Door Bumper Clear - BONUS: Speed Street - Here To Make Memories: IMS President Doug Boles & Another Denny Hamlin Situation?

Episode Date: May 19, 2023

Although the kickoff to the first day of Indy 500 action got rained out, Conor Daly and Joey Mulinaro are back on Speed Street to discuss last weekend's GMR Grand Prix including Conor's potentially Denny Hamlin-like move, what drivers were saying about fighting the hot weather, and question why TV ratings fell flat despite the race's solid attendance numbers.Then, the guys talk with IMS President & Conor's step-dad Doug Boles about how IndyCar battles the track drying process, his favorite Indy 500 moments, future development plans for the track, whose idea it was to have Beth Boles ambush Conor's media day interview, and what IMS/IndyCar is doing to battle F1's trademark violation. Plus, the guys answer some Indy 500-related questions from the Door Bumper Clear gang.FOLLOW THE SHOW & GET OUR MERCH: https://linktr.ee/speedstreetpod Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, it's Connor Daly. We have the Indy 500 coming up, and that's exactly what we talk about this week on my Dirtymo Media podcast, Speedstree. Enjoy this episode, and be sure to tune in to the Indy 500, May 28th on NBC. This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. What a time to be alive in Indianapolis as a race fan. We are high above, getting high above, the front stretch here in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Connor Daley, Joey Mollon, Aerona, Speedstreet. a very special guest today, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Doug Bowles, he stops by.

And we're going to, as we record today, after a rain out, we're going to have cars on track. It's looking to be a beautiful Wednesday, Thursday, definitely coming up. So loads of loads of car activity, and we know we've got to get Connor in and out of here. So Connor, how you doing, my bud? It's good. It's good to be here, sharing a mic, looking at all the two-seaters. If you do hear IndyCar, two-seaters, go by. It's because that's happening right behind us.

We're in the pagoda currently recording this show. But, yeah, there's a lot to get to, obviously. And honestly, a lot of fans around the track over the last just literally five days because we got the GP and a rainout practice yesterday. A lot of Speed Street listener. So appreciate those folks coming up and basically just shouting it at me like it's a catchphrase. Yeah, I enjoy that a lot. That's very, very entertaining.

So thank you for checking out the show. So, yeah, a lot had gone a lot of two-seater noise. I feel like we're in the race, which is great. But, yeah, the Indy GP, I think there was, it was an interesting race. It was supposed to be very similar when it came to, like, how the rate, like, we use the exact same tires. They said as last year, but the tires reacted entirely different this year. And it was a much more difficult race, I would say, for everyone in a very, very diverse.

reverse tire strategy throughout the field. A race that throughout my team was like, we actually don't know what many people are doing strategy-wise because it was a very, very kind of chaotic race. And some people, obviously, Alex Palo, wasn't racing anyone. He was just way better than everyone else. So that was fascinating. A lot of people had tough days, too. You know, I, I, obviously, we've had an horrible year, but, you know, me at the beginning of the race, we were racing with Scott McLaughlin. We were racing with Marcus Armstrong, you know, Penske and Gannessi cars early on, you know, and that's, that's kind of something that we haven't done as much this year. Some craziness that went on between Santino and I, which I sure was not caught on television, but that relationship continues to

blossom in the worst possible way. I, lap two, well, actually, might have been on the restart, but Santino tried to pass me on the outside of turn 7, and guess what? I decided that I would no longer be the one run into the grass, and I was going to run people into the grass. So I drove directly into Santino and ran him directly off the track. Maybe this is a Denny Hamlin situation where I'm admitting my faults, my activities, but we don't penalize for things like that in any car.

So that happened. I didn't see anything. Yeah, I didn't see anything either, didn't feel anything. felt great, but then Santino decided this is kind of a funny story, but as the tires degraded, you found yourself way better than some people at times and then struggling at the end of stints, and there was a lot of reshuffling. And Santino was on new reds, I believe it was catching me. I was like, all right, hey, he's fast to me right now. I'm going to be a mature driver and be like, hey, I might have ran you off the beginning because I didn't want to lose position and it was a start.

But now I'm like, you know what, you're faster. Here we go. He tries to pass me into turn, one and doesn't actually turn into the corner at all. He basically just rides me out to the basically runoff of the track. So not only did he sacrifice about two or three seconds of his own speed and his own stint. So he kind of like gave up on racing for two to three seconds just to make sure that I didn't make the corner. So not really sure about how that works out for him. But hey, is it payback for maybe me running him into the grass? Probably. So, So the banter continues. The great relationship that we have continues.

Did you tell him to fuck himself after? I did not tell him anything. I saw him last night in the bus slot. Didn't even look at him. I didn't pretend that he wasn't there. And that's how it goes. So great stuff happening in the D-Car padding. Everyone else, I even talked to Deblen last night.

So I was feeling friendly. You know, he was there with a fancy computer here. You had the problem. You know, the famous. Yeah, I mean, I'm still. Still not a fan. Yeah. But good on you for not looking at Santino in the driver's lot because you need to save that for the pits.

