July 22, 2025 • 35 mins
On this episode of Throttle Therapy, with Brickyard coming up this weekend, Allison Melangton, the Senior Vice President at Penske Entertainment (the company that owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway), joins Katherine to discuss the amazing women in leadership at IMS. Allison also shares how she appeals to “epic event chasers” and the distinct challenges of organizing major events like the Super Bowl, the Indy 500, and the Brickyard 400.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, lovely people, and welcome back,
(00:22):
and welcome to this episode of Throttle Therapy with Me
Catherine Legg. This week has been a non race week
for me, but it's still been kind of crazy busy.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I was still sick at.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The beginning of the week, and whatever bug it was
that I caught really really got me down. I'm never sick.
I normally like I'm lucky. I have a great immune system,
but this one really got me. So it knocked me out.
And we had to head to New York City to
do an event with ELF. And it was a really
cool event because we had a lot of really great
(01:00):
women leaders in the media field, and we also had
another of ELF's partners, Amanda, who is a astronaut and
so she was really cool. So we had this really
cool dinner slash cocktail event and we got to learn
a lot about each other and Corey, the CMO of ELF,
(01:21):
who is amazing, and I told her the other day.
I want to be the Catherine version of her when
I grow up. She's so cool.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We'll have her on the show at some point.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I have learned so much from her and continue to
grow because of her. And she played this I want
to call it a game, but it was choosing an
intent word like what's your choose your intention, and you
choose your intention until it becomes part of who you are.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So we went around both tables and.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I guess there was probably like twenty ish people there,
and everybody gave an intention word like what is important
to them moving forward? And so it was a really
cool experience to see all of these very accomplished, very
forward thinking women and what they wanted to achieve moving
(02:10):
forward with their intention words. And so I learned a
lot and I had a great time there, and then
we obviously did a CBS Morning show.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
With Gail King, who's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
She was lovely, and then headed home and finally recovered
from this bug and heading to North Carolina this afternoon
to do some SIM work again. It seems like I'm
driving up and down the motorway quite a lot recently,
So this week I'm heading to the SIM because we
(02:40):
are doing both races at IMS, and IMS stands for
Indianapolis Motor Speedway for those of.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
You not in the know.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I know I shortened a lot of words, but that's
pretty renowned in the industry.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So if you don't know, now you do.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
We're one of very few people who will have Hopefully
if I qualify, I should just correct myself. There have
done and Exfinity race, a Cup race, an insirace, and
then IndyCar Race at IMS, So that's going to be
really cool doing both on the same weekend. I was
a little dubious about. I wasn't sure whether it was
a good idea or not because I don't know whether
(03:17):
they're jumping out of one car straight into another car
that are relatively similar but not really similar at all.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It was going to.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Mess with my psyche and I would get lost and
not be able to focus because they don't know either
super well yet. But I think they're going to be
different enough because we are running low power and in
the Exfinity series sometimes on summer levels they run different
power bands, and we are again on the low power one,
(03:43):
I believe, and so I think they're going to be
different enough that I will get a good enough contrast
that I won't confuse the two, and after practice I'm
sure i'd be fine. So I'm really excited about having
to do double duty this weekend and I'm doing both SIMS.
So I will be doing the GMSIM the Static one
in the morning and then going to RCR and doing
(04:05):
the Cup one in the afternoon, and so I will
get a good feel of doing that back to back
as well. Very much looking forward to getting back in
the Sfinity Car. Obviously, We've had a stretch of Cup
Car races lately and I love the Jordan Andsen Racing team,
so I'm looking forward to working with them again and
in the spirit of going to the most okay in
(04:27):
my eyes, I don't know if it's the same for everybody,
because some people might like the more Dayton up, but
in my eyes, the Indianapoli supposed to bed Away IMS
is the most iconic legendary track on the planet and
gives me goosebumps every time I drive in. To have
the honor and the pleasure of driving there is really cool.
(04:49):
So I'm looking forward to going back there. I lived
there for a decade or more. It is home to
me and in spirit of that. We have a really
cool lady who runs IMS actually, and her name is Allison,
and we have the pleasure to welcome her to Throttle
Therapy this week. And this week we have the honor
(05:19):
of the lovely Allison Melancton joining us.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And Allison's gonna.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Tell you a little bit of inside scoop from IMS here.
She is the top dog at IMS, and so we
are going to say hi to Allison.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Hi Alison, Well, hello and thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Thanks very agreeing to come on. I'm excited to hear
about the inner workings of IOMs and like what it's
like over on that side of the pond, because I
think we have a very different view of it to
what reality is. You know, we get to go and
visit you in the offices and kind of hear all
the rumors in the gossip, but we don't get to
(05:56):
see what day to day life is like. So I'm
going to start off by introducing you to our listeners.
If you can tell them a little bit about who
you are, why you chose IMS and racing and.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What you do there and how it all came about.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Okay, great, So I've been here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
for ten years, and previously, my entire career has been
in sports administration and sports management. So I've used to
be the president of the Indiana Sports Corporation, and previous
to that worked at a national governing body in Olympic sports,
and previous to that at the United States Olympic Committee.
(06:35):
After a stint at the Sports corp I went and
became the president and CEO of the Super Bowl that
was in Indianapolis. And that's sort of a long story
to get you to why I came to the track.
