IndyCar is back at the Milwaukee Mile in 2024. Here's what you want to know from the announcement.
Monday felt a lot like Christmas morning for IndyCar fans who’d been wishing for the return of the Milwaukee Mile to the schedule after eight years away.
Not only did they get the gift they’d wished for, unwrapping the box revealed a bonus race on a weekend that has more meaning than any in the modern history of racing at the venerable Wisconsin State Fair grounds.
Included on the 17-race schedule announced Monday is a doubleheader weekend at the Mile with races Aug. 31 and Sept 1 that will be the 15th and 16th, giving them the potential for massive championship implications two weeks before the finale on the streets of Nashville.
Series owner Roger Penske, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, State Fair Park CEO Shari Black and drivers Scott Dixon and David Malukas took part in a news conference at the track and afterward they and others involved fielded questions about the event and series. In some cases there were solid answers; in other cases, not so much.
Here are highlights.
How will State Fair Park and Penske Entertainment Group work together on the return of IndyCar to the Milwaukee Mile?
For the most part, State Fair Park will handle ticketing, food and beverage, security, etc. IndyCar will handle the competition end of the weekend.
Black: “We always are the ones servicing the park, so we have our event services team that works year round on events and this will be similar to that, but we’re sharing in that they’re bringing the expertise of racing.”
The Wisconsin Expo Center, just outside the first turn of the racetrack, will be used for hospitality and similar purposes. IndyCar also has a significant list of corporate partners
The Penske organization has experience running racetracks, with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in its portfolio and having owned Michigan Speedway and California Speedway.
Penske: “State Fair owns the track, they run the facility, they had a million people here for this last year’s State Fair, so from the standpoint of concessions and a lot of the things we do around it, we don’t have to worry. We have to worry about the racing product itself. … They can help us on the ticketing, help us on the promotion. You could almost say we’re co-promoters, if you want to put it that way.”
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Why will this event succeed when others attempts at Indy-car racing have failed as business ventures?
Over the last few decades, various promoters were unable to run a profitable IndyCar event at the track. The Mile has not hosted IndyCar since 2015, the conclusion of a four-year run for the company owned by champion driver and team owner Michael Andretti.
Penske: “It’s a key part of our schedule, but more important is Penske Entertainment took over the series and operates the (Indianapolis Motor) Speedway, I think we come in with a team of experienced people that we can partner with Shari and her team here at the fairgrounds. Before you had promoters coming and coming out. We’re committed. We’ve invested heavily in the track in Indianapolis and also certainly in the series and it’s important that we take the series to places that have longstanding capabilities like you have here. … To be able to come here and put this under our control in conjunction (with State Fair), I think it works out.”
Penske also pointed to the investment in the facility by the state.
Why is the IndyCar Series having a doubleheader at the Milwaukee Mile?
Bud Denker, president of Penske Corporation: “This idea came about two weeks ago. It was Roger Penske’s idea. We were sitting in the coach one day: ‘Why don’t we go two?’ So Michael Montri (vice president of promoter and broadcast partnerships) called NBC and said, have you got a window? They said, we’ve got a window, both an evening slot and a day slot. The idea has been around two weeks. That’s how it works with Roger around here.”
Penske: “We saw how exciting the racing was at Iowa, and we think at the end of the season, to have two races here with double points, think about the impact. Coming in here, you’ve got double points you could lose or get, and then going on to Nashville. That last three races is going to be critical for the championship.”
What will tickets cost for IndyCar at the Milwaukee Mile?
Black: “We will be announcing that shortly. In January we plan to go on sale with tickets. We do have information on our website, wistatefair.com, that people can come to sign up as we will be sending out information as it becomes available.”
Penske: “We want it to be reasonable. As we do at Indianapolis, we’ll have higher prices, we’ll have lower prices. Then you look at the corporate sponsorship and those people they want to entertain here, so that’s also going to be an opportunity for us to bring in revenue.”
Will the Milwaukee IndyCar doubleheader weekend have races under the lights?
No. The evening slot to which Denker referred is the Saturday. The plan, Denker said, would be for a race to end an hour before dark. Sunset that time of year is about 7:30.
Sunday will be closer to midday, and the holiday on Monday could serve as a fan-friendly rain date or allow campers extra time to get home before the start of the traditional work week.
How many laps will the IndyCar races at the Milwaukee be?
The lengths of the races are to be determined based on such factors as fuel consumption and television windows, Denker said, which will probably be two hours apiece.
Denker: “Would it be 250 (laps), in that area? You would think, but we’ll see.”
Malukas: “The more we can do here, the better. I know short ovals have been very competitive and very good racing with IndyCar, so the more we can do the better it’s going to be.”
How are problems that affected fans at the NASCAR Truck Series weekend, such as long lines getting in and for concessions, being addressed?
