IndyCar 2024 postseason race in Argentina no longer "viable option", says Mark Miles
Having publicly discussed the idea of IndyCar running a non-points-paying postseason race in Argentina in the fall of 2024 for nearly two years and claiming the project to be "in good shape" and "feasible" as recent as late-November, Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said Wednesday he no longer sees the schedule addition "as a viable option for this year."
The confirmation had been expected for weeks, following MotoGP's cancellation of its own event, scheduled for April of this year, at the same circuit IndyCar had been targeting (Autódromo Termas de Rio Hondo) on the basis of the deteriorating economic conditions in the country that include high rates of inflation and poverty across the country. Though Miles had long pledged that the country's recent presidential election, completed in mid-November with the election of libertarian economist Javier Milei, wouldn't impact the execution of IndyCar's October 2024 race plans, reports regarding MotoGP's cancellation have noted the new president's deep spending cuts to try and get the economy back on track.
The event was notably left off IndyCar's 2024 schedule release in late-September, but Miles told Motorsport.com in mid-November that the event's prospects were "in good shape", noting the need to get through the election before being able to formally wrap things up with local and national officials, as well as the various parties making up the race promoter.
Weeks later during a Race Industry Week forum, Miles said, in football terms, that he wasn't sure if the event's progress was "in the red zone" or "just inside the 50-yard-line" but noted it seemed quite feasible to finalize.
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"The presidential election happened, and by all indications, that hasn't presented any new challenges for us," Miles said. "We have a promoter putting together the components to organize a great event. We have a fantastic facility available to us, so I think it's an example of kinds of things where we just have to get everything dotted and crossed, and hopefully it can happen and can be formalized in the early part of Q1 next year."
Some team officials and drivers had expressed confusion as to the reason for heading abroad for an international, non-points-paying event, given the somewhat complicated logistics involved. Miles responded in noting that if a venue was interested in holding a similar event in the U.S., the series would see little reason to withhold it from the championship -- obviously, ignoring the existence of the non-points-paying exhibition at The Thermal Club this March. The benefit, Miles had previously told IndyStar, was the fact that a promoter would largely pay all the teams' travel and lodging fees, while tacking on roughly $200,000 per Leaders Circle entry as a direct payout to the teams to help make it worth their while even as they may have sponsors with little connection to the Argentine market.
"We wouldn't do it if the organizer wouldn't also pay for all the costs to get the cars, freight, teams, people and room-and-board," Miles said. "In our minds' eye, that would be additive and helpful."
Discussions around the prospect of the event initially swirled midway through the 2022 season, only increasing following the exhibition event Juncos Hollinger Racing and its Argentine owner (Ricardo Juncos) and driver (Agustin Canapino) held in November 2022. Miles was a notable member of a Penske Entertainment contingent that traveled to the venue last March to speak with the potential promoter directly and tour the venue.
On the back of a media call involving changes to its 2024 season-finale in and around Nashville, Miles offered little elaboration Thursday as to the seemingly-rapid changes to the prospect of the series' first even outside North America since it last visited Brazil in 2013.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mark Miles: 2024 IndyCar Argentina exhibition race no longer "viable option"