Exactly. Save it out there, get it going, man. Yep. So anyway, still my biggest egregious enemy. Honestly, we're not fighting for anything great anyway. Yet again, an indie GP weekend where it was a very sad result for our team in general, just completely not even in the same realm of speed as we were last year. you know we have to be honest with ourselves we have to figure out a way to get better this is

people have to realize as well this is a team sport this is not me and rena's forgetting how to drive this is everyone together has to be better um so it's it's something that is very very difficult but from an outsider's effective you just see it as the driver you a lot of people just see it as the driver not doing as well but there's a reason why this stuff happens um you can only go as fast as you feel capable of going, you know, in your race car at the time. So, you know, we saw guys like Penske. You know, I don't think any of those guys made the Fast 12 in qualifying, you know, last weekend as well. So a lot of interesting stuff in qualifying.

A lot of really good drivers kind of buried in the middle of the pack. We had two teammates take each other out, Stingray Bob, and David Maluccas. That was wild. That happened right behind me, too. I couldn't believe it. And it was funny because I don't know if people noticed, but. When you saw Grojean on the side, side by side with Stingray, Grojan, who was also back there, which that's crazy as well,

Grojan was never going to lift, ever. And into turn seven, you know, everyone is stopping, but those two had both committed to not stopping until the other one stopped first. And so Grojean was never going to make the corner anyway, but because Stingray was on the inside, he happened to run into his teammate, who was basically the car in front of him, And Grojean went straight off the track, too. So that often happens in racing.

You want to have the bravest attitude, and you want to be the last person to break to try to make that pass. But sometimes if both of you decide to make that decision, both of you go off. One of you cratches. Or you're saying. Tina and you just been a dick. Or that, yeah.

So it was interesting to see. But what did it look like from your perspective? I was going to have a good fan perspective. Was there, well, because it was a nice day. Yeah. Lovely day. That's what I was going to add. It was nice, but it was humid.

Hell. Hot as hell. You mentioned the tires. So how much did the conditions of just the day? Because me and all the boys are out there, and, I mean, it was, we were roasting against sunburned like crazy. How much did that play into it? I mean, is that all? Yeah.

Well, the weather was awful. It was really hard for us. I don't think it played much into the tires because we've had hot races here before, but for some reason, the tires were definitely going off like crazy. So the race pace, you know, we'd end up doing, you know, in qualifying, we were doing lap times of, you know, 60, 70 seconds, 69 seconds, and we'd be doing, you know, four seconds slower than that in the race at times. So it's kind of crazy how that plays out. But this is racing. Sometimes you've got to deal with those things. And there was, you know, to see Alex Blow win, not really surprised at all.

That team has done such a great job. He kind of just felt due. Yep, yep. And then McLaren having a really strong day as well, also kind of expected. But you mentioned it's super hot. A lot of drivers really gassed after that race. I was, I mean, I was dying in the car. It's still so absurdly hot.

You know, we had the cool shirt, had everything. People always ask me, like, well, do you have a cool shirt? Do you have air vents? There's no air. The cool shirts don't really work. I imagine those run out after. No, no. I mean, the system keeps going.

Oh, yeah, it's an always flowing system it's supposed to be. But you get hotter and hotter in the car. You never feel it. And it was funny, the last pit stop, I tried to get ice in my suit. And we did that in St. Pete. And thankfully, we have a guy now that does the tear-offs on the aeroscreen, right? So he's solely responsible for pulling those tear-offs. Tear-offs were not important.

I could see. But get in there and put some ice in my suit because I literally die. And so he put the ice in there. Obviously, we had actually, with great pit stops, so boom, it's six seconds, put the ice in there. He basically, like, punched me in the chest with ice. And I'm thinking it's great going down pit lane. And as soon as I hit the brakes out of pit lane, all the ice flies directly forward. And the ice is gone.

It completely disappears. So it just goes to show you how much force we actually put through the brake pedal, even coming out of the pits, that all this ice that I thought was tucked in my soup, my suit probably wasn't zipped up afterwards, but all of the ice, almost every single piece of it just shot all the way to the brake pedal, to the gas pedal. Never felt it again, never saw it again. It obviously melted pretty quickly, but it was, that was a shame because I was hoping for a nice little ice bat about halfway, but sure enough, I then suffered for the next last 20 laps, and it was brutal. It was brutal, yeah, it was a brutal, brutal race, and I wish we could do something. And I got a couple

questions a little bit about the cool suit too and to let people know where we use that we use the cool suit everywhere except for texas and indy um and and probably gateway as well we can use it at iowa and we can use it all the street and road courses but we don't use it at india or texas um because at india texas you get enough air thankfully at 220 plus when you're averaging that for that long there is more air than doing you know 190 here for like eight seconds so That's about it. Yeah, it was, the mounds were great. You know, I was there in the turn one.

Obviously, turn four for Indy, but for the GP, turn one. And those were packed. I mean, the attendance, I think I saw Nathan Brown or somebody say that it was, you know, $80,000, something like that. But then, of course, the TV ratings come out and then no pointo again. And I don't know if it's just because a lot of the, you know, people who would be watching it in their televisions at home are at the race now. Or if it was just because it was Mother's Day and graduations, I saw people talking about on Twitter, or if it was just because, you know, the race was, you kind of just drive it.

