Mark Miles IndyCar teleconference highlights

Mark Miles

Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles held a teleconference with the media today. Here are a few highlights bullet-point style with a full-transcript to follow

– Miles acknowledged Aero kits have been a "mixed bag." While they have added to competition and engineering, there have also been "issues to teams related to supply and costs"

– TV ratings flat, digital metrics expanding

– Acknowledged that 2016 schedule will end depending on when it begins. That of course means possibly going past Labor Day, although Miles continued to acknowledge that wasn't ideal from a TV standpoint.

– Miles did also mention that he's guessing "Boston won't be the finale, at this point"

– Road America was brought up. "Something we're looking really hard at," was the way Miles described it. He mentioned the Pirelli World Challenge weekend as a possibility (the last weekend of June). And we know Fontana isn't going to be back in that date so…?

– Phoenix was mentioned. Miles mentioned that Phoenix had the same weather challenges of Fontana and also the challenge of working around the two NASCAR dates and whether, for example, a February date worked for Phoenix

– Miles said he enjoyed Saturday's race at Fontana. As for the notion that it was dangerous he acknowledged that the tight racing was a product of two factors

1. The series did probably go a step too far with downforce
2. Cooler temperatures

– Miles said a few times he was not pleased with 'stakeholders' comments after the race Saturday at Fontana, which he deemed as "potentially damaging to the series." He said that this culture will change. "And whether I'm pounding my chest about it or not, you can assure it will happen."

Brian C. reporting for AutoRacing1