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Racing Traditions and the Magic of the Indy 500 with Doug Boles · Fast Cars Fast Girls

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All right. Welcome to Fast Fires, Fast Girls. I'm Abby Meyer,
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along with my co-host, Mike Knapp.
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And this week, a little late for President's Day, but you know what?
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Always late, worth the wait, is what I say about myself.
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Doug is never late, but he is always worth the wait.
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Well, I think my schedule got in the way of President's Day,
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so that's on me, because we have been doing this as a President's thing.
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We have. Well, you know what? Now, honestly, it was yours and my schedule. Okay, good.
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I don't feel as bad. Yeah, no, don't feel bad at all because I only had maybe
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three days in February, and I said to Lisa right off the bat,
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I don't think it's going to happen before President's Day, and that's fine.
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That's good. But anyhow, you heard your voice now, President Doug Bowles. Thank you.
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My travel schedule in January, February, and March is worse than the rest of the year.
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It's kind of crazy. But by the time March ended, I figured out I'd been out
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of the – I'd spent the night somewhere other than home on 32 of those first 90 nights.
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So for me, that's more travel than the rest. Because by the time we open up
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here, I'm pretty much here.
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Or if I go to an IndyCar race, I'm in and out, right? So maybe it's two nights
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instead of a long period of time.
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So it's kind of weird. February this year was really busy. Well,
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and then you were putting on a once-in-a-lifetime natural phenomenon here.
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First time on the schedule, and who knows if it'll ever be back on the schedule,
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at least during your tenure.
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So that probably speeded up the spring a little bit as well.
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It did a little bit. It also allowed us, so you're talking about the eclipse,
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what it allowed us to do is really get prepared in a lot of ways operationally,
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facility-wise, a lot earlier than we normally have.
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Gavin, it's funny just walking around the building now talking to everybody
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and there's not the panic that sometimes you feel when you're 38 days away from
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the Indy 500. A lot of it's because.
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We did a lot of our de-winterization early, you know, getting ready for folks
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to come in here. A lot of the grass prep to get the greenness going around the
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facility we started early.
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So that's been pretty good. But you're right.
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It's 129 years from now, I think, that the next total solar eclipse comes across
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the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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So that would be the 237th running of the Indy 500.
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So we're going to leave really good notes, and we'll put them away in some time
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capsule or whatever it is. And maybe whoever's here at the Speedway 129 years
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from now can pull out the notes and go, yeah, traffic was a problem.
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They had some concession lines. They just go through the challenging things.
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Maybe they can outdo us. And then go, hey, this was really cool.
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They partnered with Purdue and NASA and, you know, all the good and bad.
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And they can make it better. They should do that.
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Well, my wife and I were here. And it was a phenomenal experience and a great
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day. You guys outdid yourself with that.
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It was really neat to be – it would have been fun to see it in your backyard.
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Yard, but it was really neat to see it with just so many different people.
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So many of whom have never been to the Speedway before.
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And they came with just sort of this, you know, different approach.
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You know, they're not carrying a lot of their coolers. They didn't know exactly
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where they were going to sit. And you could just watch people look around and
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go, oh my gosh, this place is really big. What am I doing?
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And then maybe my favorite moment of the day, I didn't watch from on the front
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stretch or the yard or turn one, but we let people out on the track.
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And so I was kind of behind the normal IndyCar garages. And when the,
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when the sun completely disappeared, the whole place cheered.
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And then it got super quiet and we played that sort of like Disney-esque standing
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in line for Space Mountain music and how much fun it was.
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And then when the sun came back out, everybody cheered again.
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It was just really neat to be part of that.
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Well, I've been coming here for, well, since 1979 and seeing people with blankets
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spread out on the main straightaway and all that. So I just thought that this is like.
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The Speedway is for is being just a part of the community. And I think that
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over the last however long, I think that's what it's become is instead of,
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which was great at the time, but instead of a standalone place where,
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you know, it's sacred once a year, this is what we do.
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Now it's a real part of the whole community and all the events that you guys
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do is what makes it even more of a special place, I think.
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And I think one of the things, and Roger believes this as well,
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it's a community asset and at some level you know
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we have to try and use it for things like that so obviously during covid
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we had the speedway high school got to drive around and walk
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across the yard bricks you know to graduate an impd
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police officer we held a funeral for her out here because you couldn't have
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a funeral somewhere else and we continue with like speedway high school to let
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their seniors come out and do their senior class photo and just things like
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that it just is important for us to to engage in the community i'm sad i'm as
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old as i am it's frightening i I sat on that. Yeah.
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But you know what? Time goes fast. Well, I got to get in under Community Day
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when you could still drive your car around the track.
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So that's a question we get all the time is when are you going to do that again?
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And the festival really was who was in charge of that.
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And the festival used it as a way to raise money for the festival.
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And then it got just to be a bigger challenge for them. And then now Community
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Day, we sort of take drivers out in and about the community.
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Yeah, into the community. We make it a truer Community Day.
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But yeah, no, I was actually going to say, so you know, my apartment's not far from here.
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We could actually hear the cheers. And I knew it immediately because I know
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how the sounds from the track sound, you know, from my backyard.
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Because I didn't make it over that day. And so I was with the dog watching.
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And as soon as it went dark, I heard this huge, whoo!
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And I started, I was like, yeah, that's the Speedway. Yeah. Yes, it is.
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It was a really, really neat moment to see that and hear that and be part of it.
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Yeah. Well, and you know, it's something that seems so simple,
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you know, like, okay, the moon's going to block the sun.
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It's going to be dark for a couple minutes, like, what's the deal?
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Like, it gets dark every night.
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But, you know, it's like if you had snow in July, like, okay,
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yeah, we've seen the sun get dark before, but like, not like this.
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And just to have, you know, and also to have so many people looking at the same
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thing at the same time. And just that thought of how many people across,
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you know, the state of Indiana, across the United States were all doing the
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exact same thing, thinking to themselves, how cool is this?
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That was kind of one of the things that we were really surprised at is how much
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attention people just from everywhere wanted to come to be part of this one particular thing.
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And we had so much media coverage and a number of national broadcast teams that came here for that day.
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So NBC Nightly News and CBS Nightly News both had their anchors here at the
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Speedway doing the nightly news.
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And we were – after the eclipse was over and we all were sitting around talking
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at one point, we said, when's the last time – we couldn't think of the last
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time that more than – nightly anchors go all over CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox on their own.