I ran and organized the Super Bowl here and then
after that, in twenty thirteen, Indianapolis was hosting the one
hundredth running of the Indy five hundred, which was going
(06:56):
to be an event, historic event. Not many events in
the world happen one hundred years in a row, and
particularly one in the same location. So with my event
background and event experience, Mark Miles asked me to come
work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and lead all the
planning and organization for one hundredth running of the Indy
(07:17):
five hundred. So that's how I got here ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I was there for that right so I was racing with.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Sam Schmid that Yes, I remember.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So, if I'm not mistaken, you are the highest ranking
female at IMS.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Indianapolis myke to Speedway. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I just assume everybody knows what these acronyms mean. That
I'm going to use IMS from now on because Indianapism
Speedway can be quite a mouthful. Yes, so you're the
highest ranking female. There is a lot of women now IMS.
Are you treated just like anybody else? Have you noticed
any difference being female coming up through the ranks? Was
it more of a big deal here or at the
(07:52):
Super Bowl committee?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
How do you feel?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
You know?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It's interesting. In my ten years here, I have seen
the paddock grow more and more every year with women,
which has been wonderful to watch. And I saw that
same thing in the NFL when I was working in
that environment. I was the second women in forty six
Super Bowls to lead a Super Bowl, and now since then,
in the last ten years, I believe there's been six more.
(08:18):
It always takes someone to be the example and someone
to step out into new shoes, as you've done with
racing in many, many different series. And once you do that,
then other women say why not me? And I definitely
felt that way with the Super Bowl when I got
that job, and it's been a source of great energy
to me in the last ten years, watching the paddock
(08:39):
and all the new female engineers that are coming in,
and many of them, you know Kara who's one of
the lead engineers for Firestone Bridgestone and does all the
tire development. I can see lots of women engineers coming
into our sport every year inspired by Kara and her story.
And so I'm sure you've seen that here at the
Indianapolismaars Speedway in the last ten years. And I also
(09:01):
work on IndyCar now and I see that traveling with IndyCar,
more and more females in the paddock.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Car is one of my best friends and actually she
just texted me. I definitely have her as inspiration. She's amazing,
and I do believe that if you see it, you
can believe it, like if you have a role model.
You know, I had Lindcent James and Janet Guthrie and
Sarah Fish and people kind of coming into it. And
now you're acting as like the Lindca and James of
(09:28):
the business world. So with that comes to responsibility. Do
you do you ever think about that? Do you ever
think about what kind of a legacy you're leaving behind?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah? And I watched Lynn a lot, and I'm good
friends with her. She's so welcoming and purposeful and intentional
to greet any new women in the paddock. She will
seek you out, she will embrace you. I got the
job and I didn't know her at the time, and
I got an email from her within a week that said,
I can't wait for you to get started. You know
(09:57):
what day do you start? I'll be in Indianapolis on
this day and can we talk? And so I've told
her numerous times that that intentionality is what inspires other
women to be able to step into the space. Just
last year, Lynn was doing what she does every year
in May. She is out in the community. She brought
a whole troop of girl Scouts here. She was having
(10:19):
them change tires. She was doing all kinds of things
to inspire and impact young women to have a career
in racing. And say, the most visible is the driver,
like you've been, but there's also other jobs. There's jobs
in business. Our corporate attorney here is a female, Gretchen
smelling she's fabulous. In the last few years, we've added
(10:41):
a female CFO. So our chief financial officer is a female.
Our Chief Talent Officer is a female. SO. On our
executive leadership team at Penske Entertainment, which owns the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway and the NTT IndyCar Racing Series, there's eight
of us on the leadership team and for our women,
and I think that's something we're certainly all proud of
(11:01):
and that we enjoy.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, that's amazing to hear that. Actually, that's really positive.
We're going to take over racing. Yes, we are so
quite slightly off topic, but it's something that I'm absolutely
fascinated in.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
How does it compare to the Indianapolis five hundred. I mean,
they're both the biggest sporting events in the world. Indy
arguably is the biggest sporting event in the world because
of the attendance. And what differences do you make of
the two and which I mean, I would ask you
which you prefer, But having started that sentence, I realized
that you're going to say Indy just because you're there,
(11:35):
So yeah, it talk to us about the differences there?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
You know, it's interesting because they are very different. And
I would tell you honestly, and not just because I
work here. The Indianapolis five hundred is harder. It's harder
to organize. And I looked at both events as hundreds
of thousands of little puzzle pieces. I always like puzzles
when I was a young girl, and when you run
these major global sporting events, it's puzzle pieces that you
(12:01):
have to put together. I've also worked at nine different
Olympic Games and variety of roles, and it's the same thing,
all these puzzle pieces, and then each person is a
puzzle piece, and how do you interlock all these pieces
to make sure you can execute these events at a
high standard at a global level. And with the Super Bowl,
if you think about it, most Super Bowls are about
(12:22):
seventy to eighty thousand people, depending on the stadium. The
Indy five hundred every year has three hundred thousand plus
people depending on the year, and so in some cases,
depending on the year, it's three times the amount of people.
That is a lot of public to take care of,
and it's a lot of services and a lot of
execution that has to go right, and it goes right
(12:44):
when you put the puzzle piece together. Number One, the
Indy five hundred is more complicated because it's so many
more people. Number Two, it's outside. Most super Bowls are inside,
and if they're not, they're in warm climates, and so
you have some factor of control related to the weather.
It's rare a super Bowl is delayed based on weather.
(13:06):
And then you were here last year when we had
the rain for the Indy five hundred, and so one
little lightning storm eight miles away causes a cascading of
hundreds of thousands of decisions on how you're going to
roll out the day, and that communication process and reputting
all those puzzle pieces back in is important. So to
circle back to your question, the Indian Appolis five hundred
(13:28):
is a much more complicated and difficult event to put together.
