I’ve been fan of IndyCar racing since I used to be 9 years outdated. Viewing the 1964 Indy 500 reside on a closed circuit black and white TV broadcast in a theater with a whole bunch of die-hard racing followers delivered an irresistible emotional gravity that hooked me then and has held me ever since. In the course of the 22,136 days since then, I’ve watched this sport repeatedly soar to triumphant highs after which undergo by some excruciatingly self-inflicted damaging lows.
Racing grew to become my lifelong ardour, my lifestyle and my occupation. I started working full-time in racing media in the course of the first week of January in 1975. Since then, I’ve been lucky to know most people who’ve managed — or generally mismanaged — the game of IndyCar racing. And if there’s one key lesson that I’ve discovered it’s this: holding IndyCar racing secure, wholesome, rising and thriving is something however simple.
This was significantly evident in the course of the previous 30 years of the game, which have been predominantly turbulent and persistently disorienting and disheartening to many lifelong Indy 500 and IndyCar racing followers like me, who grew up when the Indy 500 and IndyCar racing was unquestionably America’s premier type of motorsport. The laborious reality is that division, id confusion, unfavorable off-track storylines, and progressive diminishment of the technical variety within the automobiles and engines have muted the attract of a sport that when set the tempo for viewers scale and industrial power. Many people older IndyCar followers ultimately discovered different issues to care about whereas a few of us targeted as a substitute on conveying displeasure with the game’s route.
One other laborious actuality is that there merely weren’t sufficient new followers being uncovered to IndyCar racing, and subsequently partaking in it to create recent, optimistic cultural power emanating from the game. This has sadly continued to be the case in the course of the first 5 years of this decade, regardless of Roger Penske’s welcome acquisition of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NTT IndyCar Collection in 2019, that was sadly timed on the eve of the worldwide COVID 19 pandemic. Since then, IndyCar’s progress has been regular however sluggish, which isn’t the Penske method. So, the complaining about IndyCar’s management group in RACER.com’s remark sections, in RACER’s social media channels and within the RACER Mailbag has change into a digital bloodsport that metaphorically eclipses the whine of a twin-turbo 2.2-liter V6 at 12,000 rpm.
However I consider that’s about to vary as a result of 2025 feels to me like a real turning level 12 months for the NTT IndyCar Collection. The brand new FOX all-network broadcast deal isn’t only a TV contract; it’s an enormous and probably game-changing alternative to reconnect IndyCar racing with mainstream America. It’s also an encouraging exterior validation of the true potential of the Indy 500 and NTT IndyCar Collection to create emotional that means that may appeal to audiences.
Securing the way forward for Lengthy Seaside as an IndyCar venue is one key to offering a secure platform for long-term progress. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Photographs
Equally vital are Penske Leisure’s latest acquisition of the Lengthy Seaside Grand Prix Affiliation and the announcement of the upcoming Arlington Grand Prix in 2026. These strikes aren’t nearly preserving or including races to the NTT IndyCar Collection schedule — they’re about making certain stability and signaling a dedication to constructing the sequence by trendy lifestyle-oriented occasion weekends that may speed up progress and construct cultural relevance that may appeal to youthful followers to the sequence. These occasions additionally function fan knowledge seize alternatives exterior of Indiana and Detroit that may straight join Penske Leisure to new followers, in addition to present perception into what they like and don’t like concerning the IndyCar fan expertise, that may form the way forward for the NTT IndyCar Collection.
The Acura Grand Prix of Lengthy Seaside, the sequence’ second-most in style occasion, will rejoice its fiftieth anniversary this 12 months. I’ve been lucky to have attended each Lengthy Seaside GP race weekend because the inaugural SCCA Components 5000 occasion in 1975. I used to be there when the CART PPG IndyCar Collection changed Components 1 because the headline present in 1984, and it quickly grew to become a defining ingredient within the sport’s uniquely various schedule, first for CART, then ChampCar and now IndyCar. This additionally ensured IndyCar’s continuous presence within the USA’s second largest Designated Market Space (DMA). The Arlington Grand Prix represents transformational progress potential within the fourth-largest U.S. DMA, by an thrilling partnership between Penske Leisure and Jerry Jones’ Dallas Cowboys group. These strikes present that IndyCar isn’t simply reacting to challenges — it’s actively constructing the muse for a brighter future.
Penske Leisure CEO Mark Miles and IndyCar President Jay Frye deserve credit score for the nice issues that are actually occurring for IndyCar. Steering a ship this huge, with so many vocal stakeholders and a lot historical past, takes a gentle hand and a thick pores and skin. Regardless of some missteps — such because the delayed, however in the end profitable introduction of the hybrid bundle in mid-2024, and the sluggish reveal of a transparent imaginative and prescient for the sequence’ subsequent engine and chassis method in 2027 — their management has stored the sequence shifting ahead.
Finally it’s Roger Penske who now owns this sport that defines his private id and the aggressive spirit of his $39 billion enterprise empire. These crucial of Penske can’t deny that the Indy 500 and the NTT IndyCar Collection are clearly his lifelong ardour. So, as these latest developments illustrate, Roger all the time performs to win. Historical past reveals us that he’s normally a number of laps forward of the competitors in his strategic pondering, We additionally ought to recognize his apparent urgency to “get it executed,” on condition that he’ll rejoice his 88th birthday on Feb. 20, so I like his possibilities on this 115-year race to what’s subsequent,
The intention of Penske Leisure is evident to many who make the selections to put money into the game: They know Roger Penske’s aim for IndyCar is to make it higher by each measure, by doing what it takes to reposition, redefine and re-energize the game at each touchpoint. These companions seemingly recognize the explanation why this has been a difficult interval for IndyCar racing, however additionally they perceive that that is the game’s golden alternative to reset, and that the dedication is there to succeed.