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But when's the last time you can think of an event where the nightly news took
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their main anchors and more than one of them was at the same location for the
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same time for something that was good news?
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Normally, they show up when a disaster has happened or a school shooting or
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some terrible thing. Right.
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And then to have both of them standing here basically right next to each other
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doing the nightly news for a really cool reason that we all came together to
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celebrate something, not came together to mourn something. It was pretty cool.
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It was pretty cool. And you know it's a big deal when Jim Cantore shows up.
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So I had so much fun with him. He was such a great guy. Look at the back. He was such a great guy.
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Oh, my God. I don't know if you saw. He ended his on-air part and took a drink
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of milk and then poured it on him. And I know that's a tough subject, right?
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I mean, we all believe in the drinking the milk. And then we split our ways
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on whether you should dump it on yourself or not.
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And that's a fun argument to watch on social. But he poured it on himself.
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I'm on the camp of when you win the race, you kind of get to do whatever you
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want. So I am too, but we can talk about that in a minute, but I'm,
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I'm kind of in that camp too.
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But, but, but Jim Cantore was so excited. He did that. And I was like,
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and I gave him a high five and said, I said, you have a change of clothes, right?
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And he said, no, I said, man, you're in trouble.
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So I went over to the gift store and we bought him a long sleeve.
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This is May Hunter's shirt. And then, uh, so he's, he's takes his shirt off
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and pit lane puts that shirt on. He goes, here, you can have this.
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And he threw me his, his weather channel shirt.
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And I threw it in my bag bag, and it took me like three days before I opened my bag up.
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I opened my bag up at home, and it smelled really bad, and the shirt is completely
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stiff from dried milk all over it.
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But back to the argument, it's interesting how people are, that's not respectful.
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The milk's meant to be, you know, meant to drink it. Don't pour it on yourself.
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And I completely get that. I mean, there is something about that.
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But what I love about race car drivers, and especially, Especially,
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I mean, Sato really, well, Weldon did a little bit, I mean, really celebrated
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by going out and laying down the bricks.
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But then Sato won by being crazy. Will Power was crazy.
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I mean, everybody's kind of had their own thing and just celebrate with just
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this relief that they've won the Indy 500 and excitement that they've won it.
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It's like the greatest moment of their life. And it's just almost automatic.
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They just, their arms are flailing and they pour it on themselves.
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I feel like it's an instinctual, I don't know that they necessarily think to
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themselves what they would do. Or maybe they do.
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But in that moment, I think that it's just pure instinct, whether they drink
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and pass or drink and dump.
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And I think that's exactly what happens. And they just celebrate.
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And that's the best part. I love that pure emotion. Right. Just that raw.
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I mean, and that's what you love about it is that you feel like you're there
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with them. A hundred percent.
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Oh, and that's and for me, it's you know, I'm fine with it.
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That's how you want to celebrate because you just want the greatest face in
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the world and you celebrate the way you want to.
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If you just want to have a drink, it's not a orange juice. Well,
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we know what happens when that happens.
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And then the day of social media, that would not be pretty. It would be a pretty
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ugly day. Can you imagine?
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No, Emerson's lucky there was not social media. And I think he'd tell you today
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he wishes he hadn't done that. I mean, honestly...
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And I might catch some flag for this, I personally don't care that he drank orange juice.
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Like, I get it. Some people don't like milk. Like, I don't think it was as big
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of a deal as Penny made it out to be, but it certainly is funny to make jokes about.
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Yeah, he's coming back in May, so maybe somebody will grab him and I can ask
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him about it. Right, we should. We should ask him about it.
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I'd love to talk to him just because back then he was one of my, he was a minor fan.
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Oh, I mean, how could you not be a huge fan? And realistically,
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he could have won their stories five times.
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We're sure. He had, you know, a couple of times, well, I mean,
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crashing in front of Little Al with a lap lead, lost a gearbox one time when he was near the lead.
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I think he had another issue another time. I mean, you know,
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you look at that small period of time he was here and what he did and also what he could have done.
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You know, he's just one of the all-time greats ever here. Well,
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and you think about the big deal we made about Alonso coming.
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I mean, Emerson Fittipaldi is a world champion. He came and not just came to
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race here. He decided to become an IndyCar driver, right? It was Nigel Mansell-like.
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I mean, you really think about what a big – if social media had been around
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back in that day, the whole internet would have broken that Emerson Fittipaldi
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was going to come run in the Indy 500 and then ultimately the IndyCar series.
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And driving a pink car. I know.
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A lot of people don't realize that, right? He didn't come over and get with
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Ganassi or Penske right away.
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He came over and ran in a back marker and somehow decided he liked it and stayed around. I love that.
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I'll tell you what. But speaking of the Fetopaldis, I am so excited about Pietro this year.
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It's fun to have him back. I feel like, you know, he's a couple years older,
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a little more mature, which is always nice on IndyCar drivers just because,
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you know. It's true. Yep.
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A little more mature. He always looks good on our drivers. And he just really
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seems to have a good attitude and excitement about this season.
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I'm excited to see what he does. I think across the board, the series has a
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lot of great personalities like that.
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You just feel really good about the drivers we have and who they are and what they're about.
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And the stories behind them are pretty diverse.
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So you've got some pretty good reasons to like different people and root against somebody else.
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And, I mean, the series is doing a great job. And that's another perfect example.
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Somebody that was here and now has come back and has got another opportunity.
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Yeah. Yeah, absolutely awesome. But, you know, you look at maturity,
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it's really crazy. And, I mean, I don't want to ever let people know what I
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was doing when I was 19, 20, 21 years old.
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But it's just— Sometimes I don't want them to know what I'm doing at 57. Yeah, yeah, me too.
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Me too. But it's amazing to be always—I think there was a little stretch where
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we may be worried about who was going to be next after this group of,
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you know, guys that are in their 30s and 40s.
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And now we know that we've got and and
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but just how good they are at such young
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ages and and now especially when you take the guys like
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pato or like colton heard who were 19 and 20 and now they're you know 0.3 24
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25 and they're even better just what do you think about that by heading into
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may and and just the the sheer amount of talent that they were beginning to
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see up and down the field well you hear the drivers talk about all time that
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the competitiveness of the series it is is at an an all-time high.
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And I think that's not just hyperbole.
