Deep Dive into IndyCar’s new television deal with FOX Sports

ROGER:

This is Roger Penske and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy, sponsored by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines.

BRUCE:

Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, a production of Evergreen Podcast. I'm your host, Bruce Martin, a journalist who regularly covers the NTT IndyCar series. Our goal at Pit Pass Indy is to give racing fans and insiders view of the exciting world of the NTT IndyCar series in a fast-paced podcast featuring interviews with the biggest names in the sport. I bring nearly 40 years of experience covering IndyCar and NASCAR, working for such media brands as NBCSports.com, SI.com, ESPN Sports Ticker, Sports Illustrated, Auto Week, and Speed Sport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee, as we continue our fourth season of giving IndyCar fans a behind-the-scenes look at the NTT IndyCar Series and the drivers and teams that compete in the Indianapolis 500. Our friends from Hy-Vee have returned for the month of June as Penske Truck Rental shares the show and the big buildup to the Hy-Vee IndyCar race weekend at Iowa Speedway, July 12th through the 14th. This year's schedule includes a night race at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, July 13th, with another full race scheduled for Sunday, July 14th. Four of the biggest names in entertainment will perform before and after each race, including Luke Combs, Eric Church, Kelsey Ballerini, and Post Malone. For Malone, it will be the first time the famed entertainer has performed in Central Iowa. It promises to once again be the biggest racing weekend of the summer for IndyCar because of its big event stature and the debut of the hybrid assist unit for the first time in oval competition that will increase the horsepower along with the speeds and give the drivers another tool to work with in competition. One of the things we like to do here at Pit Pass Indy is take a deep dive into topics that affect the IndyCar series. IndyCar recently announced a new television deal that will bring the series to Fox Sports as all 2025 NTT IndyCar Series races will be televised by the main Fox network. In addition, a 17 race schedule was released and the season will conclude on August 31st, 2025 Labor Day weekend. That is important as it clears the deck for Fox to begin its 2025 NFL regular season coverage. According to IndyCar, the new Meteorite Steel provides a massive and unprecedented increase in exposure for North America's premier open-wheel racing series, with every 2025 race airing on Fox and available on the Fox Sports app. Fox Deportes will carry exclusive Spanish language television coverage with a schedule to be announced at a later date. Fox will also provide coverage of Indy 500 qualifications on Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total number of broadcast network windows to 19, a record for the NTT IndyCar series. IndyCar will become the only premier motorsport in the United States with exclusive major broadcast network coverage for all of its races. Let's begin our deep dive in the IndyCar's new television deal with Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles, who joins me for this exclusive pit pass Indy interview. Joining us now on Pit Pass City presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee is Penske Entertainment President and CEO Mark Miles, who on June the 13th issued some very interesting news. A new TV contract for the NTT IndyCar series, a new meteorites deal. It's going to be with a new partner. It's going to be with Fox sports. I know a lot of work went into getting this deal together. And if you could maybe walk us through how we got to this position with Fox sports. Well, sure.

MARK:

Thanks, Bruce. We, uh, started months ago. Um, we retained the good folks at Endeavor IMG as advisors to us. They're great experts, basically familiar with all the outlets, all the platforms and all the deals that have been done in sports over the recent history and even the years. And we decided to start by casting a really broad net. So we reached out to maybe eight or so media platforms of all stripes, from networks to cable to streamers. And almost everybody wanted to talk with us. So we began a process of exchanging information. Some obviously knew a lot more about us than others, like NBC and Fox, and eventually got it down to the point where we really had the two finalists of NBC and Fox. NBC has been a great partner for us. They've really helped fuel our growth over the last many years now. and and have just always met us at least halfway and try to work through any you know scheduling issues and the like and at the end of the day when oh with lots of effort lots of detailed discussions and planning we got to the point where fox was comfortable that they could give us an all network schedule that all 17 races plus the two days of Indy 500 qualifying all on network 19 windows plus really significant cable coverage of our IndyCar practices and qualifying plus really good coverage, unprecedented coverage really for Indy next. It was too good. And that's sort of what our friends at NBC said. They worked on it. They just could not get to a competitive number of network windows. And so they understood we really needed to move on. So we're thrilled with the announcement. It represents more than a 50% increase in the number of hours we'll have on network. And it'll be a consistent network, so our fans will know where to look for us. And it also allowed for us to have a schedule which we could publish in conjunction with the media news way in advance of normal for next year with a really good cadence we think starting in early March and ending as we've wanted to do for some time in the weekend before the regular NFL games start so we couldn't really be more pleased with with this result.

