THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us as the NTT INDYCAR Series prepares for its season opener this Sunday at beautiful Barber Motorsports Park. Joining us today, he is the president and CEO of Penske Entertainment Corporation; we say good morning to Mark Miles.
INDYCAR president Jay Frye is beginning his sixth season of running competition and operations. Good morning, Jay.
And of course on the heels of celebrating 30 years as a team, Chip Ganassi Racing added the 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series championship to its resume as driver Scott Dixon picked up his sixth, and is now just one shy of the all-time record held by the legendary A.J. Foyt. We say good morning to team owner Chip Ganassi.
Thank you all. Let's begin with Mark. Certainly 2020 was unique in so many different ways. What is it about INDYCAR that allowed it to succeed and actually grow during such a trying year?
MARK MILES: Well, of course I think the thing about INDYCAR is that it's just compelling. When we get on the track there's every reason for fans to be excited about what they see in our sport.
But really when I think about 2020, I think it's just the strongest possible affirmation of how aligned the INDYCAR Series is, all the stakeholders, the teams, the promoters, our broadcast partner, the sponsors, our partners in that regard.
Everybody just pulled together, got on the same page. Every time something changed people worked together and showed flexibility and persistence, and there was really no internal dissonance about what we were doing and what we had to do.
I don't take that for granted. It wasn't always true in this sport for sure. But in other sports, we read all the time about what's going on between stakeholders in leagues, and I just think last year was the strongest possible statement about how our stakeholders are really on the same page.
THE MODERATOR: Mark, as you said, leadership, paramount in 2020. Jay Frye of course was at the forefront and there were so many learnings from last year and maybe even some improvements on the way things are done.
How did it all come together in your mind, Jay?
JAY FRYE: Well, as Mark mentioned, it was a phenomenal paddock-wide effort. We started having team manager calls basically the week after the original St. Pete postponement. We've continued to have those. We actually had one yesterday getting ready for this weekend at Barber.
As an example, when we got off the call there were no questions. When you do these things every week and everybody knows what you're doing and everybody is part of the solution and part of the direction, they know what's happening and we're going to do it. So that was really good.
One of the things we looked at is if you look at 2019 to 2020 to '21 how we approach the way we do our business, how we approach the way we go to the events. Barber this weekend as an example. We've become more efficient, we think. If you look at 2019 we would have had two practices on Friday, one on Saturday and qualifying, and then a little bit of warmup and a race on Sunday.
This year we won't practice on Friday, we'll have two on Saturday, qualify on Saturday, and then have a warmup and race on Sunday.
We think from a fan's perspective you get a lot more in a shorter period of time, which is economical for the fan. They don't have to take Friday off, which is a good thing. And then with today's attention spans it's probably a really good thing. You get a lot more in a less period of time.
From a team and league perspective or series perspective, it's a huge financial gain. It's a huge savings. Obviously there's less days at the track, engine miles, travel, per diem, that type of thing. We've just condensed a lot of things based on what we learned in 2020.
Again, we think it's a little more efficient. We think it's more impactful for everybody, so we're excited to get the 2021 season started.
THE MODERATOR: Perseverance was key last year. Perhaps no one did that better than Chip Ganassi Racing. Chip, it was a year really unlike any other. Do you feel the series helped teams kind of weather the storm in 2020?
CHIP GANASSI: Yeah, no question. Good morning, everyone. I think -- you know, remember, the whole series and Indianapolis, of course, went through a change -- the whole change of ownership just prior to 2020.
I mean, when you look at what was in the on-deck circle, if you will, as we approached 2020, we were all filled with excitement and anticipation.
Obviously the biggest curve ball ever thrown at us with the pandemic, and like Mark and Jay said, could not have been stronger relationships with all the stakeholders from the sanctioning body, and that is just paramount, that I think all sports could probably learn from.
I think that motor racing and INDYCAR in particular led the way there, that made us in an otherwise year where we were changing -- seems like we were changing directions and changing plans by the hour. Could not have been better.
I think it just shows, again, the product is compelling, like Mark said. To weather what it did you have to have a compelling product. As so many people have seen there were a lot of products nobody is interested in anymore for 2020, and that's certainly not the case with INDYCAR.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Chip.