Black: “This is a completely different event in the fact that we are expanding the footprint (to use more of the park). We will be having more food and beverage concessionaires that will open their stands. If you’re familiar with our Harvest Fair event that we have here at the park, that layout has worked really well for us at that event. This will encompass some of that. Of course we will have more gates that we will be opening. We learned a lot by hosting NASCAR. … We’re ready now. We’ve got that one under our belts.”
Penske: “Our people were here, and I think it also gave the … people here, the operating people know what they had to expect when we had IndyCar back. I think it was a great trial run, and certainly the promoter here (Track Enterprises) did a good job.”
Will there be a scoreboard or video board?
Black: “Those are some of the details we are working out right now.”
Penske: “These are the things we’re going to have to take a look at. Obviously we get feedback from different people, but look, we want to look at what we can bring to the game, I’d guess you’d have to call it. We’re going to look at all these things as we try to come out the first time. … The ability to communicate with the fans is key, whether it’s the scoreboard, whether it’s the PA, whatever it is.”
How will the Milwaukee weekend resemble the other short oval doubleheader weekend at Iowa Speedway?
Penske: “I’m not sure we can afford the entertainment they had at Iowa (such as Carrie Underwood and Kenny Chesney concerts this year). We’re going to bring the racing. But the great thing is that we’ve got an entertainment capability here. Hopefully the State Fair, that’s one of the things they’ll want to bring to the party, that we have entertainment on Saturday night.”
Is there a title sponsor for IndyCar’s return to the Milwaukee Mile?
Not yet.
Black: “That’s something that’s a team effort. We’ll be working on it as well as IndyCar.”
In the early and mid-1990s, corporate partners Miller Brewing and Phillip Morris through its Marlboro brand were vital to filling the grandstands. These days, the active participation by the Hy-Vee grocery chain is vital to the Iowa weekend.
Penske: “(Hy-Vee has) been the best we’ve ever seen coming in and promoting the race. We would hope that we’d have a sponsor it takes to the level we can in this market and the product they might represent the same type of activity.”
Was the Milwaukee doubleheader forced by the inability to get Texas Motor Speedway on the 2024 IndyCar schedule?
Denker: “Not really, no. … We’d still like to have 17 races, but it wasn’t mandatory. Sixteen was going to be fine. But now that we’re here, our cost structure is already absorbed. Our cameramen are already here. Our people are already here. … We can’t go later in the year because of the Packers. Can’t do that. And Saturday evening, it doesn’t conflict with the Wisconsin Badgers.”
As for Texas’ future, the Series would like to go back as soon as 2025, Penske said. The Olympics, which presents a conflict for television on three summer weekends, and the track’s commitment to NASCAR made striking a deal for this season impossible in 2024.
Will IndyCar return to the Milwaukee Mile beyond 2024?
Denker: “We’ve got (construction in) ’24, construction in ’25. It’s a multi-year agreement.”
He wouldn’t elaborate.
What can fans expect for racing with IndyCar at the Milwaukee Mile in 2024?
Dixon, six-time IndyCar champion and 2009 Milwaukee winner: “When we had a tire that had no deg(redation) it wasn’t a good race. Everybody’d run the same speed. We’ll test here, probably early on in the year, to figure out what (tire for Firestone) to bring here. As long as you’ve got a lot of coming and going – which fall-off (in grip) is what you need – the racing will be good. … I think back in the day we had too much downforce. So then the turbulence behind was very effective. This car is a little better dealing with that just because there’s not as big a wing on that.”
What is the timetable for more improvements at the Milwaukee Mile?
Nearly $3 million was approved by the State Building Commission in December, to be paid for with funds from State Fair Park, the state and private fundraising. Work began in spring and will continue with the resurfacing of pit road.
Denker: “We’re tearing all this up this week, all pit lane. We’re tearing all pit lane out next week, putting 17 foot of concrete for pit boxes for our air jacks and the rest asphalt. We’ll do about a hundred feet in front of the flag stand because of the bumps there. Then we’re going to start tearing up these walls on the inside of the track to do better interior fence and walls as well. … This in the wall (pit road) and the rest in the spring.”
Where does Track Enterprises stand regarding the Milwaukee Mile?
Bob Sargent’s group brought racing back to the Mile in 2019 after a three-year absence with a Midwest Tour stock-car event in 2019, with the ARCA national series in 2021 and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last month.
Sargent was at the news conference but did not participate and isn’t a direct part of the IndyCar event. NASCAR has yet to announce its 2024 national schedules, but if trucks were to race at Milwaukee on a corresponding weekend to this year in late August, the track would have three national races in a span of eight days.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: IndyCar returning to Milwaukee Mile in 2024: Questions, answers