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I think that's really true that that's, that is in fact the case.
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And we do have a lot, a lot of great young drivers. Pato Award is our number one merch seller.
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He is by, if you use that as the metric, he's the most popular driver we have.
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And it's not just because of the on-track, it's because of the personality off-track.
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So he sort of got that whole package, which is really, is really fun to see.
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So as you see those drivers sort of growing into those spaces,
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I think you, you let, you worry less and less about the day that
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Scott Dixon isn't here, or picked some of those drivers that are,
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Elio's not just running one race a year, TK's not running with us,
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some of those folks that you could just count on for the last two decades.
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I feel better, and like I said, especially with somebody like Apato,
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who's a top seller, and you look around.
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Plus, you put him with the McLaren brand, which that McLaren brand has a lot
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of interest from people beyond the racing side.
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I mean, it's a pretty cool combination in that one for sure.
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It really is. Well, and Apato is also a driver that, even at this age,
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I can see him later on, once he's no longer driving, still being an excellent
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ambassador to the sport, like Mario is right now.
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You know he absolutely has that personality and that
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draw and just that ability to connect with people yes you know
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and not everybody has that ability to when they're
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talking to you make you feel like you're the only person in the room and he's
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he's one of those guys that like he just you can hone right in and you you are
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the most important person in pato's world right then we just did a fan fest
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thing at the bottle works here downtown last week with pato and he's amazing
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i I mean, it's great with the fans.
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He's got that high energy, almost Elio-like, right? It's not like I have to
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be here and sign your autograph.
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It's like I'm here and I'm going to give you everything I've got.
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I get to sign these autographs for you guys.
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And that's pretty cool to see that. And, you know, like Alex Pillow,
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the fact that Alex Pillow decided to stay here and not go somewhere else.
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He was another great driver, unbelievably talented.
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Some people might argue he's the most talented open-wheel driver on the face
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of the planet at the moment. And, you know, there's just some pretty neat things
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on that side of the IndyCar series that are on their way up versus guys who
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are getting ready to leave.
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Well, we've got so many ovals. Sorry, I'll let you go right back.
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I was just going to say we've got so many ovals on the schedule this year, too.
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I really, I mean, I love my ovals. And I attend them, as should everybody. Yes.
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Quit saying you want ovals and they're not going to damn ovals.
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But I love that we've got more ovals because I think that it really is going to challenge,
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you know, like Palou has been very dominant on other types of courses,
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but has not necessarily been dominant on ovals.
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You know, Newgarden, we know he's going to be a force to be reckoned with on
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every oval. Doesn't matter, big, small.
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I think Alex just needs to get
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a couple of those wins and I think he'll be fine. I mean, he's good here.
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Oh, he is. I mean, he's had a couple of things that have kept him from being
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the winner's circle here. So, I mean, he obviously knows how to be really,
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really fast around this place.
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And I just think it's maybe kind of like Pato is right now.
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He's gotten so many seconds that the series ought to look out the minute Pato wins a race again.
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It may be a string of races he wins. And I think Alex is probably the same way on an oval.
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But Joseph definitely is the oval king at the moment. He certainly is.
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Well, and if you're talking being fast around here, Alex, turned the first 235
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mile on our lap in quite some time. That's true.
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Lighter cars, a little bit different tech. There's some discussion going on.
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What do you think is a track record, a possibility?
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It's funny. Absolutely, I think we'll be faster. A lot of it's going to depend
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on weather, right? So much of it's weather dependent. How's the wind? How's the temperature?
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So I think we have to see where that lands. I definitely think we'll be faster.
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And I was in the camp when the delay for the hybrid was coming.
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I actually called Roger and said, hey, can we leave the lighter components on the car?
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Because that'll be awesome in May. And one of the great things about May is
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speed. And we could have a chance of breaking a track record.
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And then Roger was all in on that. And so fortunately, we're here,
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you know, 30 pounds lighter or so for May.
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But then talking with drivers, I think they all believe it's definitely going
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to be faster. But I think they're concerned about actually that it's 237 miles
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an hour single lap, now obviously 236 for the four.
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It's going to be hard. I think I looked at it the other day.
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It's between three and four-tenths of a second per lap. So when you think about
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it, it doesn't seem like a lot.
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But when you're in those 38-second laps, you know, three-tenths of a second is a lot.
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Well, and when you're going into, you know, turn one and three at 242 as opposed
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to you probably have to go in at 246, 247 probably too. Right. even all of that out.
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So it's going to be interesting.
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And I think the 235 thing, obviously, you're going to see a lot more of that.
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But it would be really cool. Ideally for me, I would love for Ari's 237 lap
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to remain the single lap track record just to pay tribute to that age until we're really there.
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And then the four lap track record fall and have somebody have a new four lap
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track record. It would be pretty fun.
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So if it were to happen, will you have some sort of homage to Tom Carnegie?
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So we've talked internally about do you have Dave Klaber say it or do you just
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have it queued up and you just push the button? and people know as soon as they
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hear that voice and it's, you know, it's, so we'll, we'll see what we do. I mean, I love Dave.
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Don't get me wrong. I do love Dave.
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But I'll say this. I don't think Tom Carnegie would have mystified,
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would have missed announcing the qualifications.
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You know, and, and I love you, Dave.
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Well, and the other thing about Dave is, I mean, Dave learned under Tom, right?
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So, I mean, Dave has an awful lot of respect for Tom. So I don't know.
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We'll see what we do. Yeah. But we've talked about it. Could be fun.
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We'll see how fast they end up going. Yeah. Well, and yeah, I mean,
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I can't wait to see the photo ops with Ari just because, I mean,
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he's such a cool guy. He is.
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And yeah, I mean, he's ready to see somebody break one of those records.
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I'm sure he'd like to keep one. Yeah. Not both. Yeah, just one.
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It'd be nice if he could have one. Yeah, if he could keep the single,
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I'm with you. Keep the single.
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But at the end of the day, you know, if they both fall, he's still a two-time
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Indy 500 winner. Nobody's taking that away.
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Yeah. Some of the greatest hair of all time. And another guy we talk about back
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in that era was Emerson, another guy who just knew how to get around here.
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And one of my favorite, I forget what year it was, Nari was qualifying,
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and I forget who was doing the track announcing at the time, but he...
