Owner Roger Penske Returns The Glory To The Indianapolis 500

The largest crowd since the 100^th Indianapolis 500 in 2016 will fill the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday for the 107^thrunning of the biggest, most famous, and greatest race in the world.

In 2016, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was sold out. Even the infield tickets were purchased in advance and 350,000 fans jammed the world’s largest sports stadium to honor the 100^th anniversary of one of the greatest sporting events in the world.

Roger Penske participated in that race as the winningest car owner in Indianapolis 500 history. With 18 Indy 500 wins and counting, it has been said that Roger Penske “owned the Indianapolis 500.”

On November 4, 2019, Penske bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Indiana’s Hulman-George Family, ending a 74-year run as the owners of one of the world’s most important sporting venues.

“Without the Indianapolis 500, we wouldn’t have IndyCar,” Penske told me in an exclusive interview. “Without IndyCar, we wouldn’t have the Indianapolis 500. That was Tony Hulman’s mission, and his formula and we are trying to continue that today.”

Earlier that year, then Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud of France delivered Penske’s 18^th Indianapolis 500 win. Later that year at the season finale at Laguna Seca, California, Penske was approached by Indianapolis Motor Speedway Chairman of the Board Tony George.

In an exclusive interview with the 86-year-old Penske at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the industrial giant and businessman who has a personal net worth of $3.5 billion according to Forbes told me how it all came together and his vision for the future.

“Over the years, we’ve been in the Speedway business, and people asked if we would ever be interested in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Penske said. “It wasn’t for sale back then. We went ahead and partnered with Bill France and Jim France and the team and sold our tracks to him. We were out of the track business and running our race team and trying to win races.

“It is ironic that in October of 2019, Tony George came up to me at Laguna Seca and said he would like to talk to me about the future. I really didn’t know what that was.

“We won the race that day and was coming to Indy for a little banquet for Josef Newgarden who had won the championship with us. I sat down with Tony George and Mark Miles (Hulman & Company CEO and now CEO of Penske Entertainment); he told me the trustees had made a decision to sell the Speedway and asked if we would have any interest.

“I said. I didn’t know it was for sale, but I would like to have a chance to talk to you about it.

“Quite honestly, three days later Mark Miles and one of his key executives came to Detroit and started the discussion. I said, ‘Let’s not make this an auction. Let’s try to negotiate a deal.’ Within 30 days, we had a letter of intent, and we closed the deal in January not knowing that COVID was coming.”

In early 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down the world, including major sporting events such as the Indianapolis 500. The race was moved from its traditional Memorial Day Sunday date to August 23 in hopes the virus would be contained and spectators would be allowed to attend.

The virus raged on, and the 2020 Indianapolis 500 was contested without spectators in the massive grandstands.

“Ironically, we did our business plan for our bankers showing 300,000 people here for race day,” Penske said. “Guess what? We didn’t have a crowd for the race that year.

“That was a tough start.”

Penske put his superior business skills to use. He was able to formulate a business plan that kept the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar operating until business could return to normal.

“In any business, it’s not up, up, up,” Penske said. “It’s like in racing, you don’t win the Indianapolis 500 every year. We were capitalized in a way that we could handle it.

“We still invested almost $20 million that year in improvements to the track in a year when we couldn’t sell any tickets.

“It was time to go, not time to stop.”

Penske owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500, and the IndyCar Series. He saw the opportunity to buy one of the greatest sporting events in the world as a long-term investment for the Penske Corporation and his family, while continuing one of the great traditions in sports.

“I can tell you, our experience running the tracks, we owned the inside for a number of years and had tremendous competition always,” Penske told me. “The outside was something I didn’t pay much attention to over the years other than seeing it grow for what they did for the 100^thin 2016.

“It was a real opportunity to take this place to the next level. It had the bones. It had some very, very good people. What we were able to do was add our shoulder, our emphasis, and our capital to take it to the next level.”

This year’s Indianapolis 500 practice, qualifications, and Friday’s annual “Carb Day” has seen some of the biggest crowds in recent years come out to the storied facility.

The massive “Coke Lot” near the northwest side of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is already packed with campers and party goers who turn the annual gathering in Indiana’s capital city into a “Woodstock” or “Coachella” type festival.

The signal bomb will explode over the Indiana skies at 6 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, signaling the gates are open and the 325,000 fans can begin to enter the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for what many believe is a life changing experience.

For the next 6-1/2 hours those spectators will see all of the pageantry and pre-race ceremonies that make the Indianapolis 500 such a memorable event including the playing of Taps, the incredible military flyover and the crescendo of “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

Penske will give the command “Drivers Start Your Engines” and the field will be off for the parade and pace laps.