So on the other side of that, I get a
lot of satisfaction from that because I like that complicated piece.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, you like to challenge yourself to the highest order,
which I can relate to you honestly. So did somebody
teach you how to put those puzzle pieces together? Did
you have a mentor or a role model, or did
you just learn as you went a.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Little bit of both. I was a gymnast in college
and my gymnastics coach was a really wonderful mentor for me.
And she was one of those coaches and I'm sure
you have them as well that can give you the
hard feedback and course correct you along the way that
then you take that as motivation to get better in
those areas. And so when I was in college, she
(14:14):
certainly gave me that kind of feedback and was great
not just in the physical part of coaching me, but
in life. And then when I went to work at
the US Olympic Committee, I had great bosses who sort
of poured into me and refined those skills about little details.
And then in my career as I continued on, there
was one woman in particular that was involved at a
(14:36):
high level at the Olympic level. Standing Nap was her name,
and she was a great mentor because there was no
detail too small for her. And she was also great externally,
so she could run a business internally but also externally
had all those pieces. So she probably taught me how
to deal on the external pieces and the commercial side
(14:56):
of the business as well as focusing on all these
hundreds of details. So I believe strongly in mentorship. It
made a difference in my life and I try to
pay that forward here as well.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, do you take them under your wing ims and
try and show them the way to you?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yes? And you know, May here is daunting, particularly for
young new employees, because it is three weeks. It's an
event that lasts three weeks. We want to own May globally,
just the way the NCAA owns March Madness, and so
in the entire planet. We want everyone to know come
to Indianapolis because there's something for everyone here for the
Indy five hundred. If that's too big a day for
(15:33):
you and you don't want to be with three hundred
thousand people, then please come to the Grand Prix, Please
come to qualifying, Please come to practice, And there's so
many great experiences that you can have. And so particularly
our young employees that start, they're like, wait a minute.
So for three weeks, every day we're working twenty two
hours a day right a center, and then if it rains,
(15:55):
all the things that happen. It's a little bit overwhelming
at first, but heavily in our people and we take
them one day at a time and we prepare them well, right,
Anxiety and worry comes from when you feel like you're
not prepared, and so we know that, well, yes you do,
and so a lot of scenario planning goes into that.
Just I'm sure the same thing in your career. You
(16:16):
go into the different scenarios and that gets you prepared.
It gives you the competency, which gives you the confidence
to get through it. But we do a lot of
handholding in the month of May, particularly with our new employees.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, I bet you don't get much to thee either.
So I just came up with an idea we should
rename it instead of the five hundred, it should be May.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yes, I.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Like this.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I like that, you know. In twenty sixteen we called
it Naos because it was because it was like chaos
every day getting ready for that. Because it was the
first time we'd ever sold it out.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It just seemed to get be getting bigger and bigger.
The other thing I noticed was the female attendant. So
twenty thirteen I did Indie with Sam Schmidt, and then
I didn't do it again until twenty twenty three with
rayhor And in that ten year exactly ten years sort
of time span I noticed that there were so many
more women at the race, like three, four, five times
(17:12):
more women at the race, and then it kind of
got me thinking, and I was looking at the demographics,
and the demographic of female fans in motorsport is growing enormously.
And then we saw with ELF last year coming on
board and doing all the fabulous activation that they did
and sponsoring my car at Indy, that it kind of
spotlighted all the women in racing, and I think that
(17:33):
that's fantastic. I think again, if you can see it,
you can be it. So hopefully we keep going on
the same trend because there is absolutely no reason why
women can't be just as inter racing as guys are.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, exactly, And congrats on your ELF partnership because the
activation they did helped us on so many friends here,
because we're trying to build all these different activations and
events around the Undy five hundred, because it's the events
around the big event. If you dig into some of
the metrics on it. We did a study of several
years ago now, but twenty percent of the people that
(18:04):
come to the Indy five hundred come because they are
avid race fans. Eighty percent come because they are epic
event chasers, you know, so seeking epic events, and so
it's the things around the Indy five hundred in addition
to the actual race that make it the global spectacle
that it is. CARB Day, the snake pit. There's no
(18:26):
other motorsport event in the world that has the snake
pit that you know, twenty five to thirty thousand people
during the middle of the race are entertained by music
but also watching the race. There's these different things that
make it different. And to circle back, ELF did a
fabulous job last year with the drone show and other
things that they activated.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, they really did, and the amount of support that
they had inside the pattern was just huge. It was honestly,
it made my heart very happy because they felt like
we have a community within a community, and so that
was fun.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I think, yes, it was.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Switching gears a little bit, excuse the pun, but I
know you spent some time with NBC as a producer
and so we've made the switch now to Fox. I
think that it's wild that we got that deal in
the first place. I think is amazing. It's fully exclusive
with one network. Nobody has to question every week, Hey,
what's the IndyCar race on like what channel, It's on Fox,
(19:30):
and they're doing a great job with all the commercials
around the drivers and everything. Do you think that this
is going to be a big deal for IndyCar and
for ims and how from your insider producer brain, do
you think that will kind of play into things in
the future.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Well, you're absolutely correct. It's been a really great experience
working with Fox so far. And I will call out
they have a female producer for all the IndyCar races
this year, Pam Miller, and she's she's great. Yeah, so
they put her in the driver's seat. Not to use
another pun, they put her in the driver's seat for
(20:08):
every single race this year, including the Indy five hundred,
which I'm so happy for her. She's worked in motorsports forever.
She's unbelievably talented, really easy to work with, and as
soon as they named her as producer, she jumped in
with both feet. So that's been a huge win for us. Second,
Eric Shanks, the president of Fox Sports, is from Indianapolis
(20:29):
and he grew up not too far from here. He
did an internship, but he was I think in college here,
which got him really focused on IndyCar he's a huge fan,
and so to have the president of Fox Sports in
most of our meetings and not delegating it to his
marketing people and his digital people, he's not delegating anything.
