Having watched as NASCAR made a big splash in Chicago with its first street race and Formula 1 continued to thrive in the U.S. with huge new events in Miami and Las Vegas, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles says the NTT IndyCar Series is looking to make a similar impact with a new and undisclosed venue as early as 2025.
“The answer to that question is yes,” Miles told RACER. “But I want to go back and reiterate the move (in 2023) from Belle Isle to downtown [Detroit] around the Ren Center was that sort of major change and it definitely had a much bigger impact in Detroit than we had before. Taking over the city, lighting up the skyline, I thought it was a very important, very impactful improvement.
“Gracefully moving Nashville next year downtown and making it the finale, maybe that’s in between. And everybody’s anticipating (the return to) Milwaukee; we’re stoked about being back there. Saying that, we’re working on at least one that I think people would see as high impact, a very different opportunity for 2025 in the United States that it’s too early to talk about, but we’re certainly looking for big events and big partners in the process.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1408]
IndyCar has one non-points event on its 2024 calendar in March at California’s Thermal Club, and the fate of a second in Argentina, intended to run after the season ends in September at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo road course, is nearing a decision.
“I don’t know if we’re in the red zone or just inside the 50-yard line,” Miles said. “But I think it’s quite feasible, even for the offseason — the post-championship part of the 2024 calendar. The [Argentinian] presidential election happened; by all indications, that has not presented any new challenges to us.
“We have a promoter who is putting together the components to organize a great event. We’ve got a fantastic facility that’s available to us. So I think it could be an example of the kind of thing that we could do. We’ve just got to get all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed, and hopefully, it can happen and it could be formalized and made public in probably the early part of the first quarter of next year.”
While some team owners have expressed limited interest in making the trek to Argentina, others have been supportive of the concept. Miles says the event, if it moves forward, presents the possibility for its teams to earn a profit through subsidized travel costs and increased payments to those who’ve earned the 22 Leaders Circle contracts which provide almost $1 million in guaranteed prize money.
“[The] characterization of the reactions in the paddock are pretty good,” he said. “There’s a couple who say, ‘Well, the money doesn’t really move the needle for us.’ For most, they think that it’s quite helpful. It could be, in total, a meaningful increase in the Leaders Circle. For example, if we put $200,000 into the Leaders Circle per car, and if we only took 22 cars, for the Leaders Circle teams, it’s $4.4 million, which is a healthy increase in the total compensation.
“And I’m not saying that the money [will] be limited to 22. But I think it’s a meaningful amount of money, especially when you consider we wouldn’t do it if the organizer didn’t also pay for all the costs to get the cars, the freight, the teams, the people [there], the room and board. I’m not saying they’d have zero costs, because crashes and things happen, but the logistical and travel costs, all of that would be paid. So whatever is added to that Leaders Circle for an event like this, in our minds, it would be additive, and really quite helpful.”