BRUCE:

In order to have a network package where all 19 TV opportunities are on the big network. Doesn't a lot of that also have to do with what some of their other sports properties are and how they can fit that into the programming puzzle?

MARK:

Yeah, and that's what takes time. That plus looking at opportunities for windows to see whether or not we had the flexibility to have our events fit those windows. Certainly their flexibility in offering windows has to do in part with their ongoing plans for covering sports.

BRUCE:

And because of that, Fox Sports is going to be in a new TV contract next year with NASCAR, where they're only going to have the first 10 races of the season, which then opens up the opportunity earlier in the year for other sports programming. How much did that come into play?

MARK:

I think it was probably one of the key factors. It wasn't just that they'll only have 10 NASCAR events, but also Um, I think a majority of them, at least half of them are on cable. So again, it's the number, but also which platforms, uh, they'll assign to NASCAR and, uh, all of that gave them flexibility in that part of the year.

BRUCE:

How important was it to be over by labor day? Because Fox's premier package is the NFL.

MARK:

Well, that was important to us. And I think you've heard us talk about that for a long time to me. you know, when you're trying to build viewership, and I think IndyCar has, I know IndyCar has had growing viewership over the last few years. And yet when you get to the really early stage of the college football season, and certainly regular season NFL games, it's, it's very tough to sustain your average viewership that you were able to achieve earlier in the year. So it just makes sense to us to, to move another week or so earlier. I think when I started, you know, we raced in Fontana in October and I understand a lot of fans sort of had the view, listen, if there's a place to race, it doesn't matter where it is, go race. But the reality is that professional sports leagues are driven by media and viewership. So it made sense for us to, to end the season a week or so earlier and get it to the very beginning of September.

BRUCE:

Now, when you make a deal with a new network partner, how much has to be taken into consideration that when you leave a current network partner, you may not be able to return to them at some point for probably 10, 20 years. We've seen the NBA one time was on ABC, went to CBS, then went to NBC for about 15 years. then came back to ABC. It seems that in the world of TV sports properties, when you make the decision that this is who we're going to go with, it pretty much has to be with the thinking that this is going to be our long-term partner.

MARK:

Well, I think you said that correctly. It's the thinking. It isn't actually contractually that we're locked up for 10 or 20 years. It's shorter than that, but you go into it trying to build the best possible partnership as we've had going with NBC. So

BRUCE:

um time will tell how long it actually we stay together but uh everybody is approaching it um for the long haul now you've been doing your current position at indycar since 2012 if you could describe how much more interest you had in this year's negotiations with tb partners than you may have had back in 2012 and in those years where maybe you had to do the knocking on the door And probably you didn't have a lot of doors that got open back then as much as you do today.

MARK:

Well, certainly there was more broader interest this time around than ever before. Yeah. And that's, I think just a testimony to exciting racing of IndyCar, the way the schedule is now, uh, designed. and are growing viewership over the last several years. Everybody wants the 500. It's a mega event for any kind of sports broadcaster. Whether or not they could do justice to IndyCar as well is always a key question. NBC did that, as will Fox.

BRUCE:

I know you're not going to give me an exact answer, but I've got to ask this question anyway. Going into the negotiations, you wanted a higher rights fee, not asking for the specific amount, but have we seen an increase with this package in terms of the rights fee?

MARK:

Well, we've just not gotten into the details of the contract itself, either the term or the economics, but we have said, and we mean it, that we're really pleased with the whole package and the whole value of the package.

BRUCE:

One of the things that NBC gave you that was very valuable was on Peacock. They could have all their practice sessions, including all of the Indy 500 practice sessions available for streaming. With Fox, you're going to have IndyCar series practice and qualification sessions on FS1 and FS2. But what about those days in May where you have seven hours or six hours worth of practice at the Indianapolis motor speedway? getting ready for the Indianapolis 500.

MARK:

All those hours will be covered by Fox on their cable platforms. So we're going to be very, very broadly accessible. And, you know, for the foreseeable future, we think it's clear that the audience that will be delivered on those Fox platforms will exceed the audiences that we've had with Peacock. Peacock audiences have grown. It's becoming a more powerful platform, but it hasn't caught, nor is it close, at least for us, to catching what can be delivered via cable.