(20:49):
He is in it with us each and every day.
So that has been a real driver in what you're seeing,
the product that you're seeing externally. The marketing campaign they have,
I think is fab us. And they've got those initial
three driver commercials out, as you said, and they're edgy,
that's probably the best word. They're giving us a different
They're giving our fans and our viewers and new potential
(21:12):
viewers a different look into what our driver's personalities are,
and that is attracting new eyeballs. The first race we
had a great rating. I think last year our average
total audience delivery was almost six million, So Fox is
doing a great job. It was the first time we've
had commercials run during the Super Bowl. We had three
in the hours leading up to the Super Bowl and
(21:32):
three in the actual Super Bowl. So my phone was
blowing up all day, people like, oh my gosh, IndyCar's
in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Your world's are crossing.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, it was really interesting. So circling back to your question,
I think that Fox is going to be an unbelievably
great promotional partner for us. So far, they've been a
great planning partner. They've got all the right people in
the right jobs helping in supporting, and we are really
looking forward to a great season of growth for IndyCar.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, I think it helps to make it mainstream. You know,
Flate Joseph Newgarden becomes a household name like Jimmy Johnson
or whatever on the NASCAR side, then I think that
that can only help both IMS and IndyCar because they kind.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Of tied together a lot.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
How much did you change, like the fan experience and
the people who were like chasing the epic events. I
think there's a lot of those people, and I think
that it has become more epic andy. So when you
came into the role ten years ago, how did you
transition all that, What did you change and how did
you think about taking everything that you learned from the
Super Bowls and the Olympics and everything and putting it
(22:35):
into IMS.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
That's a great question, and we've worked on it hard
for the one hundredth running. So the way we looked
at it, which was in twenty sixteen, the D five
hundred had I don't want to stay declined because that's
too dramatic of a word, but it had eroded sort
of slightly, just a little bit in attendance and meaningfulness
in the sports industry. So we started in twenty sixteen
(22:59):
with a plan to reactivate what the race means to people.
It's Memorial Day weekend, which is also significant, and you know,
sort of up the military presence in the event, feeding
into the actual race, up the exposure of that in
the pre race, and then look in the entire region
and say, how can we lift the event up. What
(23:20):
we did was pull in all kinds of community activations.
I'll give you a simple example, Welcome Race Fans. We
started a program where we used local artists to paint
different forms of art saying welcome race fans. Sounds so simple,
but we got lots of people involved in it. We
(23:42):
got lots of people promoting motorsports together with the arts community.
We got the entire arts community involved, and so that's
one little thing. So we have this huge program called
Welcome Race Fans. We're still doing it today. We took
drivers street signs you've been here and now.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
The street signs, you always have to go and take
pictures of your own.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So we started that in twenty sixteen and we said,
you know, why don't we name every street in Indianapolis
after a driver that's going to be in the Indy
five hundred. So we've got thirty three signs, and people
like you go and take their picture in front of
those signs that send it out on social People love it,
so people come from all over to take a picture
of themselves in front of their favorite driver street signed. Downtown,
(24:22):
we started something called porch parties, so in May, we
asked people to activate their neighborhoods with a racing theme.
Get flags, put them in your mailbox every Friday and
Saturday night, pull people together. And you know, there's data
that shows that neighbors that know each other get along better.
There's less crime, there's more cooperation, there's more collaboration. So
we had a huge push for porch parties to gather
(24:44):
people with the celebration of May, get people together. So
we're still doing that. So we had all these different
community activations and we've looked at it that we don't
have to activate just at the track to make a
global event really mean something. You have to do things
outside the property where the event is too, and the
Olympics does that, you know better than anybody. So we
(25:05):
have twenty or so programs that we do support the
ND five hundred and make it the community and regional
celebration that it is and that brings national and global
people here from all over the world to come and
be a part of all of it. You know, the
mini marathon is another big piece of it, the parade
and so on. So to make it the greatest spectacle
(25:27):
in racing and the world's largest single day sporting event
and then add on to it owning may That's how
you take an event and you make it really global.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, that takes a lot of planning and probably a
lot of years in the making, but it's definitely working
because it's definitely growing again after all this time.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And it's so bizarre.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
To me, like if you look back in time and
I know that it's been one hundred and however many years,
But you've got Lamont, you've got Daytona, you've got Indie,
you've got Backpast, You've got some events around the world
that just have that name, and no matter how hard
you try with new events is never going to be
(26:07):
that because whenever you drive into ims into the speedway
in May and you drive onto the tunnel, it's different
and you get goosebumps, and it's just it's an indescribable
energy that it has. And I don't think that no
matter how much you can market it to make it
better and bigger and all the things. But it's like
(26:28):
inherent in its past, I guess. And it's history that
does that to people.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, And you know, it's interesting before I've worked here,
because I was working all these Olympics, but I was
living in Indianapolis. I had some year that had Indy
five hundred on it or just Indianapolis. I remember being
in the Tokyo Airport and I had just a little
Indianapolis pull over on because I was getting ready to
fly back to the States, and people kept coming up
to be pointing to my shirt. I don't speak Japanese
(26:56):
and they would just say Indy five hundred, Indy five hundred.
So just Indianapolis makes sense. Think of the wow, yes, yes, exactly.
And so Indianapolis is recognized globally for the Indy five hundred.