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Described him going through turn three and he was like you know a classic indianapolis
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motor speedway lot and it's just like that
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i yeah i just kind of got that shivers when i
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thought about you know just hearing that and somebody who had seen racing for
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so long right and and then to you know say that about ari because you know he
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didn't win a lot of races other places but right he got it down here yeah he
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was definitely good here at some level you know it's all that matters yeah yeah I mean,
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you would live forever if you went here.
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Right. All that matters is he wasn't the first 500 I went to.
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That's cool. He is immortalized in my mind, at least.
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Yeah. And Rick Mears won the first one I ever went to. And AJ won my first one.
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So we all got some pretty iconic folks that picked up the first race.
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Speaking of AJ, and I'm not going to drop any names or anything else. I don't break any rules.
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But I came across somebody in my other job in the last week that happens to
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have the Pace car from 1967 in their garage. Good deal.
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Yeah. And yeah, anyhow, I was like, no kidding. And so they started telling
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me about all the different cars they had. And they had all kinds of cool cars.
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They had a really cool looking Corvair.
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Dangerous in any speed, the Corvair. Yes, it is. But yeah, the 1967 Pace car.
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That's awesome. Yeah, because I came in and I go by AJ in my professional, in my other job.
20:32
And so he said, oh, AJ, you know, I've got the Pace car from,
20:36
you know, and he goes, I bet you don't even. And I said, oh, don't even.
20:39
I said, I'm the wrong person to think that I don't know who you're talking about. Yeah.
20:44
That's great. I said, I've got
20:45
the program at home. Yeah, that would be a pretty priceless item there.
20:50
Rutherford just sold his event car from his win in 80.
20:56
Wow. That was a sweet car. It was a really great car.
20:59
Yeah. And it went for $90,000 or something. I believe it. Before the buyer's
21:03
premium, so you're really out $100,000 for that car.
21:07
Yeah. And he has the absolute nicest signature in handwriting. It's beautiful.
21:13
I mean, it's a work of art. It is. Well, he's an artist, you know,
21:16
so that's part of why that is.
21:17
He did our program cover a couple years ago. He's got some unbelievable artwork.
21:22
And he still does some of it. I got a chance to go down there.
21:25
Carter and I went down there, I don't know, five or six weeks ago to do a little
21:29
thing with him because we did the bronze and silver badge in honor of his 50th
21:32
anniversary of his first win.
21:34
Another beautiful car, by the way. Yeah, that McLaren was such a great car.
21:38
And then I got a chance to just go in and see his place. But he's got artwork
21:42
and things that he's done around his house, but he's really talented.
21:45
So that signature fits perfectly for the artist that he is. That makes sense.
21:49
I did not realize. I didn't know what an artist he was. I'd forgotten about
21:52
the program and everything.
21:54
Just hadn't clicked in my head. Yeah, he's a really great artist.
21:56
But yeah, it's a beautiful signature. Oh, beautiful signature.
21:59
I mean, it doesn't matter what he's signing. It could be a hat,
22:03
the bill of it, the brand, turning.
22:05
It's still just perfect. And you have people that do an autograph like this,
22:08
and they're done. Yeah, it's real quick.
22:09
And he just takes his time. And I've got a frame in the little hallway that
22:13
leads into my office that Sports
22:15
Illustrated with him on it after one of the 500 that he signed to me.
22:18
And it's just super cool. Oh, that's awesome. It's that beautiful signature.
22:21
Yeah. I had a book. It was just like a coffee table book from 91 for the 75th anniversary.
22:27
And for the 100th, I brought it to the autograph session and got his signature on the front of it.
22:32
And yeah, it's a beautiful signature. It really is. All right.
22:38
Obviously, outside of May, IndyCar race that you're most excited about that
22:41
you think might— And I'll say this because I know it's hard to choose because
22:45
you know all the other track guys.
22:47
And so I'll say, which race do you think might give us the best chance for a surprise winner?
22:52
Well, anymore, who knows? It's so competitive. You just don't know.
22:56
Well, especially with Nashville being the finale.
22:58
Yeah, that's going to be an interesting one. And although you would put all
23:01
your money on Joseph probably right now to see what happens the rest of the
23:04
year. I'm excited to go back to Milwaukee.
23:06
I don't know what kind of racing it's going to produce. I hope it's good.
23:09
My first IndyCar race outside of the Speedway was in Milwaukee when I went.
23:13
And it's just kind of a racing town. The history of the track is older than we are.
23:16
I mean, it's the one track on our circuit. It's not as continuous operating
23:19
like we have, but I think it's like 1906 or something.
23:22
Yeah. So it's a little bit older than we are. Just really cool to go back there.
23:26
And Roger's so excited about it. It's neat to see the energy and the excitement
23:30
that he has. So looking forward to that one.
23:32
Beth and I usually take the camper to Iowa, and that's always fun because we
23:35
go for the racing, but then we also wander around and watch people drink and
23:39
have a good time and listen to music that I don't know who the artists are,
23:42
but it's fine. She does, so that's good.
23:45
So those two are probably the ones I'm looking forward to the most is Milwaukee
23:49
and going back to Iowa. Excellent. Excellent. I love Iowa.
23:54
I really want to go to Iowa this year. I'm going to have to do some creative scheduling.
23:58
But it's i say it's it's
24:01
marked on the calendar is like i i make up
24:04
my own little paper calendar you know when i'm combining my
24:07
work schedule and my race schedule and i it's you know ro for request off is
24:12
on the iowa days so and one thing i plan it on plan it on going but one thing
24:17
i'd recommend to anybody is then to take a trip on saturday night down in oxfam
24:20
i went up i went down there for the first time last summer and that was but
24:24
but not the nationals but just to in Knoxville, I see it.
24:26
Yeah, because that's for night racing. And it's during Iowa, which is 100% right.
24:30
So I was going to do that last year or two years ago. I can't remember when
24:34
we were going to do it, and it rained.
24:35
It was one of those nights where it rained, and so we thought,
24:37
I'd love to go. Oh, two years ago.
24:39
Is that what it was? Yeah, I went last year. And everybody stuck.
24:41
Even though it's not Knoxville Nationals, it's still going to Knoxville in the
24:44
history of that place, too, would be.
24:46
And I'm such a short track fan anyway, so I love to get to as many short tracks
24:49
as you can. And really, what, is that the drive's eight hours to Iowa?