Yeah, it makes me really angry to see, honestly. And I think this is a product, though. And again, this is not an expert opinion. I think IndyCar has done a great job, social media-wise. Yeah. Our social content is at a way higher level, which is awesome. I got some stuff coming out with them coming up. Yes, super excited.

Very encouraging stuff. but I still, I don't, I don't think that equates to getting people to watch on TV. We still haven't made the right, not the right move, but a move that is like, wow, we got to watch that on TV on Saturday, right? And again, maybe people think we're racing on Sunday, so Saturday a little bit different, but Saturday in the middle of the day, 3.30 in the afternoon, like, there's not a, I mean, maybe there's a little bit else going on, like, NBA playoffs, stuff like that. I don't know, NHL stuff maybe, but somehow we are not able to attract people with racing. Because I think our racing is still, although it was an all green race essentially, the racing, because there was tire strategy, people were kind of all over the place. So clearly, racing is not what gets you ratings.

I don't think that's what happens right now. It's got to be the hype. It's got to be the attraction for what. whatever we have going on, because I don't believe our product is the problem. I don't believe racing is the problem. So I'm just very curious. It's got to be a marketing spin. You know, people watch F1, not for racing. People watch F1 because they think it's cool or something. I don't know, but it's not racing. So, and NASCAR, I think the Darlington race, I thought was good. I thought the racing was okay, but I didn't think the racing was spectacular. But again,

solid ratings for those guys. So maybe that's, there's something else there. There's something that we are just missing that both of these elements, NASCAR and F1, do seem to have because they're able to kind of average a million viewers. They're able to get that million dollar number. Yeah. But like, why do we all of a sudden drop from a million to 750? Like, 750,000 people is a lot of people, but not in our, like, that's not what we need. We need more, especially at Indie Network NBC on a Saturday. So I don't know what that answer is. And I wish I did. And obviously, I think we all wish we did. But there's something missing. It's not our product. I do believe that it's still pushing it out to the people. The CW show is not doing it. It's a great show. But that's for

it. From how many people are watching that? That's our core fans that are watching that. I'm sorry to say, but CW, I love what they're doing and their production is awesome. And I think the show is fantastic. But it's not going to get there yet. It's because it's first season. It's going to take some time. Our core fans are watching it. But that's not going to make people watch on TV either.

So there's got to be a more aggressive ad campaign. And I know Elio was on the Today show, right? We see that. But what else do we need? I don't know. I'm asking the question because I don't, if I knew, I would try to help. I just try to do that by doing this podcast

and telling people, hey, hey, we got a great race to watch our product is not the problem. It does always feel like the, you know, two steps forward, one step back. Yeah, you know, it's like great social content. Well, yeah, but even, you know, like you said, like you'll hit a good number for ratings on a race prior and then all of a sudden, yeah,

you come here and then all of a sudden it just drops on you. Like, what? It's a great mystery. Yeah. I think if you had a room full of, you know, 18 to 20 people who were, you know, the Doug Bowles of the world, the marketing, you know, everybody, there would be a whole bunch of different darts being thrown of like, okay, let's figure this out. How are we figuring it out? And I know that's happening, but it's just, it's a great mystery. And it is frustrating. It is. So, you know, we don't have a ton of time this week on this episode, but I think there's a couple of other things that were going on. Darlington, obviously we saw Ross get make more people angry, Ross Chessain, which was very interesting. and also Formula One this weekend is now canceled, which is kind of wild because of crazy weather.

And over in Imola, that's wild, the San Marino GP. That's kind of crazy. But we're all focused on Indy 500 stuff here. So we love to do that. I will say last weekend, I hit Palo and I hit William Byron, folks. Oh, heating up at the right time. Everybody, you know, I'm getting ready. and I'm about planning the 8500 strategy as we speak right now.

But I went Saturday at winter. I went Sunday a winter and I'm feeling good. All right, we've got some incredible questions from the door bumper clear guys. A big fan of that show. Let's hear what they've got to say for us. All right. Well, last week I know Dale asked Connor and Joey what the most embarrassing moment they've had behind the wheel was.

And this week it is our turn to ask Connor and Joey some questions celebrating the month of Speed Street. Freddie. Yeah, mine is strictly racing related. My birthday, this is for Connor, because I know this is one of his many talents at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. My birthday is August 13th,

which is the Saturday or Sunday of Indie Week when we're there, so I just need to know what bar he is renting out for me on my birthday. Like, where are we going? I know this is one of his, something that he has very familiar with in that town, I would assume.

So where are we going and what time should I be there? So best indie bars, Joy, I'll let you start right now. Where should they be celebrating, doing things? Yeah, well, they're going to be in Speedway for the race weekend that weekend. So I think a couple you've got to start looking at Daredevil.

Brewery, that's a really fun one. O'Reilly's is always good right there. But then when you go downtown Indy, I know a few of our favorites, Connor. You got Coaches Tavern. Nice little dive. Great way. And spend a lot of time there.

Great. And the Oakmont is great for Instagrammy things and brunch and a blast as well. Yes, I would like the Oakmont as well. Why not go to the tin roof? The tin roof can be an exciting time. I've had quite a couple times there myself. 16 bit, another good one. Yeah, yeah, that's solid.