And I remember when we did the presentation to host
the Super Bowl in two thousand and eight. Part of
our pitch was, we can do the Super Bowl because
(27:18):
we do the Indy five hundred every year, by the way,
and there's three times as many people, so we can
do this with our eyes closed. And all the NFL
owners were like, yeah, you're absolutely right. So it's a
it's been a great thing for Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You hear the name Indiana is you just think racing right, Like,
Indy wouldn't be on the map, so to say, without
the speedway and without the five hundred. How many Indy
five hundreds had you been through before you started working
on I am.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Well, it's it's funny. I moved here in nineteen eighty three,
which is a long time from I was in Colorado.
Oh lovely, yeah, Colorado one yes, I was living in
Colorado Springs, and so I came here and I went
to my first Indy five hundred that next year. So
I moved here in the fall. So nineteen eighty four,
I had a friend that I met here invited me
(28:05):
to the Indy five hundred and I said, what do
you wear? She said, oh, we'll bring you something like Okay,
so she shows up at my house and they have
handmade all their clothes. Everything's checkered, and they have made
these tops and these shorts and the whole thing. And
I thought, really, but I came and I was all
in too. And you know this, it is a spectacle
(28:27):
in people watching at the Indy five hundred, and having
come from sort of this events background, I was fascinated
that people were taking a week, two weeks, three weeks
to make their own outfits for the Indy five hundred
and so I think I had been to about ten
of them prior to working here, fascinated by the people
part of it. And you know, the Snake Pit is
(28:53):
the first year I worked here. We had back in
sixteen again we revived the Snake Pit to include EDM
music and made it what it is today. And I
did go out there for a short period of time
and I thought, whatever I'm seeing in here, I will
never unsee in my head.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I've never been, but I've heard the stories. I think
it's going to be an experience that I have to
do before I die.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
You have to do it sometime. There's not a lot
of clothes on everybody. At some points during the day,
so little teeny shorts to tops, but all smaller that
I'm used to wearing.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, Conna was trying to explain to me what it
was like, and it sounds it sounds really interesting and
terrifying at the same time.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
That is a very good description. That's the things you
don't unsee again after you grow out there. But it's
a lot of fun. People people go every year. There
is a point when you sort of grow out of
that and then you want to buy a grandstand ticket
and we're like, perfect.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, No, it depends I guess again, whether you want
to go and actually watch the race or you just
want to be there and experience it all and see
the start and then beat the traffic. Because there's two
different types of fans.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, and during at the Snakepit, we do splice in
race footage because we want people to know that there's
a race going on, and that's an important piece to us.
I would you know, I just want to mention one
thing about pre race. In all the different events that
I've had the opportunity to work at, including all the Olympics,
there is no better moment in sports. And I can
(30:20):
say this because I've been everywhere. There's no better moment
in sports than when taps place in the pre race
for the Indy, five hundred and three hundred thousand people
stand in reverence, in quiet during that sort of sequence
of the military recognition there. It's fascinating to me and
(30:41):
inspiring that you can get that many people to not
speak and to stop what they're doing and pay respect
to the drivers and pay respect to the military. It's
a moment unlike any other.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, it chokes me up every year.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And the first time I was there was actually two
thousand and six. I was in the stand and turne
one and I remember just thinking like, you can't experience
this anywhere else, and you can't explain to anybody what
this feeling is. And then standing on the grid for
the first time and experiencing it, I was like, don't
let it in. Put your blinkers on, don't let it in.
(31:17):
You've got a race to run, you like, don't focus
on it. But like the hairs on your arms stand up,
and it's this energy, and it's an indescribable energy, and
it's so bizarre to me even now, and I love it.
You know, they sing back Home again Indiana and It
still chokes me up, but there's just there's nothing like it.
It's absolutely terrifying as a driver, by the way, because
(31:39):
you have this really emotional moment right when you're trying
to be the least emotional you've ever been in your
life and do a robotic job like driving a race
car because you can't let emotion into that, and so
it's like a rollericus. You go from that to getting
in the race car, and it's the same even on
the pace laps, you know, the three wide. You don't
do that anywhere else. That's the only time you do that.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I'm racing.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I don't know how you don't be overcome with emotion
during that. I mean every year I marvel at that
when I'm standing down there. How do you do that?
I'm going to interview you now. How do you get
your head from coming across the stage and all the
things that happen and all those people everywhere? How do
you get your head into that next place where.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
You have to be.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
It's a learned skill, let's say, because you learn very
quickly when you're coming up through the ranks. The emotion
in a race car is a bad thing, and you
have to drive with your head and emotions make your
decision making cloudy. It's quite quite easy, so you have
to learn to switch it off. And when I first
did it, it was no good at it. I was like,
don't look, think about what you have to start, don't look,
(32:44):
don't do this. And then now I can take it
on board and I can still be okay.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
But actually it caught me off.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
God, when I did my first EB NASCAR cut race
and I let the emotions boil up, and I remember
on the warm up that's I was thinking, my head's
not in the game I doing here. I'm so not
focused because of that emotion because I hadn't controlled it
getting into the car, and I hadn't realized that it
would be a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
And so it's still a process.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Off to twenty years of driving professionally, it's still a person.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, I can imagine just the whole sequence of that.
And I have to have my not certainly the way
you do, but I have to have my head in
the game to race day, right, because you've got a
million million puzzle pieces and it's hard for me. And
you know, yours is much more serious than my situation
for sure, but it's interesting because it does. It is
a sweep of emotion over you during all of those
(33:35):
free race activities. Again, I'm circling back to what I said.
There is nothing like it in any sports event I've
ever worked on.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
And that's why I say you have to go to Indy.