Mark, as we look forward to 2021, new season, new start, pandemic maybe looks a little different than it did a year ago. What excites you about the start of the season?
MARK MILES: Well, the start itself is exciting. Everybody is ready to go. When I think about 2021, I get particularly excited about the NTT INDYCAR Series schedule.
If I just walk through that for a second, can't wait to be in Alabama at Barber this weekend, but we go from there in consecutive weekends, as everybody knows, to St. Pete. That's going to be really terrific to be back there, to the Texas Motor Speedway.
We have a weekend off, and then we're at May. We know what May brings. We've got the two races and the time trials in between, and all the exciting practice, Fast Friday, Carb Day, all the exciting things in between. And then Belle Isle with a week in between.
Six of our first eight races in a compact schedule by our historical standards are on network, plus at least one of the qualifying sessions will be on network here in Indianapolis.
I think it's a really, really potent start that we'll get our fans refocused on the INDYCAR Series, and then we have kind of the traditional summer, which we're excited about, except that we're adding Nashville.
I hear every day from fans who want to know how they get their tickets for Nashville. The anticipation there is fantastic. We think it's going to be a great event, a terrific addition to the series.
And then we finish really strong. I don't mean to leave any events out at all, but we finish with the oval at the Worldwide Technology Raceway, and then three consecutive weekends on the West Coast, from Portland to Monterey to Long Beach, and two of those three on network, totaling nine races on network, more than we've had in the history that I know about.
And so we're really excited. I just think it's going to be a terrific schedule. We have some events that won't be at full capacity for sure, but I think they're going to happen, and I think the racing will be great, and we're putting together with the schedule a platform that will really be powerful for fans.
THE MODERATOR: And speaking of the racing, when it comes to competition on the track, INDYCAR president Jay Frye, this is a fascinating season. Is it possible to have too many story lines heading into a new season like this?
JAY FRYE: Well, it's really hard to know where to start with the rookie class, a seven-time champion, a three-time champion, and a ten-year F1 veteran; you know, 45, 35 and 25 basically raw numbers.
To me this is kind of a generational thing. This might be a once in a lifetime thing that we see something like this. We're really excited. The good thing about these three is they're great people on and off the track. They've taken this very seriously. It's going to be amazing to watch their progress over the course of the year. Really excited to have them.
We've got three Hall-of-Famers coming back joining us in one way or another this year with Tony, Helio, and Juan, so that's pretty cool. We've worked very hard with the speedway program. We had a test last fall. We did a couple tests this year already. We're really excited about what the speedway program is going to look like in 2021.
Speaking of the speedway, our weekly car count is remaining very strong, and it's going up, which obviously bodes well for the car count for the 500, which I think there's going to be some really exciting news to come out of that here shortly.
Car count is going to be up.
Q. Chip, Jay mentioned Jimmie Johnson making his INDYCAR debut in a car that you own this weekend; Tony Kanaan returns to the team, as does Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou. Do you allow your mind so think ahead to perhaps the legacy of Scott, to maybe a seventh championship? Certainly a lot going on with your race team heading into 2021.
CHIP GANASSI: Thanks, Dave. One of the things before we go too far into Scott, the team distributed these rings the other day. I don't know if you can see it here. My screen is -- got that the other day courtesy of Scott and the team and PNC.
Really like Jay said, with his fast start to the season it's going to be a fast start for our team, as well.
Obviously building on 2020, we had a pretty good start for 2020. If we can do that in '21, I'll be stunned, having such a great start as we did during the pandemic.
You know, obviously fingers crossed. The team, like I said, returns with Scott and Marcus and Alex and some familiar names, and then obviously when you throw a Jimmie Johnson and Tony Kanaan into that mix, it really makes for a great, great team, a great group of guys.
That's what I'm most excited about, is growing and learning with that group of people that we have, being prepared for six weekends in eight weeks or something.
It's going to be exciting. I think it's something that bodes well for our team. I think we react well to things like that, and I'm looking forward to it.
Q. Jay, we've heard quite a lot about the aerodynamic changes for the superspeedways with Indianapolis and I think Texas, as well. Just wondered if you wouldn't mind kind of going through those changes and what you've decided to stick with for the season and kind of the interpretation of how those changes have gone over the past few tests.
