Could IndyCar ace out the promoter who brought racing back to the Milwaukee Mile?

The possible return of IndyCar to the Milwaukee Mile in 2024 is down to the details and a deadline.

This much is clear: Management of both the series and State Fair Park, where the track is located, have expressed a desire to get together again, and a top IndyCar official recently called such a race “likely.”

What’s not clear, though, is whether the i’s can be dotted and t’s crossed on a public-private partnership within the next week or so and who will be involved.

One scenario seems to be the promoter who brought racing back to the track in 2019 and NASCAR back last month could be cut out of the crowning achievement in the racetrack’s resurrection.

“I can honestly tell you that everything is still a work in progress,” State Fair Park board chairman John Yingling said Monday. “The model that we are not using is the model the track had used for just decades upon decades, which is just giving the track over to a single promoter and hoping for the best.”

That landlord/tenant relationship was used into the 2000s before the model shifted to promoters renting the facility to put on an event. Earlier this summer, Yingling and Fair CEO and executive director Shari Black characterized the recent relationship between the park and Track Enterprises as a collaboration.

More: Key dates Wisconsin racing fans should know for 2023

IndyCar says it would promote a Milwaukee race if there is one

In an interview with NBC Sports published over the weekend, Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment, said IndyCar itself would promote a Milwaukee race, the way it does the street course race in downtown Detroit and the doubleheader at Iowa Speedway, which it rents from NASCAR for the weekend.

That was news to Bob Sargent, whose Track Enterprises spearheaded the return of racing to the oval with a grassroots stock-car event in 2019, the ARCA national series in 2021 and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last month. That truck race, which drew about 15,000 spectators, was the first large-scale, national motorsports event at the track since IndyCar left after 2015.

Sargent said he has not been on the front line in conversations with IndyCar. He said he left a meeting with Yingling on Monday hoping to be a part of an IndyCar race at the Mile but not completely clear where he or the race stood.

On NASCAR weekend, Sargent said he expected to bring the trucks back in 2024, along with a Midwest Tour stock car race on Father’s Day weekend, while adding to the schedule if possible. It is unclear how the other weekends could be affected if Track Enterprises is not involved in an IndyCar race at the Mile.

2024 schedules will be announced soon

Both NASCAR and IndyCar are expected to announce their schedules within the next couple of weeks.

“I’ve got probably three or four ideas,” Yingling said of the potential business arrangement between State Fair Park and IndyCar. “And it’s basically moving through all those ideas and what’s best, not only for State Fair Park, the Milwaukee Mile, but also what’s best to bring back racing in a real and meaningful way.

“I know it’s more of an elusive answer, but at this point in time, I honestly do not know, completely, what the structure will look like. All I know is we continue to have good and positive discussions.”

The Mile, which hosted its first motor race 120 years ago this week, has been the site of 114 Indy-style championship races sanctioned by AAA, USAC, CART, Champ Car and IndyCar.

Over the last few decades, though, various promoters tried and were unable to run a profitable IndyCar event. The track has not hosted IndyCar in eight years, since the conclusion of a four-year run for the company owned by champion driver Michael Andretti.

Racetrack improvements are ongoing

In December, the State Building Commission approved nearly $3 million for improvements at the track to be paid for with funds from State Fair Park, the state and private fundraising.

The first phase of work completed this year included concrete wall work and asphalt inside Turns 2 and 4, the replacement of all SAFER barriers, the steel-and-foam wall coverings that lessen the impact of a crash and the reinforcement of some posts in the catch fence to the outside of the track.

Phase 2 could begin in October. It is tentatively set to include the modular walls and fencing inside all turns and along the back stretch, more fence post reinforcement and repaving of some of the front stretch and pit road. Weather and other factors make those details subject to change, a State Fair Park representative said.

In the NBC Sports story, Miles was asked why this attempt by IndyCar to race at Milwaukee would be successful when previous tries had failed.

“Two things will be different,” he said. “One is the state and the fair board are putting real money into improving the condition of the place. Indy 500 fans will think Penske-esque. They are going to make investments and it will be a better track, more safe, and our fans will feel that. That’s a big thing. Year over year over year, it was declining in terms of its condition.

“The second thing is we are going to promote it. We have done that at Detroit, and we have done it with Hy-Vee’s help at Iowa, and we do a few races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We’re not going to let it take second shift, we are going to work hard at it and make it the best event it can be.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Mile 2024 IndyCar race likely; details 'a work in progress'