Business at the Brickyard: Race weekend is here

追加: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Hello and welcome to Inside Indiana Business. I'm Gary Dick coming to you again this week from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as we wrap up our month-long business at the Brickyard series. And what a month of May it has been at the Brickyard. As usual, a little bit of everything here. Weather washing out day one of qualifying leading to some added drama on Sunday with Alex Pollo ultimately taking the pole position. It's a 2319 to the top on a 232.

[00:00:33]>> But this weekend is what it's all about.

[00:00:37]>> From the roar of the engines to the sea of fans filling the grand stands here.

[00:00:44]>> Aim right. Aim >> to the timehonored traditions that stir emotion.

[00:00:57]There is nothing quite like race weekend in Indianapolis. The 110th running of the Indy500 will be a global sporting spectacle.

[00:01:12]>> A cherished Hooser tradition that also serves as a powerful economic engine.

[00:01:17]This year, the momentum around the 500 continues on multiple levels. Another grandstand sellout. The local television blackout has been lifted, adding to excitement and a wave of momentum around the race and a growing recognition that this is about a lot more than the race.

[00:01:34]It is a global showcase for Indianapolis and Indiana.

[00:01:38]>> Drivers, start your engines.

[00:01:45]>> And no one understands that impact more than Doug Bulls, the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and also Indie Car as well. Doug, uh, it's here.

[00:01:53]Uh, race weekend. Uh, it's been quite a month.

[00:01:56]>> It has been a good month. Other than the rain on Saturday, but getting everything in on Sunday was really good. Felt like great crowds. Uh, we had a new merch store, you know, that. So, a lot of good things happening here.

[00:02:05]>> Talk about uh that qual Sunday qualifying. Added being washed out on Saturday, added a little drama to Sunday. Uh, seemed to be a lot of uh fired up fans here.

[00:02:15]>> Yeah, it's our biggest Sunday crowd we've had, at least in recent memory.

[00:02:18]So, that was really exciting. Fans seem to really enjoy it. I know for the teams was a little bit of a challenge. You got one shot. You had to guess a little bit on the weather. Uh so that was interesting, but ultimately it turned out to be a pretty good day.

[00:02:32]>> You talked you've talked a lot about the relationship with Fox Sports. Uh and I know watching the qualifying, some of the technology that they were using with the uh driver's eye cam and the ghost car. Uh some pretty cool technology.

[00:02:45]>> Yeah, they continue to do that and invest in that. The driver's eye, I think, is a spectacular view. It's interesting. I hear from teams, they're looking at the steering wheel, the drivers through that at the driver's eye seeing if they can learn a competitive advantage. The ghost car was a lot of fun to see where those folks are running against others in qualifying. But those are the kind of things that Fox is helping us do to make that experience for our our consumer and the folks who watch on TV understand it better.

[00:03:06]>> So that television piece doesn't seem to be detracting from ticket sales. You're sold out in the grand stands again.

[00:03:12]Network uh blackout locally has been lifted. Um do you think that's going to become a regular occurrence? It's really interesting, you know, for a long period of time because we have to get 235,000 seats, we've been really reluctant to let that go, but there's been 50% of the folks inside that said, "Hey, it it benefits us." And then 50% are like, "Let's see where we are." So, this is, I think, our fourth time in six years, maybe our fifth time in seven years that we've actually had the the local delay lifted. So, we'll see where it goes.

[00:03:40]>> What's driving this? There's clearly momentum around uh the Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What's driving it? Is it one thing or a multitude?

[00:03:49]>> No, there's a whole bunch of things, but it really starts with the fans, especially this race. The fans adopt it so much and they come back and they bring different people and it's it's a tradition for them. So, it's the fans that start here and then I think it's a bunch of other elements that really help us on our Indie Car series. The Fox piece really obviously helps going to places like Arlington, really trying to create events, but it really does start with the fans. I know growing that television audience, television revenue are important aspects of what you're trying to do here and throughout the series as you look at efforts demographically to get a younger crowd in. Got a lot of entertainment uh in and around the speedway. Is it working?

[00:04:25]>> Ladies and gentlemen, >> I think it's working. And and for a traditionalist like me, some of the things are you think, ah, why are they doing that? Why do you have a weenie 500? But the way that attracts young folks, we had a monster truck set a world record for a monster truck at 103 or 104 miles an hour here the other day.

[00:04:41]Monster truck connects to youth and just a number of young kids here. So, we have to get a little creative and maybe do some things that aren't exactly what the traditionalist might think is the right way to do that and I think that helps grow the sport.

[00:04:51]>> Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug BS as always. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:04:55]>> They call him the Iceman, but today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he is redhot AND HE IS THE WINNER OF THE 92ND INDIANAPOLIS 500 MILE RACE. WELL, a big honor this week for a legendary indie car driver with six series titles and an Indianapolis 500 win under his belt.

[00:05:12]>> It's an amazing feeling and you can see why people that have won it once try so hard to win it again.

[00:05:18]>> 2008 Indie 500 champ Scott Dixon inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame this week. Dixon is second only to AJ Foy in alltime Indie Car wins. Gian Paulo Delara, also part of the IMS Hall of Fame Museum, class of 2026.

[00:05:37]>> I put the metal down, the pedal, whatever they want to call it, and I never lifted and I didn't. I mean, it it's a true fact that I run around there wide open. and Allenser Senior, one of only four members of the four-time Indie Winners Club, now recognized just outside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a newly enhanced $2.1 million roundabout at 16th and Main Streets, named after Big Al this week by speedway officials.