JAY FRYE: Well, thank you. So this has kind of been an 18-month process, right. If you think about it, in 2018 when we came out with the new AK 18 aero kit there was things we did with the floor that we wanted to expand on and do more, and part of it was closing the floor up, so created more downforce to the bottom of the car, that type of thing.
So it took a while to get it to where we needed it to be, and we feel really good about where it's at. Again, over the last 18 months with simulation and CFD and that type of thing, and now we've had four track tests with the car, so far, so good.
It looks like, again, we think it's a very good product. We wanted to make it even better, so we've expanded on that. And from everything we've seen, especially there was 32 cars at the Open test here at IMS last Friday, ran almost 4200 laps, and the car looked very racy.
We almost wanted to start the race that day. It just looked -- everything looked right. It felt right. So we're excited about Texas and the 500.
Q. Will it be the same setup for Texas and for Indy, or will it be slightly different between the two?
JAY FRYE: They're a little bit different. What we've done is created options for the teams. So the hole in the floor being closed up some is standard for both, but then there are other options that you have at Texas versus IMS.
We wanted to put it more into the teams' and the drivers' hands, so there are options for both events.
Q. Chip, just to ask you about Jimmie because you were asked about him earlier. We spoke to him last week and he said he wanted to persuade you to allow him to have an oval test to see if he'd be interested in doing that in the future. Is that something you'd be willing to do, to give him a test on an oval to see how he gets on?
CHIP GANASSI: Absolutely. What owner wouldn't want to have the opportunity, first of all, to have Jimmie Johnson on your team, but second of all, say he wants to test your car on an oval.
Of course. Yeah, the answer is an easy yes.
Q. I don't know if my first question is for Mark or Jay. Where do you guys stand on vaccinations in the paddock?
MARK MILES: We've worked really hard on it, and we couldn't be happier with the way the teams have responded. At this point I would say we're somewhere around 90 percent of the team personnel will be vaccinated, and I think that's going to continue to move up.
When I say we've worked hard on it, we've provided an opportunity for everybody that was here in Indianapolis just after the test concluded last Friday to be vaccinated, to get their first dose. We're going to do that again in Texas after the race, the second race.
And then there's yet another opportunity in Indianapolis the first week in May.
I expect it to be very close to 100 percent by the time we get here to race, and we'll see where that number is.
We're thinking about whether or not anybody who isn't tested will need to be -- sorry, anybody who's not vaccinated would need to be tested regularly. So we'll take all the right precautions to make the paddock as buttoned up as possible.
Q. But teams did go through the IMS site after the test session?
MARK MILES: Yes, and it was terrific. We stood there and shook hands, and it was really a very cool vibe as everybody went through.
JAY FRYE: The good news is the teams were taking it very seriously even before that, so we were running in the high 60 percent before that. And now like Mark said, we're over 90 percent as a group. It's been, again, a great paddock-wide effort.
Q. My question for Chip -- not vaccination related, Jimmie Johnson related -- what do you expect from him? What would you consider good results, a good season?
CHIP GANASSI: Yeah, I think just any first season for an INDYCAR driver. I think there's no question some podiums would be considered a success, and maybe squeak a win out. It's certainly not impossible. He has the talent. He has the race craft. I know he can do it.
It's just a matter of him getting comfortable in the environment, with cars on the track now. Obviously testing has been fine, so once we get out there with some traffic, with some cars he can pass, I think the racer will come out in him very easily.
Q. When I spoke to him he's noted that he's not passed a car, he's not been in practice, he's not had an in-lap, he's not had an out-lap, all the things he hasn't done. Might there be a few rocky first days for him?
CHIP GANASSI: I mean, if there's a rocky day, am I going to be surprised? Probably not. But I'm certainly -- like I said, he has all the talent that you need, and certainly has the race craft and the experience of knowing what to do, when to do it.
That's half the game in motor racing, is what I like to say doing the obvious things right. I'm sure Jimmie has got plenty of practice at that. It doesn't matter what kind of car you're in.
Q. Mr. Frye, a couple of weeks ago back in March you guys tested the Push-to-Pass on the oval. Is there a potential or possibility that may be implemented this season?
JAY FRYE: No. The biggest part of the test was to get a better understanding of what 2023 is going to look like. If you look at it with the new engine and the hybrid system, Push-to-Pass as we know it will go away.