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing will lead the field to the green flag to start the 107^th Indianapolis 500 at 12:45 p.m. ET.

One of the most dramatic events in racing will follow and one driver will become part of the rich history of this famed event in Victory Lane over three hours later.

For the fans that witness the Indianapolis 500 in person, they will experience a facility that has never been better. Penske has shined the track that opened in 1909 and staged the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 into a glistening diamond.

“I’m so proud to be able to drive around here,” Penske said. “I drove around this morning. They are putting up the stage for the Snake Pit a week from now. It’s amazing. We are trying to make it better.

“I call it the guest experience. We want people to come here with their kids, have a good time. It’s a reasonable priced event when you think of other sporting events around the world from a motorsport’s perspective.

“It’s a business. We want to run it like a business.”

Penske invested another $10 million worth of additional capital improvements to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in time for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

“Together, we spent probably $30 million to $35 million since we took over the track,” Penske said. “This year, it’s around $10 million. We’ve added more video screens for the people sitting on the mounds behind Turn 3. We put a big screen across from the Pagoda. We’ve done a lot of work in Turns 3 and 4 for the road race. We moved a lot of work over there.

“The golf course was improved and the whole PA systems is new. These are things you don’t see, but we have enhanced the whole experience. We are really focusing on the guest experience from the standpoint of our concession stands are really important to us. This year, we have magnetometers for people coming through for a safety standpoint issue. These are things we have invested in this year.

“We have moved the entire TV compound from inside the track to the back of Turn 4, which has given us more room for a midway to showcase some of our sponsors products.

“Building the midway here, paving it and a new area for the TV compound is one of our big projects this year.”

With more fans, business is back at the Indianapolis 500 and helping to elevate the entire NTT IndyCar Series.

“The sport has momentum,” Penske said. “The quality of the Speedway and the environment and what you get when you come here has been tremendous. The man upstairs has been very positive on the weather for us, which is very important when you look at qualifying and practice.

“The numbers are amazing. There were over 20,000 people here for Fast Friday and more than that on Saturday and Sunday for qualifying (IMS officials announced 87,000 fans for the qualifying weekend. At least 330,000 fans will attend Sunday’s race).

“The teams are strong. It’s really a fistfight.

“We are going to show the drivers and the TV audience that we have something here that is pretty exciting.”

Penske understands business and was able to guide it through that dark time in 2020.

“As a business person, we came here understanding the investment,” Penske said. “Certainly, when you think about the iconic nature of this track, having the 107^th running of this event, it’s the history. It’s an iconic event along with what I call a family event. People that want those tickets want to be able to be here.

“We had the opportunity to take it to the next level, but also understood there is risk. The risk that year was COVID, which we didn’t know was right around the corner.

“We managed through that, and I think we tried to use the track as a benefit. We did thousands of tests and we vaccinated over 100,000 using our garages. We had Speedway High School’s graduation where people came in their car with their mom and Dad, stopped at the yard of Bricks, picked up their diploma.

“Brianne Leith was an African American police officer who was shot and killed in Indianapolis. We had the funeral out here.

“It was one of the most amazing events ever to see, police cars all over the two-and-a-half-mile track, the Governor, the Mayor, everyone else here. To have her make her last victory lap around the Speedway was special during COVID.

“We tried to give back. We tried to make the Speedway make a difference in the area, the region. It brings in over $300 million in economic benefit each year.

“We have partnered with the state, the city, and the town of Speedway. As we look forward, we want to continue to build and make it a place where people want to come and want to be able to have that ticket for race day.”

Penske met the challenge and did not flinch. It strengthened his commitment and resolve to make the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar even better.

“The benefit of our commitment is the fact the byproduct of today is much, much better,” Penske said. “I’ve never seen the series stronger. With 27 cars for a regular IndyCar race, I remember when we used to get 17 or 18. We have INDY
INDY
NXT now with 17 or 18 cars. This is all part of the investment we have made.

“I see a long, long opportunity here. The 100 Days to Indy show is something else that has been special. These are things that are going to take time.”

Penske is proud of what the NTT IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500 stand for and is not trying to make the series into something else.

“We are not NASCAR,” Penske said. “We are not Formula One. We are IndyCar and we have to remember what hat we wear.”

Penske brings experience to the position unlike anyone that could ever manage such a massive undertaking. He also brings remarkable energy for a man of 86.

“I get up every morning,” Penske said. “That’s a full-time job staying alive when you are my age.”