MOTOR SPORTS

IndyCar's Roger Penske 1-on-1: Indy 500 ticket sales up, more ovals, double points & more

Nathan Brown
Indianapolis Star

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Roger Penske was dealt an unpredictable hand in taking over an IndyCar series he's been part of for more than 50 years and Indianapolis Motor Speedway just months ahead of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 In spite of it all, the series and its crown jewel track have taken a new shape, vision and direction in recent months. Penske spent $15 million to execute a massive face lift at IMS in a matter of months, even while holding the Indianapolis 500 without fans in August.

Roger Penske sits down with media at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020. A reception with Governor Eric Holcomb and Mayor Joe Hogsett was held after the finalization of Penske purchasing Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Penske Entertainment helped promote several races this year just to make ends meet and cut deals with other race hosts on sanctioning fees. Under his leadership, the series held five doubleheader weekends and a one-day show at Texas Motor Speedway to cut costs for teams.

Through it all, this year's series championship came down to the final laps of Sunday's race on the streets of St. Petersburg, ending in Josef Newgarden's race victory and Scott Dixon's 16-point title-clinching performance just two cars behind him.

In just over four months, the series will kickoff again in St. Pete on March 7, with offseason testing beginning later this week at IMS. It's a season set for 17 races with a new track (Nashville), a new doubleheader (Texas) and a new date for perhaps an annual partnership weekend with NASCAR on the IMS road course (Aug. 14).

More on the St. Pete finale:

How did it all come together, and how might next year unfold? IndyStar motor sports insider Nathan Brown sat down with Penske this weekend in St. Pete to discuss his vision from the driver's seat— what he sees in the rear-view mirror and what he sees fast-approaching down the road.

Nathan Brown: How much did all the planning you put into hosting this year’s Indy 500 during the pandemic help when it comes to trying to hold it in 2021?

Roger Penske: We’re a new team together under new ownership, maybe a new mission in some cases. We’ve run a race together, new driver, new owner, new engineer. This has amalgamated us into a better organization.

One good thing I can say is, look at the people who have committed for tickets for 2021. It’s over 165,000 as we sit here today, which is amazing.

(According to Penske, that number is ahead of this time of year in a typical year and more than Penske Entertainment had expected).

Roger Penske speaks at a news conference at the track on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020.

NB: How do you go about trying to plan for this year’s 500 with so many uncertainties in existence with the pandemic?

RP: We’re not predicting. We’re planning. We’re looking at many different scenarios, and that’s a discussion we’re having for many hours every time we get together weekly, plus when we’re together with our full group.

NB: What allowed you guys to still have such a competitive series championship despite the ever-changing nature of the year?

RP: I wasn’t focused on the 14th race back in March and April. I was focused on how we could get the teams what they needed to run on. We needed to get people to Iowa to give them another chance to run on the oval before they went to Indy. From my standpoint, the racing teams, the drivers, the mechanics, they’re probably the most flexible people that I know. Every day, you don’t know if you’re going to have an accident with your car and you’ll have the get it ready in three or five hours.

To have the two (drivers) together that close, we wondered about the decision not to have double points (in the St. Pete finale), cause when you’re in second, you like to have them, but when you’re in first, you don’t. It’s great. Dixon is a true champion, and Josef has done a great job this year.

NB: Do you anticipate a return of double points in the finale next year?

RP: That was a decision from IndyCar. I wasn’t really involved in that. To be honest with you, I think once they went in this direction, I’ve heard no discussion about that, so I think that’s the mode we’ll be in as we go forward.

NB: What’s the status of some of the goals you stated in your initial press conference back on Nov. 4, bringing IMSA and Formula 1 to IMS and adding a third engine manufacturer?

RP: There’s continued dialogue in all of those, but we’re not ready to announce anything. One of the key things we want to do is look at what the right things are to run (at IMS) going forward, not just in 2021 but the future. We want it to be a special place. Not just anybody can come and rent the track. I think it makes it exciting to have NASCAR running on the road course, and quite honestly, now the only ones running on the oval in 2021 is the Indy 500, and that’s pretty unique.