You have to experience the five hundred because it is indescribable,
Like we cannot get across the feeling that everybody has,
and every single person in that place has that feeling, right,
But you can't describe it, Like I don't care how
good you are with words, there is no words that
describe what it is.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
And I'm excited because Eric Shanks says exactly what you
just said, the president of Fox Sports, like you can't
describe it, and he is chomping at the bit with
his team to show it and try to make the
viewer feel it.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, how do you showcase that?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Is?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
That is a non easy task.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So we roll out of Indy and you put that
behind you, and then you've got to get ready and
ramp up again full of brickyard race with Nasco.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yes, is it like? Ugh? Okay? We did in Like
this is easy.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Like you said about doing the Super Bowl it's just
like another blip weekend or is it different?
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Is there a different fan base? Like how did the
two compare?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Yeah, it's very different than the Indy five hundred, But
we love the NASCAR race. You know, it's got incredible
roots here and the NASCAR fans they come from all
over for that race, and so we absolutely love it,
and it's got its own complexities. They are in and out.
That's a different piece of the puzzle, right because they
get in on Friday and it's a huge, massive load
(34:58):
in at one time and and then quick out. So
the logistics of it are very different than the eighty
five hundred, which is we got three weeks to get
ready for that. So there's similarities but also a lot
of differences.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Thanks Allison, it was lovely to chat with.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
You you as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want to talk about. It might just be
the topic for our next show. Throttle Therapy is hosted
by Katherine legg. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz and
our supervising producer is Grace Fuse Listen to Throttle Therapy
on America's number one podcast network, i Heeart, Open your
(35:46):
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and start listening
Throttle Therapy with Catherine Legg is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, lovely people, and welcome back,
(00:22):
and welcome to this episode of Throttle Therapy with Me
Catherine Legg. This week has been a non race week
for me, but it's still been kind of crazy busy.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I was still sick at.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
The beginning of the week, and whatever bug it was
that I caught really really got me down. I'm never sick.
I normally like I'm lucky. I have a great immune system,
but this one really got me. So it knocked me out.
And we had to head to New York City to
do an event with ELF. And it was a really
cool event because we had a lot of really great
(01:00):
women leaders in the media field, and we also had
another of ELF's partners, Amanda, who is a astronaut and
so she was really cool. So we had this really
cool dinner slash cocktail event and we got to learn
a lot about each other and Corey, the CMO of ELF,
(01:21):
who is amazing, and I told her the other day.
I want to be the Catherine version of her when
I grow up. She's so cool.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
We'll have her on the show at some point.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I have learned so much from her and continue to
grow because of her. And she played this I want
to call it a game, but it was choosing an
intent word like what's your choose your intention, and you
choose your intention until it becomes part of who you are.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So we went around both tables and.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I guess there was probably like twenty ish people there,
and everybody gave an intention word like what is important
to them moving forward? And so it was a really
cool experience to see all of these very accomplished, very
forward thinking women and what they wanted to achieve moving
(02:10):
forward with their intention words. And so I learned a
lot and I had a great time there, and then
we obviously did a CBS Morning show.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
With Gail King, who's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
She was lovely, and then headed home and finally recovered
from this bug and heading to North Carolina this afternoon
to do some SIM work again. It seems like I'm
driving up and down the motorway quite a lot recently,
So this week I'm heading to the SIM because we
(02:40):
are doing both races at IMS, and IMS stands for
Indianapolis Motor Speedway for those of.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
You not in the know.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
I know I shortened a lot of words, but that's
pretty renowned in the industry.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So if you don't know, now you do.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
We're one of very few people who will have Hopefully
if I qualify, I should just correct myself. There have
done and Exfinity race, a Cup race, an insirace, and
then IndyCar Race at IMS, So that's going to be
really cool doing both on the same weekend. I was
a little dubious about. I wasn't sure whether it was
a good idea or not because I don't know whether
(03:17):
they're jumping out of one car straight into another car
that are relatively similar but not really similar at all.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
It was going to.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Mess with my psyche and I would get lost and
not be able to focus because they don't know either
super well yet. But I think they're going to be
different enough because we are running low power and in
the Exfinity series sometimes on summer levels they run different
power bands, and we are again on the low power one,
(03:43):
I believe, and so I think they're going to be
different enough that I will get a good enough contrast
that I won't confuse the two, and after practice I'm
sure i'd be fine. So I'm really excited about having
to do double duty this weekend and I'm doing both SIMS.
So I will be doing the GMSIM the Static one
in the morning and then going to RCR and doing
(04:05):
the Cup one in the afternoon, and so I will
get a good feel of doing that back to back
as well. Very much looking forward to getting back in
the Sfinity Car. Obviously, We've had a stretch of Cup
Car races lately and I love the Jordan Andsen Racing team,
so I'm looking forward to working with them again and
in the spirit of going to the most okay in
(04:27):
my eyes, I don't know if it's the same for everybody,
because some people might like the more Dayton up, but
in my eyes, the Indianapoli supposed to bed Away IMS
is the most iconic legendary track on the planet and
gives me goosebumps every time I drive in. To have
the honor and the pleasure of driving there is really cool.
(04:49):
So I'm looking forward to going back there. I lived
there for a decade or more. It is home to
me and in spirit of that. We have a really
cool lady who runs IMS actually, and her name is Allison,
and we have the pleasure to welcome her to Throttle
Therapy this week. And this week we have the honor
(05:19):
of the lovely Allison Melancton joining us.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
And Allison's gonna.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Tell you a little bit of inside scoop from IMS here.
