across 1.2 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. October reads $134, which sits 5 percent above the city average, and the city ranks 39th of 50 markets at 14 percent below the median.
The venue's own price table prices gate admission and no room. Its live column, open since 22 September, reads $85 for three-day general admission, $40 to $45 for Saturday and $20 for Friday.
What a reservation team does with the file
Hold the three nights and the two event dates. Ask each property for its own booking window and cut-off, because no page publishes either for this weekend.
Treat the entry list as the demand signal. A 29-car grid, two title deciders and a six-day registration footprint describe the working party, and the file carries no pickup figure from the venue.