The current Push-to-Pass system was something that we could use to simulate what the hybrid system could possibly look like in 2023. It was great learning.
We had -- I remember a couple years ago we tried it at Pocono, we tried it at Phoenix, we tried it at Gateway, where we tested it, that type of thing.
So this was just part of that. Part of the problem we had at those three venues we learned from and we fixed. So that was good.
But again, at the end of the day it was an interesting test. It probably created more questions than answers, but we need those questions right now going into 2023 so we can fine tune that piece to make sure it's really good right out of the box.
Q. Early in your career when you joined INDYCAR, we might have an Indy 500 open test and we didn't have 32 cars -- there were years we didn't have 32 cars entering the month of May. You had 32 at an open test. How pleased were you to see that level of competition? Not only was it 32 cars but they were very competitive cars.
JAY FRYE: Yeah, no, Friday was a great day. Again, we ran 4,194 laps, something like that. Everything looks very competitive. The car count is up. The mix, the depth of the field is spectacular. We talked about Hall-of-Famers, the rookies, the -- it's going to be a great field. It's going to be a great 500.
As I mentioned earlier, there will be some news coming out on the car count, which will be exciting, I think.
Yeah, so it appears by the tests that we had, the changes we've made have worked, which we're quite excited about, quite excited about the depth of the field, quite excited about the car count.
So it's going to be a good 500.
Q. For Mr. Miles, in addition to all the other projects that you're working on, one of which is television beginning in 2022, when do you hope to have that resolved, and when do you hope to have that announced?
MARK MILES: I think this spring. It could be before. It could be just after the 500. We're in the process, having the discussions, and I think it should lead to some conclusion let's say by the beginning of June, somewhere in there.
Q. Last year Scott said that one of the reasons that Newgarden has become so difficult to beat is they've adopted very similar tactics to the No. 9 team in terms of making sure that those top 5s are guarded together and they aren't kind of like win or bust. I think we saw Colton Herta and Pato O'Ward show similar kind of maturity. As a team owner, do you feel that everyone is kind of following your template and therefore it's getting tougher and tougher for you guys to win? The stats would say it isn't getting tougher because you keep winning, but do you feel it's getting harder for you?
CHIP GANASSI: Well, I don't think it ever gets any easier. I think -- I mean, that's the one thing about sports teams; people can go around and count your people and count your assets, pretty much laying out all your things every weekend. It's not hard to understand what you have to do to win a race. I think doing it is another story.
You know, I think the good news is we don't win races the same way week in and week out. Fortunately at our team we have alternate ways of winning races, so there's not just one way to do it.
You know, these drivers are maturing, and with maturation in the process comes some speed and race craft. I think it's just a natural progression of their careers more than anything, as opposed to copying another team.
Q. I also wanted to ask you a question about Alex Palou, about what you identified he would bring to the team, and how you feel he's performed so far in testing.
CHIP GANASSI: Well, I think the jury is out about what he'll bring to the team. I can tell you this: At two tests over the winter he was the fastest car of our group of cars. We have high hopes for Alex.
Q. Jay, you were talking a couple minutes ago about the more efficient condensed schedule. I'm curious, is that something that you see continuing in '22 and '23 after the pandemic is gone?
JAY FRYE: Yeah, possibly. So at St. Pete we're doing it a little bit differently because it's a street course, so we try to make each event based on the type of venue, the schedule consistent.
So St. Pete we will have a Friday afternoon practice. So it's the same amount of time based on the track at St. Pete as we have at Barber, we just split it up a little differently.
So we will practice Friday afternoon at St. Pete; we won't have two practices on Friday.
But again, I think it's more efficient. We're still getting close to the same amount of time on track. It allows us to come in a little bit later. It allows the promoter to create a bigger package per day for the fans, which, again, I think at the end of the day is probably good for them, too, or sufficient for them.
We'll see how it goes.
Q. Chip, working with Jimmie to this point, what's one thing you've learned about him that you didn't know beforehand?
CHIP GANASSI: He's a damn hard worker. I'll tell you what, he set a new -- he set the bar at a new level for the amount of work a driver puts in. My hat's off to him.
