Penske Entertainment is pleased with the attendance figures for last weekend’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee doubleheader which saw a celebratory return to the beloved Milwaukee Mile venue, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward win on Saturday and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin drive into victory lane on Sunday.
“Both days total, 42,000 for the weekend,” Penske Corporation president Bud Denker told RACER.
With ticket pre-sales in the range of 15,000 per day leading into the series’ return to Milwaukee after a nine-year absence, the uptick to an average of 21,000 fans on both days — which includes those in the grandstands, common areas behind them where food and entertainment was offered, and the infield — is an encouraging number for the series to build upon for its return in August of 2025.
“My team, Michael Montri and the team from Detroit worked so well with Shari Black and the organization from the State Fair Park Board, and they just have the same kind of culture,” Denker said. “You just … get stuff done, customer-focused, and don’t ask somebody else to do it for you. That was number one.
“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Jay Frye and the IndyCar guys [for] great racing, and then Firestone to give us the setup we needed. Now [we’ve had] two ovals in a row, at St. Louis and then also at Milwaukee, with so much passing.”
The longtime Penske executive, who has been in charge of the Detroit Grand Prix for decades, and more recently worked on the Iowa Speedway doubleheader, loved what he saw on the ground at Milwaukee.
“My expectations were so widely exceeded because I was cautious,” Denker said. “We sold out the merchandise tent on Saturday because we just weren’t sure many people were going to show up. That’s one measure. The vendors in the Blue Moon restaurant sold out of food for the entire weekend Saturday night [and] had to go buy new supplies for Sunday.
“Other expectations were exceeded on so many fronts. The crowd, gosh, the crowd, who were there for one thing — Indy car racing. It wasn’t some $5 million music act to get them there. They were there to see IndyCar racing. The people [were] wearing IndyCar retro stuff, new IndyCar stuff. IndyCar. It wasn’t NASCAR attire. It was Rick Mears attire, Gordon Johncock shirts, right? I was just so pleased to see that authentic people were at a great event. Gosh, our selling for next year got a hell of a lot easier because of it.”
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Denker also saw plenty of items to improve for the single-day event scheduled for August 24, 2025.
A larger turnout than anticipated for Friday’s practice session led to a long line that extended far outside of the track; more staff were needed to scan tickets and place wristbands on the attendees, and Denker was one of the staffers to hit the line and help with the process. Friday exposed the need for wider ingress and egress, so one of the two underground lanes to drive into the infield was closed to cars and became dedicated to fans, but as they found, leaks in the aging tunnel made for a damp experience.
With the lone access point to go in and out of the infield with the tunnel near Turn 4, the idea of opening a track crossing zone between sessions was raised as a worthwhile convenience to consider for older fans or those with children who might struggle to make the long walk in and out of the tunnel each time.
In the stands, confusion of general admission seating areas received sharp criticism, especially from those who were ordered by state police to vacate their seats. A few loyal fans who made the trip from Indianapolis said the importing of yellow shirt volunteers from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to help direct and seat fans as they do for Penske Entertainment at IMS would be a welcome adjustment.
“We saw a lot of little process things to make improvements with,” Denker said. “We didn’t have enough GA seats because so many people came in from the free event, right outside the race, and all those folks came in and bought GA tickets so we had to take one of those [large section-covering banners] down. You learn, right? You learn from that, and we did. We needed more scanners and more people to get fans into the track, so we did that.
“The tunnel was an adjustment, but we’ve got some plumbing to fix there; it was built in 1909. We need to work on ways to better get fans in and out of the track. Michael Montri and the team, they’re so good at reviewing what worked, what didn’t work, and creating improvements for next time, and that’s what we will do.”