Roger Penske, owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, listens during a press conference with Mark Miles and Doug Boles at the track on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. With 100 days until the 104th running of the Indianapolis 500, Penske announced the Indianapolis 500 total purse will increase by $2 million to $15 million, the highest in the event's history. The winner will be guaranteed at least $2 million, with additional money for winning the pole and leading laps.

NB: Do you have any more major changes in store for IMS after spending $15 million on various projects earlier this year?

RP: We didn’t have any concerts last year. We have to look, do we set up a venue area at the track conducive for people who want to come out and have fun in that way at the track at certain key times of the year during race weekends? That’s a focus. We’re looking at the golf course now to see what we can do over there.

I spent some time out there – not playing, but driving the cart paths. I think we can take that to the next level, too. It’s an all-encompassing conversation we’re having.

The other series we’re running are interesting. Our relationship with NASCAR has never been better, and we’re looking at the road races with them. But I’m very disappointed with the way Indy Lights has responded here in the last 24 hours after spending a lot of time with (series promoter Dan Andersen) and some of the competitors. To see what has come out in reference to (not running the Freedom 100 in 2021), quite honestly, if I had known what kind of outcome we’d have when they announced the series would happen, I wouldn’t do it.

It’s been completely unfair. They’ve not been able to produce a series. Ten, or seven or eight cars in some cases. We’ve bent over backwards and said, ‘Let’s have 10 (event weekends). We all agreed we weren’t going to run at Indianapolis. No. 1, we have no idea what kind of flexibility we’re going to need at Indianapolis in 2021. And No. 2, we have no idea who the racers are going to be in that race. We can’t have racers that have never run there running at almost 200 mph on that racetrack, if we’re talking about safety.

We talked about those, and everybody agreed. I never got more phone calls or more people saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do it.’ I see the sponsor Cooper Tires is there tweeting this stuff, it’s absolutely bush league, as far as I’m concerned, and I can tell you something, we don’t run our organization that way, and I would think we’d get some credit. There’s not one team that gave me a call or sent me a text or email saying, ‘Hey, thanks for going ahead with it (and helping add Detroit to the schedule).’

What I don’t want to have happen is have 14 cars show up because people want to run at Indy that have never run there because they’ve got a check book. That doesn’t make any sense at all.

More on the Freedom 100:

NB: So was your biggest frustration the lack of communication of their frustrations before the announcement?

RP: My frustration is I’m involved in the communication and the discussion to make the decision. Indy Lights has got to make their decisions coming out of it. There was nothing I saw that said, ‘Thanks IndyCar, thank you for setting up two more races for us.’ Rather than that, all they did was talk about no (IMS oval) and no Freedom 100. They’re going to have to deliver, the guys that came in begging for us to do this are going to have to deliver, including the Andersen group.

NB: Is there still a chance to try and get more IndyCar teams involved like you had talked about before?

RP: I would say this right now. Anything I’ve talked about is off the table right now.

NB: What are your expectations for next year’s Nashville street race?

RP: When I came in and was talking with (Penske Entertainment Corp. president and CEO) Mark Miles, there was a high level of interest, but no one had made a decision. So I said, ‘Let’s get the people from Nashville to come up,’ so we actually sat down with them and went through their plans, page after page.

It was all a collaborative discussion and one well received by everyone, and now we have to execute. I think it’s a big star in the cap of Jay Frye and the team over at IndyCar to have been able to engage with Nashville and come out with success

This is a good time to have good things going on in cities today.

NB: What do you think needs to happen in order to get more oval tracks on future schedules?

RP: With NASCAR, they’re going to more road races because there’s interest, and from our perspective, I certainly want to see more ovals, and I think that’s going to be a goal for us as we move into 2021, 2022, 2023. That’s one of the reasons we wanted to be sure we could maintain our partnership in Texas, so we had a high-speed race prior to coming to the Indy 500.