Q. How so? Can you explain?
CHIP GANASSI: Well, he's always in the simulator, on the computer, on the phone, making calls, asking questions, working out, talking to sponsors, talking to the team. I mean, the guy doesn't slow down. It's no wonder -- I had no idea what I was up against when racing against him in NASCAR, and now I've got a little feel for it. Yeah, he's a hard worker.
Q. Chip, obviously you've got Jimmie joining the team this season. How much depth does that give you as a team owner like converting to a four-car team again this year? Obviously he's very knowledgeable from the NASCAR side, so he's coming in almost blind into INDYCAR, but he's not really a rookie in that regard because he's going to be able to bring in so much information from his time in NASCAR.
CHIP GANASSI: Yeah, I think anytime you can add a championship-winning driver to your team it says something. These are not -- you know, NASCAR championships or INDYCAR championships, they're tough battles. It doesn't always mean you're only talking about the car. Drivers bring a lot with them.
Championship-winning drivers, I've always said, there are guys who can drive cars fast, there are guys who can win races, and there are guys who can win championships, okay, and that's three different kinds of drivers. Each one of those brings a certain thing to the team.
Obviously when you bring a championship driver in, it could be a Super Bowl champion like Joe Montana. I can't tell you the intangibles he brought to our team over a two- or three-year period back in the late '90s and early 2000s.
Anytime you have access to that book of knowledge, and in this instance race craft and what I would consider just tools that you bring along that get downloaded to the rest of the team, it's invaluable. It's invaluable.
You know, it's hard to put a finger on -- when you say what Jimmie brings to the team. Look, I just talked to him on the phone an hour ago. A little something rubs off every time he talks to you. You see what kind of guy he is, what kind of person he is.
I'm big on that kind of thing.
Q. For Jay and Mark, how excited are you guys for the introduction of Romain, Scott McLaughlin, and Jimmie to the sport, but also in terms of the reach for fans when we go to Nashville later in the year?
JAY FRYE: Well, personally like I mentioned earlier, we're very excited. We're very excited again, Jimmie, Scott, Romain are all great race car drivers, all great people. They've all integrated themselves into the sport very quickly. They're very well liked already.
They're just part of us and what we do and who we are. We're really excited to see them perform, really excited to see them progress. As Chip mentioned, it's going to be a process or there will be great progress throughout the course of the season.
Yeah, we're excited to see how that all plays out.
MARK MILES: Yeah, I do think part of your question is spot-on. They bring big followings with them, and we're hearing from France, we're hearing from New Zealand, Australia, obviously the NASCAR Nation, those fans.
We might all want to be able to guess what's going to happen, but the fact is we don't know what's going to happen. They have this big following that comes with them for our fan base and these new eyeballs that will be watching. It's just going to be exciting to see what happens. It's what sport is all about.
In addition to the things that Jay said about how they're really good people, we've enjoyed getting to know each of them. But man, the stories that will follow from this. There will be ups and downs, but a lot of people will be watching.
Q. You had mentioned, Chip, the strength and relationships with INDYCAR that really helped push through 2020. I want to get all three of your thoughts on what you attribute the increased car count to as we still continue to go through this pandemic.
CHIP GANASSI: What I think why the increase in the car count?
Q. Yeah.
CHIP GANASSI: I can just speak to you about my team only. From us going from three to four, it was just a matter of Jimmie coming along and saying, Hey, I'm interested. And I said to my guys on the team, Look, we don't have any -- I'm not interested in spitting anybody out here; do you mind if we add another car? They said, Let's go for it.
That was pretty much -- I can't speak to the car count in the sport. Probably Jay is better to answer that than me.
I would surmise it has to do with leadership. I would hope some of that's that.
Q. Just your thoughts, Jay?
JAY FRYE: Well, I think -- part of it hopefully is in 2016 we started working on this five-year plan, which was a paddock-wide effort; manufacturers were involved; Firestone was involved. We got to the point where in '17 we froze the kits; in '18 we came out with AK 18.
Every year we know what we're doing, where we're going. Last year we had the aeroscreen introduction; this year we've added some new parts and pieces and bits for the speedway cars, in '22; there will be a lot of new testing for engine in '23 for the hybrid system.
And so our little plan that started out as a five-year plan maybe in '16 now actually goes through '26 and '28 with the engine extension. You think about one of the biggest things lat year during a pandemic to announce a long-term extension with our partners from Chevrolet and Honda was huge.