So just go with those and you'll be happy. You'll find Denny Hamlin at the Wild Beaver Saloon. I've sung karaoke with him. there. He did sing the thong song on Brick Air Weekend one year. I witnessed it. It was awesome. Great, great effort from him. I got a serious question, and I need a serious answer. Which racetrack is going to consume more fireball shots?

Charlotte Motor Speedway or Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That's for Joey. That's probably a Joey question. That's a Memorial Day. Nothing screams America like Fireball. That's a good one. see I'm thinking that it's more middle of the day obviously for the 500s so the sun's going to be at prime time so that's a lot of thickness going down it's a lot to be on you and I think that any 500 fans are definitely going to be slamming the Miller lattes maybe even a few cores lights they're going to be sticking with more of the beer I call that the black primary you know as compared to the fireball red alternate so I think that once you get to the sun going down down there in Charlotte it's evening time, then you can hit the liquor. We're going to stick with the beer here in Ndney 500. I think I would want

Connor to explain what it's like in detail, going around Annapolis Motor Speedway, that fast, in very unprofessional terms. He said the other day that they're expecting, we were in that Twitter spaces and he jumped in there with us and we're talking about the downforce package

they're running this year. He's expecting the qualifying to be about 234 miles an hour. That's all? That's it. I want to know what that's like. When you're on edge, like I want you to describe about like, we're sitting at a bar and what you would say.

Well, the speed above 230 is, it's actually really wild. I would say the, the sensation per mile an hour is much more sensitive once you get above 230. Once you get above, once you're averaging above 228, 229, that sensation is, is very, very sensitive.

Like if you enter turn 3 down the back straight at 239 compared to 244, that you feel like you're doing 20 mile an hour more. So it's insane fast. When we're trimmed out doing that speed, it's the most ridiculous feeling ever because every sensory piece of your body is on overload. You're just trying to be as smooth as possible with your hands, as smooth as possible with everything and not die. That's it. So pretty, pretty wild feeling, but that's, you know, coolest feeling ever, really. That's key. Don't do that. Don't die. Well, let's just go ahead and get right to our guest since we are going to get into it. Great conversation with the president of the Indianapolis Sutter Speedway, Doug Bowles, my stepdad as well.

So yeah, let's jump right into it and see what he's got to say about this great place. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have a very important and prominent guest. this week, very, very special to the history of motor racing, very, very special to the greatest racetrack in the world, a part of my family, a very important part of my family. Jay Douglas Bowles, thank you for being here, a guest on the Speed Street podcast. We are here at the racetrack. You are in another room. We are in another room, but this is a professional podcasting. How do we feel after day one of a little bit of rain in the practice yesterday, but obviously

it looks great now. Are we feeling good for the rest of the week? Yeah, I think we feel good, certainly for today and tomorrow. You know, you never know Indiana weather where it's going to end up being Friday looks kind of iffy and you knows what the weekend's going to hold. But, you know, I've gotten to the point where I just don't worry about the weather. You can't do anything about it. So you just try and stay focused and hope that every day when you get here, it's going to be

a beautiful sunny day like it is right now. this morning. A little bummed out yesterday, where you maybe should have waited around a little longer because by the time, 5 o'clock rolled around, the racetrack was pretty dry, and sunset over here is up, 8.30, so we could have run you guys all night. Yeah, I think for those that were here, honestly, great crowd yesterday, first of all, Joey, I don't know if you noticed that, but a lot of people here. Garages were full, a ton of people interacting and wanting to see practice on Tuesday, day one, which again, I honestly feel it in my heart. I feel bad that we can't do anything.

Like when we got out there, like at one moment in the day, all of a sudden it was drying out. And I was like literally doing an appearance for Mount Comfort RV. I was over at their little place. And it started drying out. And I was like, I should probably go back because I think we're going to go on track. Sure enough, I literally get to the garage and they're like, yeah, go to a pit lane right now. And we're like, okay, all right.

All the drivers are running to pit lane. This happens on the fly because if you stop here in the jet dryers, right, Doug, that means that they've been called back and we might be able to go on track. So that was kind of what happened yesterday. How close were we to like, was it a 10 minutes? Like were we 10 minutes earlier? Then we could have gone out maybe for install laps. I think we were within four or five minutes actually going out on track when the drills started coming again. And you're right. When those jet tires go up, it means one and two things. We're about to go on track or it's raining. He's. and obviously it wasn't. So it was kind of fun to watch everybody scramble. And at one point in time looked up at the monitor, and Ed Carpenter's car was being towed out in pit lane, almost faster than I think the car goes on track. They were hurrying so much to get that car in the pit lane.

The teams were definitely scrambling. Now, I'm a little ignorant to all this, but when I think, okay, president of IMS, I'm thinking, that's president. You got the last call. What's the process in terms of the weather, how you get out there, who has to decide for a situation like we had on Tuesday? I think there are three really important components in those decisions. One of them is obviously

the NTT IndyCar series. So I talked to Jay several times throughout the day. Jason Pennix on the Speedway team is in race control. So he's sort of my voice to what's going on in race control as well. And Jason and Jay touch base certainly. And then the other piece we have to think through is our NBC peacock relationship, making sure that they're comfortable with everything. So they would have been fine, obviously, because they were planning on doing things until six. The conversation with them really would have been more important if we said, hey, we're going to go to seven or later to make sure that they continue to cover it. But Jay and I talked several times yesterday and actually a little before four,

when we made a decision to go ahead and shut things down, we both on the phone and thought, you know what will happen when we do this? And certainly it did. It dried right up and by a little after five. but everything was ready to go. Well, it's almost like racing science. I was in the pit lane getting ready to get in the car, and they told me, well, you should probably get in because we might go out.

