Indy Media Day notes

AutoRacing1 reporter Tim Wohlford hard at work during INDYCAR Media Day

Marco Andretti caught himself "sounding like a team owner." Well, this is his 10th Indy season coming up, and I poked some fun at him noting that he's almost the old man of Andretti Autosport. He says that Ryan Hunter-Reay still has him covered though. But most of us remember this guy back in the day when he still didn't need to shave much.

IndyCar head honcho Mark Miles could've easily filled up another hour with things he wanted to say. He took time to explain to IndyCar fans that IndyCar is not shortening the season, just shifting it to a February (weekend after Superbowl) thru Labor Day. The trouble is, of course, that the early races are a work in progress. Ultimately, he wants 20 races total, and they're at 17 now. IndyCar is looking for a solid event for Labor Day weekend, preferably something near a major urban area (which kinda rules out Road America), and presumably someplace where they can build "Date Equity." He also figures that 2 "International" dates will be needed to fill out the early schedule, if for no other reason that climate considerations. At that point, adding new North American venues will usually involve another venue losing its date.

Miles also wanted everyone to know that IndyCar was quickly gathering strength. TV ratings were up 25% last year over the previous year. Attendance for the Indy 500 – and he gave attendance figures (?!?!!!) of 285,000 for the 500, and 360,000 for the month of May — was up significantly. TV viewing for Indy in May was up 55%. This is NOT boring stuff — increased TV ratings, and larger crowds, mean more money to play with for things like non-spec racing in the future. And Indy definitely is tired of spec racing.

Chevy placed heavy emphasis on its technical savvy during today's unveiling. The usual stuff, computer aided design (CAD), finite element analysis (FEA), and so on. I looked on with interest at the computer gear being used, as I once supported the old CAD workstations they had in the mid 90's. All computer gear has taken a quantum leap since then, and GM seems to be using everything available. Talking with team engineers as well as drivers, discussion centered on the actual test driving seeking to validate what the computer models were giving the designers. And that computer simulations are rapidly replacing wind tunnel time, even in F1. If Can-AM and the 1960's was a triumph of trial-and-error, "That looks about right" engineering, we are now solidly in the era of geeks with mice sitting at seriously expensive workstations.

Josef Newgarden has a great sense of humor, and a passable Will Power Aussie accent. He did an impromptu introduction of Power for the last press conference of the day, instructing the assembled media to ask about Will's encounters with new team member Simon Pagenaud. Pagenaud was the butt of "Pepe LePew" comments from Juan Pablo Montoya. This has to be the funniest Penske press conference in recent memory.

Back to Miles — big plans are coming for IMS. And they all sound expensive, with IMS floating a $100 million loan for improvements. They'd love to do wifi for the crowd, but finding someone who has previously wired a 250,000-person stadium for wifi has been challenging — they've already spent $20 million to do a partial wifi. Also slated to be replaced are the upper levels grandstands, which date back to the 1970's. There are security concerns that need to be examined too, in the era of terrorism. They know that they've not kept pace with places like Texas and Charlotte, and they intend to fix that.

— Tim Wohlford, reporting from IMS Media Day