24:53
Something like that. Yeah, it's not bad, right? I mean, it's,
24:56
and you can. It's an easy drive, honestly. Yeah, it's not bad at all.
25:01
So it's a great race. So I will have to try and get to Knoxville then because
25:05
that's definitely a place I want to go see.
25:07
Yeah, it definitely had a little bit of a IMS feel to it in a sense because
25:11
it's been there so long and has the Hall of Fame there.
25:14
And I parked in some guy's side yard and walked the four blocks over and did all that kind of stuff.
25:20
So it really had that kind of – and just I was really surprised that it was
25:24
just Saturday night of racing just how many people were there. Right.
25:28
It's, you know, outside of the Nationals and everything, it's still a big deal.
25:32
Yeah. No, everybody talks about Knoxville, so I'd love to go see it.
25:35
I'd love to see the Nationals sometime, too.
25:37
That would be really cool to do. I agree. And they go fast. Yes.
25:40
Yes. They go fast. Yeah.
25:44
All right. So we got all kinds of things coming up here at the INS.
25:47
Yes. Obviously, we got the month of May creeping up.
25:49
We've got Rev, both the Mini and Rev, kicking off the month.
25:53
Yep. And we're on track right now as we film, or as we tape this.
25:57
We've got 20 days of BMW on track. We just got done with the Eclipse,
26:00
obviously, the Shell Eco-Marathon, where we brought kids in from all over,
26:04
university and high school kids from all over the world to compete in a fuel
26:07
mileage challenge, basically is what it is.
26:09
So we've been crazy already. And then you're right, you get into May,
26:12
you've got the Mini and Revs that really kind of kick things off,
26:14
that you got the Sancio Grand Prix, and we roll right into everything for the
26:18
Indy 500. And then we sort of clean up a little bit here.
26:21
I think we're at Detroit the following weekend for IndyCar.
26:24
So our ticket team does the ticketing for Detroit. So we're still pretty involved in how that works.
26:29
And then we've got a whole host of things through the summer.
26:32
Brickyard on the Oval, which will be interesting to have them back on the Oval this year. It will be.
26:37
So that's going to be a good one.
26:39
I hope ticket sales for that are better than they've been in the last 15 years, which is crazy.
26:44
Because people got to the point where they just didn't want us to be on the
26:47
Oval. Now we're back on the Oval. We'll be like, thank God you're back on the oval. We'll see.
26:50
Hopefully it'll be good racing, right? I mean, you know the worst thing you
26:54
can do for a race fan is give us exactly what we ask for.
26:57
That's what we try to do, though. I know, but we don't know what we want.
27:01
Collectively, it's a group.
27:03
The thing is, we're hungry, and we don't know what we want, but we know what we don't want.
27:08
Right, but sometimes we – and I'm a race fan, too – but sometimes we don't know
27:11
what we don't want until after we've gotten something. We're like,
27:14
well, I didn't want that.
27:15
That's true. That is just like, you know what, I should have been more particular.
27:19
Yeah, so – but no, May is going to be great. Having Kyle Larson run is going to be really fun.
27:25
Yeah, I always enjoy when we have drivers. that bring crossover fans,
27:29
new eyes, new excitement.
27:31
I think that'll be really fun to have him. He's been great in terms of the way
27:36
he talks about the 500 and just kind of the methodical and the way that he's
27:40
learned through things. You have some great teammates.
27:42
I did say to Pato the other night at the thing, I said, hey,
27:45
look, I'm really excited Kyle's here, but don't let him beat you.
27:50
I want Kyle to come here. I want him to have a great Indy 500,
27:53
but I want a regular to win. For me, you want a true IndyCar guy to win it.
28:02
And that said, if he won, he will have done it because he deserved it. Certainly.
28:06
He's been great. I'm really excited about having him. The one thing I love about
28:10
short track drivers, and we saw it when Brian Clausen was here,
28:13
the number of short track fans that show up in their short track shirts is really cool to me.
28:18
And that's getting grassroots folks to come back to the Speedway.
28:21
And I think Kyle helped that, as well as some of the diehard NASCAR fans who
28:25
may not have checked out the Indy 500 before.
28:27
But will be a little more interested now that, yeah. Things will be really good.
28:30
Now they've got a little skin in the game.
28:32
Yeah. So if you think of an event that's never been here, so I'll say F1 isn't
28:37
in this, but think of an event that's never been here.
28:40
What would you like to see at the Speedway someday?
28:44
That's a great question, and I don't know that I have a really good answer for that.
28:48
You know, obviously, we're still grade one in the event an F1 opportunity was to ever come up again.
28:54
It's just too cost prohibitive. I mean, the amount of money that it costs to
28:58
pay Liberty to have them come here right now is too challenging,
29:03
although I think having a Formula One race here is appropriate.
29:07
We've talked about do you pair WEC with EMSA, which is the World Endurance Challenge,
29:12
which is basically EMSA everywhere but in the U.S.?
29:14
So that's something that we might agree on here. But I kind of like our mix right now.
29:20
You've got IndyCars both on the road course and the oval. At some level,
29:23
I'm glad we don't have a second road course race, although I love the doubleheader
29:26
weekend where NASCAR and IndyCar was together.
29:28
But I was at a point where I thought that if we ended up having to have IndyCar
29:33
back as part of that, I'd love to change the layout so that at least it made
29:36
something a little different than the same layout that they do in May.
29:40
We have our vintage race here in June. Brickyard is July.
29:44
We've got the dirt track and sports cars in September. And then we have our
29:48
Indy eight-hour sports car race in October.
29:50
So I think we've got a pretty good schedule across the board.
29:53
So I don't know if it's not Formula One or WEC. I don't know what the,
29:57
you know, our fans would tell me it's the Freedom 100.
30:02
The two questions I get more than any are, what do you do the rest of the year?
30:06
Because they think the 500 is out.
30:08
And then the other one is, when's the Freedom 100 coming back?
30:11
So, you know, that would, someday I'd love to see it back here.
30:14
I understand, you know, why we've kind of put it on the shelf for the time being,
30:18
just trying to get drivers in those cars some oval experience before they come here. it's so fast.
30:23
But I think we need to make it a priority to give them that experience so that
30:26
we can bring the Freedom 100 back someday. So let's just continue to work on that. I do too.
30:31
I mean, the Freedom 100 is some of the best racing.
30:37
There have been so many close finishes and I'm obsessed with the Turn 2 suites.