And I said, as soon as I get in, it'll start raining more. And sure enough, as soon as you get in the car, it starts raining more. It's just it's motorsport science. It's what happens. If there was an ESPN segment about that, they would do that sports science. Don't bring us. Yep, exactly.

But I think not to stay too much on, the rain, but I think folks always find this interesting. And I actually got, I think, Callum Eilat or a couple other drivers, even Cold and Hurt, I think, asked me yesterday, like, there's obviously the air tighten and then there's the jet dryers, but there's obviously a certain cost, like, that it comes with the air titan. And, like, people see the air titans really for race weekends, probably. That's the most. And the track doesn't necessarily own air tightens. Like, you don't have a bunch of air tightens just packed away in the museum somewhere, right? Like there's, you have to bring those in for a race weekend and, but, but the jet dryers you have here. What,

what is the difference in drying time, do you know? And, and is that, is that really only a race weekend or qualifying weekend thing? Do you have them for qualifying too? So the air titans, we actually rent from NASCAR for race weekend. So they come in on that Wednesday or Thursday of race week. We have them here for Carb Day. In fact, I think we had them out during Carb Day last year to make sure that we try things off. And that's a $40,000, $45,000 spend to have those come in and just be on standby, even if you never use them. And then we've got six or seven jet dryers here on our own.

A jet dryer costs about $2,500 an hour to run a jet dryer. So when you've got six jet dryers out there for an hour, that bill goes up pretty quickly. I think our team would argue that at some level we think the jet dryer is just as effective and can be just as quick as the air tightens, especially if you've got some, sun and wind to help things. Our track tends to dry really, really quickly compared to a lot of other tracks, especially tracks that are flat. But those airtightens

when we've got them, it's just one more piece of equipment that can really help us just expedite that. Or you can get air tightens to focus on the racetrack and the jet dryers on pit lane or vice versa. The more you have to throw at drying the track off, the better off you are. But we don't feel like we really need it on a day like

yesterday or frankly for qualifying. We think those jet dryers apply the right way can be just as effective. Doug, I've been doing a lot of studying on past 500s, watching a lot of old ones with my son at 5 in the morning this month. And we all know that, you know, you're first and foremost, you're a huge race fan and a fan of this hollowed ground.

What's your favorite 500 ever? Oh, wow. Wow, that's such a tough question. It's funny, I've been working with the folks at NBC and a handful of other people to try and, you know, highlight the top 10 Indianapolis 500. It's just so hard because. Some of the racing was great.

Top 10? Wow. Top 10 would be a great list. But it's hard, right? Because some of the racing was great. But maybe there weren't those big iconic moments. You have like a Danny Sullivan spin and win. That race wasn't necessarily the greatest race in the world, but that's one of the most iconic moments.

So it's just really hard to define it. So I probably have three favorite races, 1977, which was my first 500. And I was such an AJ Foyt fan for him to win his fourth Indianapolis 500, probably ranks right up there. And just the memories of walking through the gates with my dad. And so many people fell in love with this place generationally, right? Because their granddad or their dad or whoever.

So I have that memory. I have that memory at some level every day I walk in the Speedway, I think about parking in the town of Speedway and walking through Gate 1, seeing a big guy with the Jesus saves, rainbow hair, standing out front. Just those memories as a 10-year-old still stick with me. And then the other two, 2013 was a big year for me. I wasn't quite president yet. I knew I was ultimately going to be.

I was a chief operating officer that year. Tony Kinnon finally wins an Indy 500. And there's nobody really that has been as passionate about that over the last couple of decades as TK was. Conner's first Indianapolis 500. So that was a really important race for me. And then 2021, for the same sort of two reasons. Leo Kastrian Nevis was a fourth, and that was pretty spectacular to see the way he celebrated.

And the coolest of now having another four-time winner that we can help continue to promote the Indianapolis 500. And then Connor leading his first Indianapolis 500. So those would probably be the three that are the ones that stick out in my mind as personally my most favorite. This place, obviously, I mean, those are some good ones. I mean, not bad. This place has some incredible history, some incredible things that happen here, obviously. but I would say that you are, you know, most heavily involved. I would say at a higher level than, let's say, most track presidents that I've seen.

Like, I've noticed, I've met a lot of track presidents that have been great and, like, love their facilities and stuff like that. I believe we got a question on Twitter, too, which I think is interesting. But, like, do you have, other than IMS, like, what was your, what's your, like, favorite facility? Like what's your favorite track? And like track, let's say like not just track, but like, who does the best job you think other than you guys here at the Speedway when it comes to track management facility, all that stuff? Well, there's an awful lot of great track presidents, track managers around the country. I probably have the most, the closest relationship I have.