BRUCE:

I know there's a lot of appetite for streaming, but you just brought up the point that it's not to the point yet where it can really rival network. Yeah, how far down the road do you see that? I know the NFL dabbles with, they have a Thursday night package on Amazon Prime. This year, they're going to have Christmas Day games on Netflix. But for the most part, if you want to watch the NFL, it's going to be on Fox, CBS, or NBC. How far down the road in television landscape do you think we are, or will we ever be in a position where people are going to stream more than they watch on a network?

MARK:

Well, it's all changing. And I think it's important for all our fans to know that through Fox, there are various platforms where you can access everything on track and everything that's on Fox or FS1 or 2 via internet. It is accessible to anybody, everybody, everywhere. I don't know is the short answer to your question. The realities are that cable is declining as there's been more cord cutting, but that seems to have slowed. And, you know, there's just so much competition. And basically, you know, you can get almost any sport almost anywhere, including YouTube TV and lots of other ways to watch, whether it's on a network platform or a cable platform.

BRUCE:

How much of a driving force in this was Fox Sports CEO and executive producer Eric Shanks? He's from the state of Indiana. He has a motor home or a mobile home outside of Turn 1 in the little mobile home park that's out there that he uses every May for the Indianapolis 500. How much of a driving force was he in acquiring the IndyCar Series 4 box?

MARK:

Well, Eric's terrific. He's got a fabulous, well-earned reputation in the industry. And as you're pointing out, you didn't quite say, but he's a Hoosier. Born in West Central, Indiana. Been an Indy 500 and an IndyCar fan for many, many, many years. He said in our first meeting, man, would he like to get his hands on the 500 on IndyCar, thinking about what he thinks Fox can do to help us grow and attract more fans. He certainly, that deal doesn't get done unless Eric was a fan of it. But at the end of the day, it's not because of where he was born or his own personal affinity. It's really him thinking about what it does for Fox and what it can do over time as it grows and how it fits into their programming and the various properties that they will broadcast. So it was helpful. But listen, again, the people at NBC, They may or may not have been born in Indiana, but I just start with John Miller and Sam Flood on the business side and the production side. They're huge IndyCar fans and they've been very supportive and I know they hated to see it going the other way, but they also understood the Fox opportunity was just too good for us.

BRUCE:

On NBC's behalf, do you believe that one of the things that was difficult was they have the U.S. Open, which is a major sports property, just ended this past weekend, held at Pinehurst in the state that I live in, North Carolina. In July, they'll have the British Open, which is a very uh big sports property but then they also have not only the olympics everybody looks at olympic years as there's two weeks where there won't be any activity but these tv networks nbc devotes a significant amount of time in the olympic trials that go on in the month or so before the olympics How much of a challenge was that in always trying to come up with a network schedule to where IndyCar could be part of those days on NBC?

MARK:

Big part of it. NBC has a very robust portfolio and actually the summer Olympics are three weekends, two weeks, you know, and they've got a, they've got a lot of, uh, of, of sports that they need to be able to accommodate. You didn't mention the NBA. But it seems almost certain that that's going to happen for NBC. And that will take additional network windows on given days. So, yeah, they have a very crowded support schedule. And that is the reason, I think, primarily that it just wasn't going to be an opportunity for them to offer us as many windows as Fox could.

BRUCE:

Now in terms of cross promotion, we know how important the NFL is to Fox and what a major player Fox is to the NFL, but also they have Major League Baseball on a lot of their, on the Big Fox and on FS1 and FS2, they have Major League Baseball games throughout the week. Saturday afternoons are always a big day for baseball, sometimes Saturday night games on the Fox network. How important will it be to get cross promotion now with a new group of eyeballs that NBC didn't have Major League Baseball except for a Sunday morning package on Peacock, but Fox is pretty much the home of Major League Baseball. And now you can cross promote IndyCar races on their baseball package to baseball fans who may not really pay much attention to IndyCar that may have an opportunity to say, wow, this looks interesting. Let's see what this is about.

MARK:

I think it is important, very important, not just baseball, but all their big sports properties are opportunities for cross promotion both ways. You mentioned baseball, obviously the NFL. I would add to that the fact that they have World Cup soccer competition, and that's an interesting audience for us. So they're going to be aggressive, I think, in cross-promoting both ways. And they have lots of viewers, lots of eyeballs, as people say, on their sports properties, which are opportunities for us to remind our fans who will see it to tune us in or to hopefully attract additional fans as well.