30:42
I know they're the older suites, but they're the best because they're so close to the track.
30:45
And the Freedom 100, you feel like you could touch the car,
30:49
Well, you touched on it. I mean, if anybody ever had, if somebody's out listening
30:53
and they got a buddy that invites them to come to a practice day in a Turn 2
30:56
suite, 100% do whatever you can to go take that time in the suite,
31:01
because you're right, it's crazy.
31:03
It's crazy how close you are. If you are right there, I was built in the middle
31:05
70s, and you're looking right down on the race cars and the noise and the speed,
31:10
the sense of speed as they are exiting turn two and coming at you because they've
31:14
already apexed. So they're coming to the exit apex.
31:17
It's a spectacular. I couldn't watch the whole race from there. It would drive.
31:21
Oh, I think I'd have a not much to make of something. Well, and also because
31:24
that seems to me just with how the track is situated, if there's any kind of
31:28
wind gusts, that's where everybody stuffs it into the wall.
31:30
Right. And so, yeah, I've been there also when a car has crashed there and it's
31:35
terrifying for a second.
31:36
Somebody posted a video a couple of years ago, social video,
31:39
where he's just talking, you know, it's a selfie video and he's just standing
31:42
there talking about how excited he used to be to speedway.
31:44
And somebody crashes behind him and his face and he's like, oh,
31:46
and I think foul language comes out of his mouth. It's fantastic.
31:50
It's a fantastic video to see, but it's because he's excited.
31:53
He's right there in the craziness. And then you almost feel the impact when you're there. Yeah.
31:57
You're so close. Yeah. It's crazy. And it's just like sitting in right above
32:01
turn one, which I love those seats.
32:03
And my goal is to someday see a 500 from there.
32:06
But it's almost the same thing because the way the seats are angled and everything,
32:09
you're almost looking right down over.
32:12
Those to me are the best seats in the whole building. Funny,
32:15
I get that question all the time. What are the best seats?
32:16
And I'm like, I call customers every night and it doesn't matter where they sit.
32:20
They think they have the best seats in the house, which is really awesome because
32:22
the seats are, it's about what you see, but it's also about where you park, who you sit with.
32:27
Where you sat the first time you came. I mean, all those things go into deciding
32:30
where the best seats are.
32:31
But if you push me and it's like, you got to pick, I would tell you it's the
32:35
top of turn one somewhere, up high in turn one or up high in turn four.
32:39
I mean, there's just something spectacular about those locations,
32:41
but turn one is probably the best. I would say also high in turn three.
32:45
So all the turns are good, right? If you're high up in the turns and they each,
32:49
I actually just did I did an interview this week with a paper,
32:53
a group of papers that does like Bloomington and Terre Haute and some other
32:57
papers, and they're doing a piece on the different corners.
33:00
And do they have their personalities not just on the track, but is there a personality
33:04
in the grandstands? How are they different? So that's the parent-parent contrast.
33:07
And you talk about Turn 3, and the thing I talked about Turn 3 that's so great
33:11
about Turn 3 is, A, the terminal velocity.
33:14
Typically, the wind's coming from the south to the north. So going into turn
33:18
3s where you see those 245 mile an hour speeds.
33:21
And then there's this weird thing, you come out of turn two,
33:23
and unlike the front stretch where it stays really tight the whole way,
33:27
you come out of turn two and it just widens up.
33:29
So that's when we see all those four and five wide fanning out down there.
33:32
And then I think drivers forget, and then they get to the end and they go,
33:35
oh, I got to get all the way back to that one groove.
33:37
And so there's something about turn three that is exciting to watch,
33:41
that whole craziness on the back. It is. Well, and since it's,
33:44
you know, there's not pit lane there. There's not the big go-to there.
33:47
There's not all the suites on the inside.
33:48
You can see so far down. I mean, you can see clear to turn two.
33:53
So, yeah, that's where if we didn't live at the polar opposite end of turn three,
33:58
because, and that's what I always tell people when they ask me,
34:01
you know, what are the best seats?
34:01
I said, okay, so first you got to figure out where are you parking. Right.
34:06
Because where you're sitting is extremely relative to where you're parking.
34:09
Like where you're going to enjoy sitting. And I know that I can never get my
34:13
family to go there because my mom's not going to walk that far.
34:15
She's been very clear about that. If you walked in gate one right here by turn
34:19
one, the main gate, and had to walk to your seats in turn three,
34:23
you're walking around the outside of the racetrack, right?
34:26
I guess you could walk through the infield and under the tunnel,
34:28
but just walking around the outside, you're probably – let's think about that.
34:32
That's half a mile, another – it's two miles easy from here to those seats.
34:39
No, it's right about two miles from my mom's house because Molly and I did it for the air rig.
34:45
To turn four, though, or to turn three?
34:49
Because you know she's a runner so yeah like we can do it
34:52
yeah sure no i would get that was one of
34:54
those days that afterwards like i look at the the fit fitness tracker and i'm
34:58
like yeah so you had the five eighths mile front stretch you got a quarter mile
35:01
turn another eighth of mile then you're at the grandstand and then whatever
35:04
you've got right here and a little bit out yeah so you're probably a mile probably
35:08
a mile probably a mile and a quarter mile and a half from here and then And
35:12
then whatever you've got, yeah.
35:13
But it's, and that's okay in the morning. Yeah. Right?
35:18
It's always much better the way it is. Yeah, the full day in the sun and a couple
35:22
beverages and a bunch of people, that's a long way home.
35:26
You know, the number of times that I have left this facility and have said to
35:29
my friends, judge me if you want, but I'm getting a taxi.
35:33
And, you know, then Lyft and Uber came along, although now where they pick you
35:37
up, by that point, I might as well just walk the rest of the way back to my
35:40
mom's house. But, yeah, I remember there was one year that I did try to hail a cab on 16th Street.
35:44
That's funny. My friend said, you are not. I said, I can't walk anymore.
35:48
Can't do it. I'm not going to make it. I'm too.
35:51
Well, that's what I'm happy about is I've worked my way up in the Southwest
35:54
Vista. So I'm like two rows from the top.
35:56
So probably, you know, the first quarter of the race, the sun gets behind there and I'm in the shade.
36:03
So I'm like, I really don't want to change. Yeah. My only one is I hope to get into the last row.