And one of the guys I really appreciate is Greg Walter who runs Charlotte Motor Speedway. And part of that is because we have a mutual resolution. respect for each other. We sort of own Memorial Day Sunday and we communicate on how are we going to continue to promote each other's events. You know, they take the, they take the evening, we get the day, and we work pretty closely together. And I think that facility has a pretty good job of doing all kinds of different events and creative. We're both dirt track promoters at the same time. So there's a lot of things that we share in common. So that's definitely, definitely one of the tracks that I really appreciate. I love going to Gateway. You know, I love Curtis and Chris and the

things that they do over at Gateway. And part of that for me is it's another oval track, right? So I love oval racing. I think it's really important that we continue to try and keep that healthy. And then this will sound a little bit crazy. But I love Reese O'Connor and Kokomo Speedway. I mean, I think about just historic racetracks. And here's a guy that's a weekly racetrack promoter, you know, a quarter mile dirt track

and sort of the middle of Indiana. And Reese and the gang at Kokomo do great work. And any time I have a chance to go hang out of Kokomo in the dirt. That's a pretty good weekend, I mean. What and when can we expect to see some new developments going on outside of the track right off 16th and that turn two gate entrance right across the street? Yeah, that's a great question. And, you know, one of the things that Rogers said right away in November of 2019,

actually the day that it was announced that he was going to purchase the Speedway, is he really wanted to focus on A, the racing, keep it going, but also wanted to make this more of an entertainment destination. And then obviously COVID hits and the whole thing changed, right? He used to have our focus really on get the 500 healthy again. Let's get it back to what we expected it to be when he bought it. So that's really been our focus, 2021, 22, and even a little bit this year. Let's just really focus on our core business.

But we are now beginning to talk again about let's look at our 1,000 acres, not just the 300 acres that are inside the Speedway, but let's look at our entire 1,000-acre campus. Let's work with the town of Speedway in the city of Indianapolis and try and figure out exactly what we can do, especially with the property across the street. The property across the street houses the IndyCar offices, the Penske Entertainment or IMSP offices are across the street. What can we do with that piece of property? How do we make this a destination point? But also, if you think about it, it's the anchor to the west side of the city as you lead downtown.

So how can we use beef make that a catalyst to help spur development between our property? property and 16 Tech, which is an area downtown, how can we help grow that 16th Street corridor and just really create some economic redevelopment in the whole area? So that's our focus. I think you'll see a lot of movement there, probably beginning in 24 and 25 as we really start planning those things out. I got an idea. I'll throw my hat in if I can just get this out there. All right. So right across the street and it's just becomes a whole strip of bars. watering holes and you call it the pit stop and then you bar you so you have a whole campaign bar hop at the pit stop and then you it leads you right into the motor speedway I like that idea that would be that would be okay with me certainly and I think a lot of folks would like that but that's the idea right we need to find a way to create some sort of destination place where people want to be probably have to have some sort of racing theme or at least a real connection to the racetrack in the town and that's going to take that's going to take that's going to take

work from not just the Speedway and Penske Entertainment, but it's going to take work from the town of Speedway and the city of Indianapolis and some level of the state of Indiana to really think about what do we want this area to look like. There's about 400 acres of property that are south of the IndyCar offices that are owned by some private folks in the town together, and those folks all need to be included and figure out how do we really make this a destination location? So we got a couple questions here from fans as well that have gotten involved. And I think some of these are interesting. There's one that is what started the idea

behind the president's pin? I guess there's a president's pin of some sort. And this person that asked you gave one to their daughters. So obviously they love that and now the two-seater are running behind us. So in case you hear that sound, that's part of the podcast now.

It's all right. Carls on track. But yeah. Yeah, so the president pin started in 2016. It was something that I wanted to do. You know, people give challenge coins out, the military, other give challenge points out, but that's pretty limited. Those are great. And really, I didn't, this, I know this doesn't sound the right way. I didn't care to give something necessarily to an old fan like me.

I wanted to be able to get down on my knee and hand something to a young kid and say, hey, thanks for coming, and try and make a moment that a kid would remember and say, you know what, I'm going to be a fan of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the 8500. So I created these, or our creative team, I asked them to created these pins called President Penn. So we did our first one in 2016, and we've had a different one every year. I have one this year that I give out, and it's only for kids. I used to give them to anybody, but then I started to see them for sale online. And then I thought, that's not cool.

This is really not supposed to be a collector's item. This is supposed to be a connecting point for kids. So like last year's PIN, I have right here, it's just a little state of Indiana pen. It says back home again because we were back home again. And I bet this year's just a little oval and it just got my name and the date on it and I hand it to a kid and say, hey, thanks. and I say to the parent, hey, thanks for bringing kids is the most important thing we do.

So it's just a really cool way to connect with a kid and hopefully put a seed in their brain that you know what, IndyCar is cool. Last one for me before we get to the hardcore fan questions like Connor was talking about, and I just have to ask because we talk about it pretty regularly on the show. So to have the president of IMS on, I have to bring it up. How does IMS and how do you continue to battle Formula One

and the growing popularity, but then also the nonsense that they try to spew about taking away trademark type of things from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Yeah, we've talked about this a lot on the show, obviously, and I think Doug and my mother have listened every now and then to the show. Yeah, yeah. We obviously think that IndyCar and I mess should be suing the pants off of F1. But yeah, obviously, you have the more business mind. So let us know, I guess, what the thoughts are on that. Well, the mark's clearly ours, right? I mean, it's the greatest spectacle of racing.