So our plan starting in '16 that now can possibly go out through 2028. So that's a long runway. We don't obsolete parts and pieces. We make sure the teams know what we're doing, where we're going. We make sure the teams are part of it.
Again, '21 and '22 are pretty defined; '23 is going to be some big changes coming with the engine and what the car will have to look like to take the new engine.
So hopefully that's part of it.
MARK MILES: I'd just to add, because Jay is too modest, that I think a big part of it is his leadership. There is the plan and that's the example. What does the plan do? It provides clarity on where we're going that's important when somebody is thinking about where they want to come into a sport and make an investment.
And it provides -- people understand that we're mindful of managing costs, so we want better racing and value for money in a sense, and I think the teams understand that's the way we think about the way forward, and it is part of what informs that plan.
And the other thing is it's working. The racing is great. NBC is increasing our reach to fans and we're growing our social and digital audiences.
It continues to improve. It's not one thing. It's the investment side of it, the value for the investment I think for the teams, and part of that is being on the right trajectory for increasing the fans that will pay attention.
Q. For either Jay or Mark, about Toronto, up here in Canada our numbers have gotten pretty bad. Wanted to know your thoughts on the Honda Indy going this summer, and if not, could the event date be moved or could it be replaced?
MARK MILES: We hope that we can race in Toronto. It's on the calendar. That's the plan. As you know very well up there, there was some clarity provided up to like June 1st, and I hope that that date wasn't a coincidence from a racing point of view, that it left open to window to see if things could come together for us to be up there this summer.
If not, I don't think there will be much opportunity to move it. The rest of the schedule is pretty full and there's so much going on in Toronto, and that street race requires a lot of planning.
So we would probably look to replace it on a one-off basis, and I think we have great options for how to do that, even if we learn about it at the last minute.
Q. For Mark and Jay, always when you go through something you take the time to look back and see what you would have done better. INDYCAR did a great job handling the pandemic, but what are some things that you guys feel that you could have done better if faced with a similar situation once again?
MARK MILES: I can nominate a couple things. The earliest days when we had to cancel a couple races and we didn't know how much flexibility we'd need going forward. We eventually got to the iRacing idea and the opportunity, and I think we probably could have done more early on had we been able to anticipate.
I think it was terrific that it happened. It filled a gap to some extent. But maybe we could have even done more with that and the promotion of it.
Otherwise I'm pretty satisfied with the way it was all handled. I mean, I'm sure there are things we could have communicated better along the way, but Roger Penske's leadership was really important. He helped the teams, especially in the early days. He helped the tracks that were having to live with venue restrictions.
All in all, I think it was a very successful kind of persevering effort.
JAY FRYE: I agree, too. I think strategy is a commodity and execution is an art, right. So I think as a series and the teams in the paddock, everybody executed at a high very level to get the season in.
There was lots of little things you look back on that we could have done differently or we would have tried differently, but that's any season. Every year we go back into something we review what we did, how we could do it better going forward.
Overall, just a great paddock-wide effort.
Q. We're seeing a lot of new faces coming from different avenues into the sport. What does that say right now about the health and competition level of the series?
JAY FRYE: I think we mentioned earlier there's lots of things that are involved in it. We've got great promotional partners. We've got great race teams. We've got great drivers. The depth of the field is spectacular. There's lots of things that are adding up to a very successful launch to the 2021 season, and we couldn't be more excited to get started.
Q. I just wanted to -- regarding Toronto's possibility, what would be your priority in terms of would it be to slot an extra race in that date, or would it be to make sure that it's a double-header at Portland or something like that? How do you prioritize replacing that if you need to?
MARK MILES: If we needed to, I think the most likely step would be a double-header on a weekend we're already scheduled. I won't speculate at this point as to which one it would be, but I don't think -- we wouldn't be looking at putting a different race in that date. We'd be looking at adding one on a weekend we're already scheduled and planning to execute.
THE MODERATOR: We want to thank Chip Ganassi, obviously ready for pursuit of NTT INDYCAR Series championship No. 14. I think I counted that right. Mark Miles, President and CEO of Penske Entertainment Corp, and INDYCAR President Jay Frye.
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