During this offseason, something calling itself the IndyCar Drivers Association sent a letter to five very senior members of Penske Entertainment, asking for IndyCar to step up its marketing. It was, by most accounts, an ill-conceived and ill-constructed missive from a loose band of drivers, and apparently it went down like a cup of cold vomit with those at the top.
“We have to tell the story of IndyCar, explain why people who are already fans of it are so into it,” he tells Autosport. “This series will force us to do that, and it will hopefully pull in new people, create new fans.” “For just one example, fuel-saving: I know a lot of people say that sounds boring but in reality it’s really fascinating and difficult to do well, especially across a portfolio of different types of racecourse. Going fast while saving fuel is such a big part of our racing, and explaining how being able to do that opens up new strategies for the team is the kind of detail I hope we can get into.”
“We’ve had some experience of this over the years,” he says. “I understand the dynamic of capturing the events of a weekend and having strangers in your space. This will probably be more intrusive, you’re right, but that’s part of the deal, and we’ve got to be more open to showing what our sport is. I don’t think there’s an easy way to approach this, but we must let people in to show what’s going on and still stay concentrated on the job at hand.
“I think if we do a good job and we provide good access and captivating details about why the sport is so difficult and why it’s so fun, and if we are able to show the various personalities, I don’t see why this can’t be a longterm thing that we expand down the road,” he says. “I think it’s what IndyCar deserves because our racing is so good.”
Helio Castroneves – evergreen but now in the twilight of his IndyCar career – is blessed with a personality around which you could base at least half the series. For those who wonder if the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner's ebullience is fake, it isn’t. His former strategist and Penske team president Tim Cindric admitted that back in 2000, he had doubts that Castroneves’ constant enthusiasm was genuine, but swiftly realised it was – and that it never changed.
Asked if IndyCar needed something like this some time ago, Castroneves replies: “Sure, it’s always great to have a network wanting to expose your sport to more people – there’s no bad time for that to happen. But you have to look at the circumstances we had. I think since Roger Penske took over IndyCar and the Speedway, that was always gonna help, but then right away we had the pandemic and a lot had to be done by Penske Entertainment just to keep the series surviving.