BRUCE:

We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indy after this short break.

JOSEF:

Hey, everyone, this is two time Indy 500 winner, Josef Newgarden, and you're listening to Pit Pass Indy presented by Penske Truck Rental.

BRUCE:

Welcome back to Pit Pass Indy. Here's the rest of my exclusive interview with Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment. Now, when the deal was announced, Eric Shanks spoke a lot about halo programming to where you may have a NASCAR race lead into an IndyCar race or vice versa. But the way the NASCAR TV schedule is set up with their first 10 races of the year. That's really only going to affect the races in March and April for the rest of that time from may all the way till the end of the season in November, you should pretty much have motor sports. They do do the NHRA, but you should pretty much be the premier. Motorsports package that Fox has so how important is that such as Fox?

MARK:

I think that in and of itself as you described it is useful and important But also, you know, there'll be something like ten races. I think in the middle of the NASCAR season which are on Table and streamers and we look forward to competing with those races where we're head-to-head and I At the same time, we'll continue to work to use NASCAR programming. We can be useful lead-ins to their races and they can to us. So there's a lot of dynamics there. But, you know, I just think that it's the attitude and the willingness of Fox to really get into the details way in advance to look at what that schedule can look like, not just the dates, but the times and to maximize the, as Eric put it, the halo effect.

BRUCE:

And how about cross-promotion with programming with some of Fox's entertainment shows, their entertainment lineup? They also have a lot of shows on the news channel. How important is it to get cross-promotion with those networks?

MARK:

Hugely important. And one of the great strengths, I would add, of NBC, one of the things they bring to their partners. But it's important wherever it works. Again, it's getting in front of additional eyeballs, additional viewers. And, um, it also includes hopefully leveraging some excitement from some of their personalities. So you can think about, you know, Gronk and lots of others who are part of their stable of talent that, uh, we'd sure like to see an Indian may and get interested in IndyCar more broadly.

BRUCE:

And as far as NFL packages, NFL games, somewhere in their commercial on, you know, next year, the Indianapolis 500 only on Fox, that's gotta be very valuable also.

MARK:

Yes. All those things are true. It's, uh, they've got great platforms to cross promote, not just in sports, but in entertainment. They've got great personalities who I'm sure they will, uh, if they don't already know about IndyCar, they will make them aware. I think, you know, our view is when we get in front of people, they become fans. So those celebrities can add a lot. And yeah, no, it's terrific. We just couldn't be more pleased. And we're not pleasantly surprised that we were pleased with their attitude about all that. From the very earliest conversations, they were thinking about the assets, the people, celebrities they can bring to bear to help propel IndyCar's growth.

BRUCE:

Was there a key moment in May where this turned around into Fox's favor? Because we had been led to believe that at one point they wanted to showcase IndyCar more on FS1 and FS2, but you wanted it to be on Fox. Roger Penske wanted it to be on the big network. Was there a key moment there during the month of May where it started to turn toward Fox's favor?

MARK:

They started with significantly fewer network windows for us. And through ongoing conversations, they eventually said, you know, maybe we could Adopt the approach that we wanted to be an all-network sport But then you know the desire to do that and the ability to do it it needed to be bridge and that was the Detailed work of looking at the sketch their schedules and ours that got us there.

BRUCE:

I don't think there was a day I don't remember a day in May in particular when that happened not so much a day but perhaps an issue a topic a period of time where it seemed like, yeah, we can make this work on network only.

MARK:

Certainly by May, that was a possibility. So I know that people who were following it, you know, one day a expert would opine that it was certainly going to be NBC, not Fox. NBC was, was supposedly offering many more network windows than Fox. And then the next day from the same person, I'd hear the opposite. The reality is there weren't very many people at all who knew what was going on except for the principals at Fox and in our shop and it was steady progress that got to the result we ended up with with Fox that got it going.

BRUCE:

Could Fox potentially be the new home of 100 Days to Indy or will that remain on the CW?