I don't care how you rearrange the words. It's still ours. And when we first heard it, we thought, this can't be right. And then we began to see it a little bit more, sort of mostly initially connected to the Vegas race. And so we reached out and decided the right way to do it was through just sort of personal connection. and then we drafted a more formal letter that was still not totally legal. It came from, we penned it from Mark to sign, and we sent that to the folks at Liberty and said, hey, this is clearly our mark, as we've discussed.

We'd like you to stop using it. They responded that they would stop using it and make sure that in places where they had previously used it, they would try and scrub that so it wasn't around. And then we thought we were fine. And then Miami happens in pre-race and so. So it's caused us to have to have to have another conversation. You know, the last thing we want to do is get in a situation where we're suing somebody. But in the intellectual property world, if you want to protect your mark, you have to vigorously defend it.

And that's why you get in, sometimes you see the weird stories about the NFL cracking down on the small church who's having a NFL watching party. Well, they have to because if they don't do it there, then it takes away their leverage to be able to protect it in situations where they really have to. So we are taking us seriously. I think Liberty understands we're taking us seriously. And basically we said, hey, we're race fans. We want you to be successful. But hey, that's our mark. Go create your own.

Go create your own history. Go create your own connection to the Speedway. And leave us alone. And I think ultimately that's where it will end up. Well, I think we see it so often with the Super Bowl, right? You can't say Super Bowl. Like people, like you have to say the big game or the superb owl. I remember that.

Like there's like there's things that you have to use. And that's like, I think very obvious to people. Like people know that like when you say the big game, like, all right, okay, we can't say Super Bowl. So it is it is something that I completely agree with. Like the fact that they cannot use it is, I mean, yeah, we should be, you know, showing up with swords and shields at their offices, you know, a bunch of IndyCar fans if we need to. Like it's only the charge. Yeah, exactly.

Like it's just, it's absurd. Especially since they don't. really do a lot of racing in that motor racing series. But I think we have a lot here as well, but we don't want to take up too much your time. I think there's an interesting question that I saw from fans. Do you actually get to watch many of the sessions? Like when we're out there, do you take some time to see what's going on? Like obviously we've had six hours of practice. You've got like seven hours today, something like that. But do you actually, I assume there's a lot going on from a operational standpoint, but you also have a lot of employees. So

do you get to watch many of the sessions? Do you get to watch many of the things that are going on out there aside from doing the business? I don't get to watch very much, unfortunately. That's the challenge of where we are. Today, for example, as we're getting ready to go, I'm pretty much back to back to back until about three o'clock today. And then that's including, you know, inside all that, I'm trying to keep up with phone calls and, you know, other things as stuff comes comes about. So for the most part, I will put the app on my phone or in my track side office here, which is really a broom closet. I have a little TV in here, so I'll least have a timing and scoring up so I can kind of keep track of what's going on. And if there's an incident on track,

I get an alert, and then I'll try and spend a few minutes just making sure everything's okay. The track's okay. Safeway wall's okay. Driver's okay. You know, all those things to make sure that we're moving forward. But I don't, I mean, even race day is not a great thing for me in terms of being able to watch it. I'll watch the start. I get to drive one of the Camaros at the front of the grid, which is awesome. I get in the track just in time. Usually I park inside a turn one and get out of the car and watch you guys all scream through turn one. And that's about all I get to watch then. And the rest of the time, I'm just trying to solve problems and help the team execute for our 325,000 fans that are here. I have a quick question. So one of my favorite modes

from this year from Media Day was when Beth Bowles went in and ambush Conner's in your view. You could use a little insight in whose idea that was? Probably it was probably my idea and I don't know that I want to admit that, but we

so we actually had done one day of Media Day before the day that Connor and several other drivers came through and we were doing these Doug and driver meetings. We had 10 drivers I think that we were doing and we were trying to do these weekly conversations leading up to the Indianapolis 500. So we had them planned out on

exactly who was going to be where. And we knew we were going to use Connor to kick the month of May off. You know, nobody really more popular in this community at the racetrack than Connor. Having led the last two 500s, it's just a really, you know, a really cool story. Only, only Indianapolis born or central Indiana born driver in the field, you know, a couple of them that really are residents. Obviously, a lot of folks are relocated here. And so we were driving from Palm Springs convention center back to thermal and Beth was with me. I said, you know, I got a crazy idea and I don't know if, I don't know if this will work or not, but what if we plan this thing, we get things started? I act like I'm getting a phone call. I'll say to Zach, hey,

I don't want to waste Connor's time. You know, so the whole thing plays out and Beth in the car says, I don't want to do that. And so I know, she said, well, Connor will like it and I won't be any good and it just, it just won't work. And so as we talked through the evening, went to bed and she wasn't in. And then the next day, Zach, Zach Horrell, who does a lot of our social media, said, you know, we think this is a great idea. It could be really funny. And honestly, the only reason it worked is because Connor was the way he was. Had Connor just said, okay, I'm going to be serious about this and just treat it like an interview. It would have been terrible. But the fact that he treated it like every kid would treat it if his mom sat down

and was going to interview him made it so perfect, right? I mean, it's exactly how if my mom sat down and started interviewing, like, Mom, I got busy this studio. I don't want to talk about my facial hair and the whole thing. But the great part on, so after Beth knew Zach wanted to do it, then she started talking about, well, here's what I think I'll do. And it just, frankly, it worked out because of the way Connor's reactions were. It's hysterical, right? It's exactly how it should have worked.

