Roger Penske remains confident in his investment in IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the series finally starts its ’20 season Saturday at Texas following the pandemic shutdown, according to Penske Corp.'s Jonathan Gibson. Penske bought the two assets plus IMS Productions for what sources said was around $300M in a deal that closed in January of this year, just before the pandemic started. Gibson, Penske Corp.’s Exec VP/Marketing & Business Development, said that Penske and his family are taking a long-term view to the investment and feel the series will come out stronger from this crisis. He said, “It’s absolutely a long-term investment for the Penske family and companies, and the brand alignment with IMS and IndyCar is so strong and an important part of our heritage. Anyone who has been around Roger throughout history knows what a tremendous leader he is during good times but also during adversity: he’s an optimistic person by nature, someone who wants to roll up his sleeves and be in the middle of the decision making. … It’s definitely a long-term lens we’re looking at this through and have no doubt that we’ll come out of this and be stronger together with all the teams.”
NBC BULLISH ON RETURN: NBC Sports is also excited about getting the series back on track -- to the point that the sports group worked with NBCUniversal’s entertainment division to get the race moved from NBCSN to NBC during primetime Saturday night. NBC Sports President of Programming Jon Miller and NBC Sports Exec Producer Sam Flood told THE DAILY they plan to largely shoot Saturday’s race as they would any other, despite there being no fans in the stands -- aside from perhaps avoiding a wide sweeping shot at the start of the race as the green flag flies. Flood noted NASCAR has shown that races are so loud because of the cars’ engines that shooting a race with no fans seems like it will be easier to deal with than stick-and-ball sports in terms of the lost atmosphere. NBC Sports is also reporting that, as of last week, it only had a handful of ad units left to sell, with renewals from all of IndyCar’s major partners, plus some new blue-chip brands coming in or greatly increasing their spends.
IT TAKES AN ARMY: Miller said IndyCar’s return has fit into a “giant jigsaw puzzle” that he is putting together to facilitate the returns of properties like the NHL, PGA Tour, the EPL and the Kentucky Derby. Miller said that while the 9/11 attacks and the major S.F. earthquake in ’90 were somewhat comparable to the amount of turbulence and chaos that put the network through, the coronavirus pandemic shutdown tops them all. He said, “This was the ultimate domino effect. … There’s so many things you’ve never had to deal with before and now all of a sudden they move to the front of the agenda. … I’m just working from home with a laptop and a bunch of different schedules with all kinds of colors, arrows, question marks and circles. I must tell you -- I’m just the spokesperson. I have this unbelievable team working on this every day. … It takes an army.”