She is the top dog at IMS, and so we
are going to say hi to Allison.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Hi Alison, Well, hello and thank you for having me today.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Thanks very agreeing to come on. I'm excited to hear
about the inner workings of IOMs and like what it's
like over on that side of the pond, because I
think we have a very different view of it to
what reality is. You know, we get to go and
visit you in the offices and kind of hear all
the rumors in the gossip, but we don't get to
(05:56):
see what day to day life is like. So I'm
going to start off by introducing you to our listeners.
If you can tell them a little bit about who
you are, why you chose IMS and racing and.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What you do there and how it all came about.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Okay, great, So I've been here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
for ten years, and previously, my entire career has been
in sports administration and sports management. So I've used to
be the president of the Indiana Sports Corporation, and previous
to that worked at a national governing body in Olympic sports,
and previous to that at the United States Olympic Committee.
(06:35):
After a stint at the Sports corp I went and
became the president and CEO of the Super Bowl that
was in Indianapolis. And that's sort of a long story
to get you to why I came to the track.
I ran and organized the Super Bowl here and then
after that, in twenty thirteen, Indianapolis was hosting the one
hundredth running of the Indy five hundred, which was going
(06:56):
to be an event, historic event. Not many events in
the world happen one hundred years in a row, and
particularly one in the same location. So with my event
background and event experience, Mark Miles asked me to come
work at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and lead all the
planning and organization for one hundredth running of the Indy
(07:17):
five hundred. So that's how I got here ten years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I was there for that right so I was racing with.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Sam Schmid that Yes, I remember.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
So, if I'm not mistaken, you are the highest ranking
female at IMS.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Indianapolis myke to Speedway. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I just assume everybody knows what these acronyms mean. That
I'm going to use IMS from now on because Indianapism
Speedway can be quite a mouthful. Yes, so you're the
highest ranking female. There is a lot of women now IMS.
Are you treated just like anybody else? Have you noticed
any difference being female coming up through the ranks? Was
it more of a big deal here or at the
(07:52):
Super Bowl committee?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Like?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
How do you feel?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
You know?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It's interesting. In my ten years here, I have seen
the paddock grow more and more every year with women,
which has been wonderful to watch. And I saw that
same thing in the NFL when I was working in
that environment. I was the second women in forty six
Super Bowls to lead a Super Bowl, and now since then,
in the last ten years, I believe there's been six more.
(08:18):
It always takes someone to be the example and someone
to step out into new shoes, as you've done with
racing in many, many different series. And once you do that,
then other women say why not me? And I definitely
felt that way with the Super Bowl when I got
that job, and it's been a source of great energy
to me in the last ten years, watching the paddock
(08:39):
and all the new female engineers that are coming in,
and many of them, you know Kara who's one of
the lead engineers for Firestone Bridgestone and does all the
tire development. I can see lots of women engineers coming
into our sport every year inspired by Kara and her story.
And so I'm sure you've seen that here at the
Indianapolismaars Speedway in the last ten years. And I also
(09:01):
work on IndyCar now and I see that traveling with IndyCar,
more and more females in the paddock.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Car is one of my best friends and actually she
just texted me. I definitely have her as inspiration. She's amazing,
and I do believe that if you see it, you
can believe it, like if you have a role model.
You know, I had Lindcent James and Janet Guthrie and
Sarah Fish and people kind of coming into it. And
now you're acting as like the Lindca and James of
(09:28):
the business world. So with that comes to responsibility. Do
you do you ever think about that? Do you ever
think about what kind of a legacy you're leaving behind?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Yeah? And I watched Lynn a lot, and I'm good
friends with her. She's so welcoming and purposeful and intentional
to greet any new women in the paddock. She will
seek you out, she will embrace you. I got the
job and I didn't know her at the time, and
I got an email from her within a week that said,
I can't wait for you to get started. You know
(09:57):
what day do you start? I'll be in Indianapolis on
this day and can we talk? And so I've told
her numerous times that that intentionality is what inspires other
women to be able to step into the space. Just
last year, Lynn was doing what she does every year
in May. She is out in the community. She brought
a whole troop of girl Scouts here. She was having
(10:19):
them change tires. She was doing all kinds of things
to inspire and impact young women to have a career
in racing. And say, the most visible is the driver,
like you've been, but there's also other jobs. There's jobs
in business. Our corporate attorney here is a female, Gretchen
smelling she's fabulous. In the last few years, we've added
(10:41):
a female CFO. So our chief financial officer is a female.
Our Chief Talent Officer is a female. SO. On our
executive leadership team at Penske Entertainment, which owns the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway and the NTT IndyCar Racing Series, there's eight
of us on the leadership team and for our women,
and I think that's something we're certainly all proud of
(11:01):
and that we enjoy.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Yeah, that's amazing to hear that. Actually, that's really positive.
We're going to take over racing. Yes, we are so
quite slightly off topic, but it's something that I'm absolutely
fascinated in.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
How does it compare to the Indianapolis five hundred. I mean,
they're both the biggest sporting events in the world. Indy
arguably is the biggest sporting event in the world because
of the attendance. And what differences do you make of
the two and which I mean, I would ask you
which you prefer, But having started that sentence, I realized
that you're going to say Indy just because you're there,
(11:35):
So yeah, it talk to us about the differences there?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
You know, it's interesting because they are very different. And
I would tell you honestly, and not just because I
work here. The Indianapolis five hundred is harder. It's harder
to organize. And I looked at both events as hundreds
of thousands of little puzzle pieces. I always like puzzles
when I was a young girl, and when you run
these major global sporting events, it's puzzle pieces that you
(12:01):
have to put together. I've also worked at nine different
Olympic Games and variety of roles, and it's the same thing,
all these puzzle pieces, and then each person is a
puzzle piece, and how do you interlock all these pieces
to make sure you can execute these events at a
high standard at a global level. And with the Super Bowl,
if you think about it, most Super Bowls are about
(12:22):
seventy to eighty thousand people, depending on the stadium. The
Indy five hundred every year has three hundred thousand plus
people depending on the year, and so in some cases,
depending on the year, it's three times the amount of people.