And had Connor just answered the questions, it would not have been nearly as funny. It's the last one I got. And it's also from Cow Kid One on Instagram. Any red carpet guests to hint or announce? And also green flag. Who's waving it? Do we have any idea? So I think we have, so today, we're taking this is Wednesday.

We have an announcement tomorrow. We all have an announcement Friday announcement Monday and announcement Tuesday. So all those things will start to unfold here over the course of the next five or six days. I think the last announcement will make. as a pace car driver. I think we do that next Tuesday. Nice. So they're all sorted. They're all set. I'm really excited about the green flag. I think it's going to connect really well to that there's a huge group of people who may not be race fans who probably follow this person. So I think that's one of the key things you really try and do when you bring somebody like that

that in from a name standpoint. So I'm looking forward to that. But that all starts here of the next couple of days. That's awesome. Well, Doug, I don't want to take up too much here. as we know there's a lot going on here. And we also got to record the rest of our show too. So thank you so much for being a part of our show. And before you go, though, tell us maybe a year that we should use. I know you love our random Indy 500 driver the week segment. Do you have a year for us for the random Indy 500 driver of the week segment that we could choose for this week's Ricky Shredway Random Indy 500 Driver the Week? Yeah, that's a great question. And I do a random year. Your last one was a hit.

I do love the segment. What I love about the segment is sometimes you guys come up with names that for people who grew up through, especially through the 60s and 70s or even the 80s, and they have some weird names. It's fun to watch the way you guys pronounce them. And that's what makes it beautiful. You could do a lot of the work on that point and they get them exactly right, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun.

You know, I don't have one in particular off the top of my head. I'm trying to think of something that would fit really well. You know, maybe 1970. which would be Rogers' first win year. It's a Mark Donahue year. It's one of the coolest cars to win the Indy 500. That's Sonoco 66 with a big massive wing on the back. That's back in the day when they had tires the size of the car.

And they had super speed down in the front stretch. And then they had to figure out how to get through the corners. So a 72 race might be a fun one because you're going to probably get a mix of road race drivers in there, as well as some crazy short track driver names. So you might be able to find a good name in 1972. All right, but we're doing 1972. Yep. Doug Bowles.

Thank you so much. I'll see you on the track today after all you're done with all your meetings. All right, good luck today. Thank you. Thanks, guys. There he is, president of IMS, Doug Bowles, Connor's stepdad, kind of all of our, you know, racing dads in a way here. Our race fans, you know, he's just kind of pop up to all of us. It feels like great conversation with him.

No, he's busy. So appreciate that. 172. We're doing it. Rakey Treadaway, random 8, 800 driver from 1972, as courtesy from the press himself. What do we got? Yeah, absolutely.

We got the 1972 Indianapolis 500, as Doug Bowles mentioned. We are going to go with the seventh place finisher. His name is Mike Hiss. Mike Hiss. Not Mike Hiss. Sounds like a pretty guy. Mike Hiss. Seventh place finisher.

He was, looks like he is sadly not alive. So this is another one in the RIP section. He raced in the 1972 to 1976 seasons, 28 career starts, including the Indianapolis 500, 1972 through 1975. Interesting. Hiss was the centerfold of the first preview issue of Playgirl magazine. Hell you. Published in 1973.

What? He was briefly married to Arlene. is the first woman to start a USAC champ car event. So I'm going with the ladies. Yeah. Mike Hiss, a complete dog. Like, wow, that's a neverfold. First issue of Playgirl magazine.

Didn't know that was a real thing. I tell you what, you learn new things every day. Mike Hiss. Interesting. Yeah, he's a decent looking fellow. Maybe he just, you know, had the sweat. He had that dog. He had that dog.

They liked, the hair, the smile. I don't know. Yeah. It's like if Joseph Newgarden was, you know, he'd be on Playgirl today. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah. That's really. Yeah, he'd be on there, the jett off and everything like that.

Highly featured. So my kiss passed away in 2018, but seventh place finisher in the, the 1972, Indianapolis, 500 mile range. Yeah, he started on the front row in 1974, which is wild. But, yeah, best finish is seven. I tried to make it in 1976, did not qualify. and then 1978 did not start for some reason. He started 8th, but he did not even start. So not even sure what man.

Right there. He qualified the North for Mario Andredi who was driving Formula 1. There you go. Right. That makes sense. Mike Hiss, friends with Mario and Reddy, two dogs. Mike Hits, friends with Mike Hong Gangsters. Yeah.

So very, very good there. All right, appreciate that from Doug. Connor's got a run. He's got full day in the car, full day behind other mics. So hope to see everybody out here at the track today. tomorrow this weekend. And we're into race week, everybody. So thank you for being with us. As always, be sure to do all the good things. Follow, subscribe, like, rate, review, send it to a friend. Yelp. Speed Street, as when you see us at the track. And we will be back next week to preview,

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