36:09
That's what I keep going up and past it every year. Just because you can put
36:13
your stuff behind you. Right. Yeah. There is a space back there.
36:16
Yeah. But yeah, it took me a long time to finally get up there.
36:20
But I'm more than happy with it.
36:23
And I think that's the way it works with a lot of people is they finally get
36:27
to where they want to get up high enough or you get to an aisle that you want to have.
36:31
And then you say, listen, these are our seats. This is where a lot of people
36:34
are like, hey, these are the seats that my grandpa brought me.
36:36
I don't want to leave them because this is where we sat.
36:38
Because it's nostalgic. So as far as you know, then bringing that up,
36:41
who are, what's the longest somebody's had tickets up to?
36:47
Oh, we've got a bunch of customers who are, this will be over 75 races for them.
36:52
It's amazing how many of those, you know, I had the one customer who passed
36:56
away a couple of years ago. He'd been to over 90.
36:58
Um, Oh, I think I remember there was something on him. It's,
37:02
it's pretty impressive.
37:03
The number of people that are North of 60 for sure.
37:07
Um, and there's a lot that are over 75. One of the things I try and do on race
37:10
day is if I know somebody's come hit their 75th anniversary or 75th race,
37:15
I try and go say hello to them during the race.
37:16
Oh, that's awesome. It's just fun to say thanks. Well, yeah.
37:19
And usually they've got a kid there who's my age, and then they've got a grandkid,
37:24
and then maybe even a great, you know, it's just the generations of families.
37:27
It's pretty fun to see. That is very cool. And it's crazy to think because,
37:31
I mean, this year we're by 25th. Yeah.
37:34
And so, I mean, I missed a few here and there. I haven't missed one since 09.
37:39
Right. Yeah, and Michael's 50. I mean, I'll be 79 years old at the time, but that's my goal.
37:45
And I couldn't hardly imagine what it'd be like to have gone.
37:48
Especially, I don't feel like since I got here in the late 70s,
37:53
the speeds have gone up and the cars have sort of changed.
37:55
But not, you know, you go back 75 years and just the evolution of the cars and
38:01
to have been able to have been here to see that, I would love to have conversations.
38:07
The 60s and 70s, just the change year over year really, would have been fascinating.
38:13
I started just a couple of years ahead of you, but I followed the racing as
38:18
far back as I can remember. Then the middle 70s were the same.
38:22
Even in the 80s, when I'd get my auto week at home and you go to the back of
38:27
the auto week to see that somebody's got a photo of the new March or the new
38:31
Lola or something and how it was going to change year over year.
38:33
We don't see that as much now.
38:35
And that's just all of us, right? We all look back and go, that was the romantic age.
38:39
We need to do that again. I hear from the old guys that are like,
38:41
ah, the roadsters need to come back.
38:43
And the folks that are falling in love with the sport today,
38:46
25 years from now are going to say, oh, the era of Pato Ward and Alex Pullover and Joseph Newgarden.
38:51
That's what's so cool about the sport.
38:53
It is. Well, and you know what's funny is, so I got into the sport right after
38:58
the split. So like in the dark day.
39:02
But I didn't know any different. front. Right. So, you know,
39:05
coming in with no expectations, these were still super cool, super fast cars.
39:09
And it was still super exciting. Like I was still hooked.
39:14
And so like, once I got old enough to like know about the split and people were
39:16
like, oh, that wasn't good racing. And I'm like, seemed fine to me.
39:19
You know, like I had a, and actually my first race was in Southwest Vista.
39:25
So that's got some nostalgia for me. And speaking of the different turns, where we sat,
39:30
it was this whole section that somebody from my mom's hometown got like 20 tickets
39:35
and it ended up being, it was friends of her parents.
39:40
And so then it was their kids that were managing it at that point.
39:43
I mean, it was like 20 or 30 tickets in this section.
39:45
And there was one guy who was not with our group, but came every year.
39:49
And when they would play Stars and Stripes Forever, he would stand up,
39:52
turn and face the crowd because he was on the front row of the first section of Southwest Vista.
39:57
And he would raise up like he was the conductor and he would conduct the entire
40:01
song and he was oh it was hysterical it was so funny and he must have actually
40:05
been a music director because he knew every cue right like i mean it wasn't
40:09
like he was just up there farting around yeah like he legitimately conducted
40:13
the entire song and oh it was fantastic and my mom.
40:18
He had been doing it for a long time because when when i
40:21
saw that she goes oh i can't believe this guy's still here he used to
40:23
do this when i came but that's that's what's
40:26
neat about this the place is so big that that
40:30
for that the folks that sat in that section probably that's part of the
40:33
tradition of the event right when's the guy going to stand up
40:36
and conduct from the first row that start the stars and stripes forever and
40:39
each each area has sort of a character or something like that and that's what
40:45
makes it that makes it so special and i'm sure the year that people got there
40:49
where's the guy right yeah the first year that he was gone it's terrible to
40:54
terrible to lose that and I don't know when,
40:56
I don't know do we still play Star Wars I don't think we play it anymore I don't
41:00
think we do I don't think we do no we should probably bring that back Donald
41:03
would be happy we brought that back Donald Davidson that's true I know the pretty
41:07
man knows it because they always know Susan for sure and I think about you know
41:10
now that you say that I just remember that as a kid coming to my first races
41:14
and it was just part of it right yeah,
41:17
well it also just feels very Memorial Day-ish too like you feel like you should
41:21
hear that song in every Memorial Day parade yeah yeah.
41:25
That's the one thing I think we do a good job of, though, of celebrating men
41:28
and women who serve. Oh, absolutely.
41:30
And then those who pay the ultimate sacrifice as Memorial Day weekend.
41:33
I think that's still, I mean, that's, other than back home again in Indiana,
41:37
probably my favorite moment is when the military men and women march down.
41:40
And then how TAPS, the whole place. It's just, you can pin drop.
41:43
Yeah, just gets quiet. Yeah. I mean. Pretty wild, right?
41:47
Yeah, I hear 350,000 people hush. Yeah. It's pretty cool.
41:52
Well, I think that's all the stuff that it makes. And I'm not being critical
41:56
of it at all. But I've gone to the Daytona 500.
42:00
And I had fun. And I'd love to go see it again. And it is a big deal.
42:06
And I've gone to other NASCAR races. So it just feels like a NASCAR race.