Drivers in the late 60s and early 70s had to run at Trenton and run at Phoenix before they could even practice to try and get a license to race (in the Indy 500). Today, the racing is fast, and my word is ‘safe, safe, safe.’ Any discussion we have, I want to start with the word ‘safety,’ and we’ll go from there.

NB: After the small changes and developments we saw on the aeroscreen during the season this year, do you anticipate that piece is pretty much finished, as far as development is concerned?

RP: That’s going to be an evolution, with little things you won’t see, or we won’t talk about, to make it safer. We know what our cars are going to be, we know what our engines are going to be and we’re talking with other engine manufacturers, so that’s what we can spend our time on now.

We know how to run two races in a weekend, and we know how to go back-to-back. Now, as we look at scheduling as we go forward, what’s the weekend schedule? NASCAR can go to the track with no practice or qualifying and have some great races and take a lot of time and cost out. What can we do as an industry, to look at some things – less tires, less engine miles, less hotel rooms, and that saves us all money.

NB: With all the talk recently about TV viewership numbers, you guys have had a 4-5% rise with NBC outside the Indy 500 this year. What do you think has allowed for that?

RP: It’s the quality of the field and it’s depth. You look at the Harvest weekend, and I don’t know which day it was but all 24 cars were within nine-tenths of a second.

(Note: the smallest gap came for Race 2, where pole-sitter Will Power was 1.2193 seconds faster than No. 24 Dalton Kellett.)

We’re connected now. We have all our people at Penske Entertainment connecting with the marketing people at the teams trying to help them execute better. We’re focusing on making IMSP the best engine in the car. The goal is to have the most creative, most spectacular talent that is going to represent us. It’s got to be the best, most knowledgeable and capable.

When we look at the numbers, which we’re quite happy with, all I know is the generational fan wants to come here and see (the Indy 500) or we wouldn’t have the ticket pre-sales where they are for next year.

NB: Either inside or outside the pandemic, was there anything that surprised you in your first year of ownership of IMS and the INDYCAR series?

RP: We’ve spent decades in IndyCar, and having been part of CART back in the day, this is pretty much in our own backyard. The surprising thing was how flexible the teams were. They really worked in conjunction with the leadership in IndyCar, Jay (Frye) and the whole team in the standpoint of our COVID-19 protocols so we could just have races. I think they really stepped up.

The fact we had to go to doubleheaders, the teams stepped up and did that. What I tried to commit to is we’d have 14 races. That was very important, plus the Indy 500. That was obviously very important, when you look at your sponsors in the eye and can say, ‘Look, we had races – eight on network TV, which was surprising.’ When you think about all the changes, from the Olympics and everyone coming back into their own modes later in the season, I’m not disappointed at all. The only thing is, what is the new normal for the series under our leadership? This was a good dry run, and quite frankly, the only run, based on that, and I think the outcome was terrific.

NB: Did the pandemic allow you to get to know the people in the series and IMS better than you would have otherwise in a normal year?

RP: I knew most of the people in INDYCAR because we deal with them every day, but when we go to Indianapolis, we’re focused on racing. We didn’t have relationships like we have today with the leadership right now, with the people that are putting the seats up and cleaning the restrooms. We have a very dedicated team of people that have been there a long time and have lots of domain knowledge.

We even had the opportunity this past weekend to do a virtual call with all our sponsors across our racing series with 300 people on it that day. We’ve never had the opportunity to do that before. I think that was a good plus for us.

NB: Because of the pandemic, do you feel like you’re still on the ground floor with any goals or projects because other things had to be prioritized?

RP: This is a business, and the pandemic was nothing any of us could forecast. I can’t predict, so we’ve got to plan. We have a schedule. We know how many cars we’re going to have. We’ve got great sponsors coming into this series. To me today on what we want to be able to accomplish in 2021, I don’t see it as our second year. All we want to do always is try and make it better.

It’s like having played 18 holes. We’ll probably be better the next time we play.

Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.