MARK:

TBD, they certainly are interested in looking at shoulder programming and may develop some. We have some opportunities with them that aren't unscripted series per se that we'll work on together and see what comes of that. Yeah, we'll just have to see. Again, the CW's been a great partner. We wouldn't have had 100 Days to Indy without their enthusiasm and commitment to it. And we'll just have to see how that plays out going forward. By the way, one other thing, Bruce, I should mention is that ownership of the CW is the Nexstar Group, a publicly traded owner of lots of different media. They've got an enormous number of Fox affiliates that they own around the country. We just have a great relationship with them. They'll be eager to help propel tune in promotions and advertising to increase the viewership of IndyCar Racing. And a number of their affiliates are what I would call, just outside of the metro Indianapolis area, our primary ticket sales markets. So think of places like Chicago, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Cincinnati, and many others that are Fox affiliates owned by Nexstar. And they're interested in working closely with us early on for ticket sales, which would be great. Cause if we can, you know, be successful there, maybe get to the place where we basically are sold out. And if we can do that earlier, then there's an opportunity for us to have a, keep our big crowds and, uh, and the next star affiliates and all Fox, uh, in central Indiana, uh, be able to watch the race live.

BRUCE:

Now I may be wrong, but for the most part, I believe this is the first time I've been covering IndyCar for a very long time and watching it on TV before I even began covering IndyCar. But I believe this is the first time every race of the season will be on live on a major network. In the past, even when it was an ABC show before cable came to be, there were a lot of races that may not be televised. or other races that may be on ABC, others may be on ESPN, but this is really the first time where every race of the season for IndyCar will be on a major network.

MARK:

You know, over the years I've been involved when people talk about first time ever for anything at the Indy 500, and to some extent, talk about the entire history of IndyCar and all its iterations, I learned to be careful because you might think something is a fact and then you find out later that somebody missed something. So as far as we know, that's true, that this is the first time that all of IndyCar will be on the same major network.

BRUCE:

So one thing that may not have gotten as much focus last week with the television announcement was the schedule. I cannot recall a time where you've released the schedule before the middle of June last week, you did that, but that was a key component to getting the TV done. How much heaven and earth did you have to move to get the schedule in place with some of these date changes that I want to go over with you?

MARK:

Well, it was a process, you know, and I want to thank a number of our promoters who also showed flexibility. They understood, you know, it could be the difference between, between being on network for their race, which is useful to them, obviously, and their sponsors and their cities that end up being seen by lots of viewers. So, so they were very helpful. And, uh, We just kept working. It was probably two weeks before we made the announcement. All those windows couldn't be filled until ultimately a couple of promoters came back and said, okay, we've worked it out. We can hit that window. It was work and it was cooperation, not just by Fox and with IndyCar, but with our promoters as well.

BRUCE:

So some of the highlights of the schedule, March 23rd, the Thermal Club, instead of it being an all-star challenge, it's going to be a regular race. What was the thought that went into this and what can we see different so that it can be more of a fan event rather than a private club event?

MARK:

Yeah, you know, I'll be honest with you or open with you. When I left Thermal last year, we, of course, left thinking that it's a fabulous facility. Everything is first class. Our friends there who own the place love having it. But I wasn't sure what the future might bring for us and Thermal. And then we had a dinner one evening, I think in May, And there were probably at least half a dozen drivers there. And we just talk about everything. And completely unsolicited, some of the drivers started saying, you know, we need to go back there and have a regular race, a normal points race. Let's get rid of the heat racing and some of the things we tried to see, you know, just what the effect of racing differently might be. They believe the grip of that track would lead to great racing. They knew that the track could be reconfigured for us. They had a track we didn't even use. They believed that the pits could be expanded, and from a racer's point of view, it might be an outstanding race. So that got our attention. We started looking more into that, and it seemed like a better alternative, at least for next year, than perhaps making them a But one of the other alternatives was maybe in February, they become a open test, which they'd be fabulous. It'd be great for that purpose. But know that it's the drivers who thought it would be a great race. We had the opportunity to find a network window to fill in a little bit of that part of the spring calendar. And it just seemed like it made sense. In terms of the rest of your question, all the details aren't announceable yet. But for sure there will be greater capacity for fans. And, uh, you know, the approach will be a little bit different than it was this year.

BRUCE:

The other one that jumped out at me was June 15th worldwide technology raceway at gateway. That was currently a late August race. They have an ass car race where they had one this year. That was June the sixth. I would imagine that date's going to be changed. How complicated was it to get gateway to move up to June 15th?

