Yesterday was a real exciting day…

When talking with Mark Miles, the President and CEO of Penske Entertainment, I asked if I could get a tour of the new and updated Indianapolis Motor Speedway. To my surprise he said yes, after qualifications. As directed I sent an e-mail to his office to remind him and the response was yes and to be at the Administration Building at 2pm yesterday the 18th.

I was told I could invite my first co-host of Autosport Radio, Rodger Ward Jr. At 2pm we arrived at the Admin Building. Upon entering we were scanned to take our temperature. We were both cleared. Both of us were good to go.Our guide for the tour came from his office upstairs and when the elevator doors opened our guide came out. Very much to my surprise our guide was going to be Mark Miles. Also joining us was a man that his been involved in all aspects of the work that is and has been done. He is Pat Garlock the assistant manager of facilities and events. Pat has been involved with not only assisting with the planning but over seeing the work being done. There were 2 golf carts out in back for us. Pat drove one cart with Mark and Rodger drove our cart.
The tour took us every where and that included 4 completely redone restrooms. You won’t believe what you will see. The waste cans that say “Keep Indy Clean” are mounted to the walls. There is no more paper towels as all rest rooms are equipped with electric hand dryers. The larger rest rooms have more than one hand dryer.All concession stands have been rehabbed and repainted as well all pipes that feed water to the concession stands and rest rooms have been cleaned and painted. The signs are all in yellow and black thus very easy to see and read.
The media parking lot is now on the south side of the 500 Legion building, paved and larger.  A road will be put in along side the Legion building allowing access from Crawfordsville road and entering from the West . The area behind the main straight (Paddock)stands has been widened thus reducing Georgetown road to 2 lanes. Fans will have room to get to their seats much easier as there is a lot more room.
In the paddock grand stands where. if your seats were up high you could not see much more than the pit area. Now there are score boards mounted on every column that support the upper deck Paddock. Now fans that have seats high up will be able to see what is going on, the running order, the speeds and all the activities on track during the race. These seats have now taken a whole new life.
The guard rails around the road course have been painted. What an eye catching change that is. The lawns are all manicured beautifully. There are metal picnic tables throughout the facility that are around 600 pounds .. or more .. that will not blow away in a hurricane. Mr Penske wants families to be able to sit, relax and enjoy their time at the Speedway and the race. He has gone full speed ahead to make sure it is fan and family friendly and from what I saw today he is doing exactly that. Even so far to to remove trees that were not doing well and replacing them.
Behind the Pagoda we saw the 100 by 18 foot video board. It is absolutely spectacular. Fans will love this.
The Victory Circle which was built back in the 1990’s with a platform that was to raise the winning car up to the top of Victory Circle was only used once or twice to my memory. Mr Penske has installed a new hydraulic lift just to the south of the original platform to raise the car to the top of Victory Circle while the original lift has had a small grand stand installed to allow the photographers access to clear shots of the celebration.
On our way to the Admin Building to conclude our tour Mark stopped his cart and went back and picked up a flattened soda can. A bit further along Pat stopped and picked up a candy wrapper. Not to be outdone we spotted and clear plastic wrapper so we stopped and picked it up. Pat said that ALL are told that is you see something on the ground you pick it up. Also during an event all restrooms will be closed for a few minutes every hour to be cleaned.
When you get to return here you will be absolutely blown away. The job that the Penske Entertainment Group staff and Mr Penske have done and are continuing to do is beyond words. I have been coming here since Speedway 1964 and have always gotten chills whenever I came in the gate. But today the Indianapolis Motor has taken on a whole new look so that when you enter you won’t believe your eyes.
This is a summary of what has been done to date:
100’x18′ Pagoda Plaza Media Wall

500 points of credit card sales

5G In venue

3,000 gallons of paint

More than 50 renovated concession stands

125 refreshed restrooms

2,400 tons of concrete

Lighted gates 1 and 2

15,000 linear feet of new fencing

280,000+ square feet of asphalt

Over 30 new LED boards


To say it was very impressive would be an under statement!!!Hope you get to enjoy it for yourself soon…