![]() ![]() “(Penske) has never experienced it from the position he has now, so we all want to do it well for him.” I remember why I’ve gone to 30, 40, 50 races in a row.” So that’s really important. “But I think having everyone come back, we all feel a little bit more pressure that we want people to come back and go, ‘Jeez, I remember why I love this place. “There’s always pressure because you want the Indy 500 to be special,” IMS president Doug Boles told NBC Sports. The track’s 110 suites have been sold out since the middle of March, and advance grandstands sales have been trending double digits ahead of three years ago – raising the possibility of the track’s first sellout since the centennial race in 2016 A few days before the 2021 race, Penske proclaimed he wanted to “blow the roof off this place” with the 106 th running in ’22, and the signs have been trending positively since. The anticipation has been building for more than a year. Now the trick is showcasing the temple of vroom’s shiny new veneer when more than 300,000 people descend on the track May 29 for the first fully attended Indy 500 since the COVID-19 pandemic began.Īfter a muted start without a crowd in 2020, the Speedway came back to life last year with a limited crowd of 135,000 witnessing the history of Helio Castroneves becoming the fourth four-time Indy 500 winner – setting the stage for an even bigger splash in 2022. Instead of vetting the premises for new projects, Penske’s trips lately have been more about validating all of the new concepts and construction he has commissioned in the two years since buying the deed to the Brickyard.Īt least $30 million in upgrades have been made under Penske’s stewardship at IMS, which has countless fresh coats of paint, LED lighting and gleaming videoboards waiting at (literally) every turn. I’ve got a special golf kart, and it’s high speed, so I can get around.” “Every time I go there, I make two or three. “Oh, I’ll make a lot,” Penske told with a laugh when asked how many full tours of the property he’ll log in May. STARTING LINEUP: Where the 33 drivers will take the green flag INDY 500 SUNDAY: Schedules and how to watch on NBC 18 for his team’s record Indy 500 win total), Penske never stops motoring around the grounds of the world’s most famous racetrack and finding new details (both minute and gargantuan) to improve. On a souped-up golf kart (which bears the No. Penske is covering a lot more ground by regularly zooming around the entire Brickyard – a sprawling 250-acre facility whose footprint comfortably can fit the Rose Bowl, the Roman Colosseum, Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium and the White House (with still enough space left over for several more world-renowned landmarks). INDIANAPOLIS – The owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway enjoys turning laps around his most prized possession, but former race car driver Roger Penske can hit the rev limiter without going 240 mph on the 2.5-mile ribbon of asphalt that hosts the Indy 500.
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