MARK:

Well, you've already identified the variables or some of them that, that is what else is going on in St. Louis. What's NASCAR's likely calendar going to look like when they, we, we wouldn't have known the sort of one-off three-way conversations, um, really cooperative. And ultimately, again, the pieces fell together where we could, uh, We could move them earlier. They were okay with doing it. By the way, Curtis Francois and Chris Blair and their team are tremendous partners as well. And it just worked out. So it really was a long process and only late in the process with Fox that we could move from the goal of all network to the reality of it through the cooperation and the flexibility of many of our stakeholders.

BRUCE:

So road America moves to June 22nd, which happens to be the weekend of the 24 hours of Lamar, you had five drivers that competed in that. Obviously you're interested in growing the IndyCar series, but was that ever a consideration of trying to keep that weekend open or was it just impossible to do that?

MARK:

The ladder there was, uh, we obviously were aware of it, that meaning that date overlap. But, you know, to us, as you said, IndyCar comes first and that was the window that was available and it will certainly work out in Wisconsin.

BRUCE:

And for the third year in a row, Laguna Seca will have a different date. in 2025, it will be July 27th. Was that difficult to get them to move later into the summer?

MARK:

No, they were, I mean, they've always wanted to be the finale that wasn't going to be in the cards for next year. And finding the date that worked for them was not the hardest thing in the, in the formula. So another great example of our promoters being flexible to help. get them, as well as the series as a whole, network windows.

BRUCE:

And then Milwaukee will move up a weekend off of Labor Day weekend, which some believe is or is not a good weekend to hold a race, because a lot of people go on vacation on Labor Day. But it'll only be a single race instead of a doubleheader. The thought process behind making it a single race?

MARK:

Well, it allowed us to stay with 17 races. and to help fill in that gap in the spring with thermal. And, you know, it works for them and it works for us. So we're glad that we could come to that conclusion.

BRUCE:

And then, of course, wrapping up Labor Day weekend, Nashville Super Speedway. I know the hopes there is to one day move back to the city streets of Nashville. Which will solve the problem. What would happen if the Tennessee Titans were playing an NFL season opening game the same weekend as the race, because the NFL season as of now doesn't start until the next weekend after that. So from a long-term goal, how important is this?

MARK:

Well, again, it was a priority for me and I think the series for a deck more than a decade to try to get our finale, uh, that one week earlier. So that was the first point. The second point is the one you've made, which is that there won't, there wouldn't be a home game Titan overlap with an IndyCar race there. And that may enhance the chances of us getting back to the street race there. But look, it's not a good, it's not our favorite thing to have a NFL game at home in Nashville. even if we're racing on the oval. So it's going to be the case. But we hope it isn't always the case. And now we know it won't be after this year.

BRUCE:

And just wrapping up here with Mark Miles, the president and CEO of Penske Entertainment, the next big issue that you're working on now is the charters. Can you give us an update on that?

MARK:

Yeah, I think we're really close. I'm looking forward and we're going to take this weekend to talking to all the team owners, probably individually. about our current thinking, which takes into account some of the feedback we got in Detroit. And yeah, I think we're quite close. So I think we'll roll it out as soon as we're clear that we've got consensus. Internally, we think we know what that might look like. And I believe it'll be a program that our owners, today's key owners can rally around.

BRUCE:

Well, Mark Miles, congratulations on a bold new step with your new TV partner, Fox Sports. And congratulations on getting the schedule out before middle of June. Good luck the rest of the season. We'll catch up later in the summer. And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee. Thanks, Bruce. My pleasure. And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee. We want to thank our guest, Penske Entertainment President Mark Miles, who gave us a detailed look at IndyCar's new television deal with Fox Sports for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests helped make Pit Pass Indy, presented by Penske Truck Rental and Hy-Vee, your path to victory lane in IndyCar. On the highways, the raceways, and every pit stop in between, Penske Truck Rental keeps you moving forward. Gain ground with Penske. And for all your shopping needs, be sure to visit your local I.V., where there's a helpful smile in every aisle. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at Twitter at BruceMartin, one word, uppercase B, uppercase M, underscore 500. This has been a production of Evergreen Podcast. A special thanks to our production team, executive producers are Bridget Coyne and Gerardo Orlando. Recordings and edits were done by me, Bruce Martin, and final mixing was done by Dave Douglas.

BRUCE:

Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.