42:10
But when you come to the 500, that's the, you know, because I mean,
42:14
you know, we've all been to, I've been to 40, 50 other IndyCar races.
42:18
But this one, there's just something about it that there's an electricity that
42:23
you really can't understand unless you've been here.
42:25
Correct. And that's when people say, what's it like? I don't know how to tell you what it's like.
42:30
There's no way to describe it. You just have to experience it.
42:33
And it's not a race. It's an event.
42:35
The Daytona 500 is a race, and it's a great race. And I've been to,
42:38
and it's a really fun race to go to.
42:40
And there's an elevated excitement of that race versus a traditional regular
42:45
IndyCar, regular NASCAR race. I mean, that clearly is their big one,
42:49
but it's not an event where this one is just, it's a race.
42:53
It's really an event that just happens to have a race going on.
42:56
And that's part of what makes it so special is there's just so much else that's going on.
43:02
And like when people say, how do you describe it?
43:05
Yeah, so you know that time when you're sitting on the beach and you see this
43:08
unbelievable sunset and you're like, wow, that's awesome.
43:11
I'm going to take a picture and you're going to send it to your buddies and
43:14
you look at it and you go, it's a picture.
43:15
You can't you have to be there to experience that
43:19
sunset just like you have to be here we can see all the pictures
43:21
in the world all the video it just doesn't do
43:25
what coming here does to see it live yeah that's the best analogy i have to
43:30
kind of explain to people how you can't well and you know i think it says a
43:34
lot that local people we don't say what are you doing on memorial weekend we
43:38
say what are you doing on race week right right and everybody knows what race
43:41
you're referring to We have multiple races here all throughout the year.
43:44
We have multiple race tracks around here, you know, like NHRA out at the Big Go.
43:49
You know, like there are big races that come outside.
43:53
But everybody said, you say race weekend. We know you mean the 500. It is a.
43:58
A whole event. For sure. It's definitely an event.
44:01
Well, and to go back to something I was going to say earlier when you were talking
44:04
about some of the, like, Pato and the way he approaches the fans.
44:07
I think a really cool element to a lot of the drivers is the fact that they live here.
44:12
Yep. And they get it and they know.
44:15
It's one thing to know what May is like, but then it's also another thing to
44:19
know how it just fits into the rest of the year.
44:22
You look at Pacer games and when you get, you know. 100 days out with the players was so cool.
44:28
Doing the food and yeah no i think that's right and i think for them to be in a community where,
44:34
people know them and where i'm sure at some
44:37
level what they want to go out and don't want to be picked on there's probably that
44:39
side but the other side of it for them too is to go i do
44:42
something really cool i race in this really cool race in
44:45
this really cool series and people know it and and
44:48
want to come up and say hello to me so i do think there's i think
44:52
that makes it special for them as well that they're in a community that really appreciates
44:55
who they are and what they've done i mean because and for me and
44:58
i mean i've been a sports writer for 25 years and
45:00
i've met a lot of famous athletes and stuff but and and i've probably interviewed
45:04
everybody in the paddock by now but are all the drivers and but it's still a
45:08
real kick for me to interview drivers and you know and just to talk to them
45:13
and i think that's one of the things about motorsports is that you know even
45:17
though you get more used to seeing all the drivers like there's still that little.
45:21
Kid inside of you that's like okay i just talked to
45:24
scott yeah like yeah i just talked to ari line like that
45:27
was cool you know and i feel like everybody who works
45:30
in motorsports still has that little kid inside of them so
45:33
we all get it it's like you're like i'm gonna be uncool for just
45:36
a minute yeah well last year one of
45:39
my i guess i'm a unicorn tk was one
45:42
of my unicorns i'd never interviewed him right never got a picture
45:45
i never got out of there so i finally did not autograph an interview with
45:48
him and i mean after i finished well i
45:51
did two things after i finished i turned the recorder off and i said i'm
45:55
done as a reporter just as a fan thank you for everything you've done right
45:59
thank you for what you do for the any 500 blah blah and then the second thing
46:02
i did is i went and called my wife and i was like that was just one of the coolest
46:05
things i've ever done yeah you know and and yeah it is just to that that racing
46:11
you know family and everything thing is different.
46:14
And that's what makes this place so special to all of us.
46:17
Agreed. And the drivers go out of their way to make it. They do.
46:21
They absolutely do. The fans are what created this event and continue to sustain it.
46:27
Fans don't show up. It's 500 miles on a.
46:29
Little piece of asphalt right well like it was four years ago which
46:33
was terrible you know we don't ever want to do that
46:36
again but yeah um no we're fortunate to have the drivers
46:39
who we do for sure and and i'm excited that tk lives
46:42
in our market because yeah it's a bummer to not have him
46:44
in a car but it's awesome to have him here i mean he'll he'll do anything you
46:48
ask to help promote him he's just a fantastic person and it's and i'm just so
46:52
glad that he and lauren and the gang are here yeah all right well i know you
46:55
gotta go i'm off to the next thing but i'm gonna make a you pick who you think
47:00
is going to be the champion this year and why is it going to be alex blow.
47:07
Oh man i don't know you can pick 500 or series a series i have no idea right
47:12
now i mean we just haven't had enough races for me to even even have an idea
47:16
i know that's why it's fun to guess that,
47:19
i don't know i feel like it's gonna it's gonna be one of the one of the pinsky
47:23
guys again on the series. I guess we'll see there.
47:27
And it feels like a Chevy right now for the 500, just based on the half a day
47:32
of oval open tests we had. But that's pretty premature.
47:36
But it feels to me like it's got to be, it's going to have to become somebody from the Chevy camp.
47:41
But the Aaron McLaren guys are pretty strong. I kind of have a feeling they're going to.
47:45
Be nice. Be nice to see them play in the winner's circle. It would be very,
47:49
especially the 50th anniversary.
47:50
That was the last time one was there. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. It would be pretty cool.
47:55
But whoever it is. Side by sides of those cars. Whoever it is,
47:58
I'm looking forward to just a bunch of excitement at Victory Lane and celebrating.
48:02
And then we could spend a year together promoting the 109th run. I bet. I bet.
48:07
Awesome. Well, Doug, thank you so much. Happy President's Day.
48:10
Happy President's Day. Happy early May. Yes.
48:14
We'll be seeing a lot of you soon. All right. Thanks, guys. All right.
48:16
Thanks for listening. Bye.