That is a lot of public to take care of,
and it's a lot of services and a lot of
execution that has to go right, and it goes right
(12:44):
when you put the puzzle piece together. Number One, the
Indy five hundred is more complicated because it's so many
more people. Number Two, it's outside. Most super Bowls are inside,
and if they're not, they're in warm climates, and so
you have some factor of control related to the weather.
It's rare a super Bowl is delayed based on weather.
(13:06):
And then you were here last year when we had
the rain for the Indy five hundred, and so one
little lightning storm eight miles away causes a cascading of
hundreds of thousands of decisions on how you're going to
roll out the day, and that communication process and reputting
all those puzzle pieces back in is important. So to
circle back to your question, the Indian Appolis five hundred
(13:28):
is a much more complicated and difficult event to put together.
So on the other side of that, I get a
lot of satisfaction from that because I like that complicated piece.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Yeah, you like to challenge yourself to the highest order,
which I can relate to you honestly. So did somebody
teach you how to put those puzzle pieces together? Did
you have a mentor or a role model, or did
you just learn as you went a.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Little bit of both. I was a gymnast in college
and my gymnastics coach was a really wonderful mentor for me.
And she was one of those coaches and I'm sure
you have them as well that can give you the
hard feedback and course correct you along the way that
then you take that as motivation to get better in
those areas. And so when I was in college, she
(14:14):
certainly gave me that kind of feedback and was great
not just in the physical part of coaching me, but
in life. And then when I went to work at
the US Olympic Committee, I had great bosses who sort
of poured into me and refined those skills about little details.
And then in my career as I continued on, there
was one woman in particular that was involved at a
(14:36):
high level at the Olympic level. Standing Nap was her name,
and she was a great mentor because there was no
detail too small for her. And she was also great externally,
so she could run a business internally but also externally
had all those pieces. So she probably taught me how
to deal on the external pieces and the commercial side
(14:56):
of the business as well as focusing on all these
hundreds of details. So I believe strongly in mentorship. It
made a difference in my life and I try to
pay that forward here as well.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yeah, do you take them under your wing ims and
try and show them the way to you?
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yes? And you know, May here is daunting, particularly for
young new employees, because it is three weeks. It's an
event that lasts three weeks. We want to own May globally,
just the way the NCAA owns March Madness, and so
in the entire planet. We want everyone to know come
to Indianapolis because there's something for everyone here for the
Indy five hundred. If that's too big a day for
(15:33):
you and you don't want to be with three hundred
thousand people, then please come to the Grand Prix, Please
come to qualifying, Please come to practice, And there's so
many great experiences that you can have. And so particularly
our young employees that start, they're like, wait a minute.
So for three weeks, every day we're working twenty two
hours a day right a center, and then if it rains,
(15:55):
all the things that happen. It's a little bit overwhelming
at first, but heavily in our people and we take
them one day at a time and we prepare them well, right,
Anxiety and worry comes from when you feel like you're
not prepared, and so we know that, well, yes you do,
and so a lot of scenario planning goes into that.
Just I'm sure the same thing in your career. You
(16:16):
go into the different scenarios and that gets you prepared.
It gives you the competency, which gives you the confidence
to get through it. But we do a lot of
handholding in the month of May, particularly with our new employees.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, I bet you don't get much to thee either.
So I just came up with an idea we should
rename it instead of the five hundred, it should be May.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yes, I.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Like this.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I like that, you know. In twenty sixteen we called
it Naos because it was because it was like chaos
every day getting ready for that. Because it was the
first time we'd ever sold it out.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
It just seemed to get be getting bigger and bigger.
The other thing I noticed was the female attendant. So
twenty thirteen I did Indie with Sam Schmidt, and then
I didn't do it again until twenty twenty three with
rayhor And in that ten year exactly ten years sort
of time span I noticed that there were so many
more women at the race, like three, four, five times
(17:12):
more women at the race, and then it kind of
got me thinking, and I was looking at the demographics,
and the demographic of female fans in motorsport is growing enormously.
And then we saw with ELF last year coming on
board and doing all the fabulous activation that they did
and sponsoring my car at Indy, that it kind of
spotlighted all the women in racing, and I think that
(17:33):
that's fantastic. I think again, if you can see it,
you can be it. So hopefully we keep going on
the same trend because there is absolutely no reason why
women can't be just as inter racing as guys are.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Yeah, exactly, And congrats on your ELF partnership because the
activation they did helped us on so many friends here,
because we're trying to build all these different activations and
events around the Undy five hundred, because it's the events
around the big event. If you dig into some of
the metrics on it. We did a study of several
years ago now, but twenty percent of the people that
(18:04):
come to the Indy five hundred come because they are
avid race fans. Eighty percent come because they are epic
event chasers, you know, so seeking epic events, and so
it's the things around the Indy five hundred in addition
to the actual race that make it the global spectacle
that it is. CARB Day, the snake pit. There's no
(18:26):
other motorsport event in the world that has the snake
pit that you know, twenty five to thirty thousand people
during the middle of the race are entertained by music
but also watching the race. There's these different things that
make it different. And to circle back, ELF did a
fabulous job last year with the drone show and other
things that they activated.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, they really did, and the amount of support that
they had inside the pattern was just huge. It was honestly,
it made my heart very happy because they felt like
we have a community within a community, and so that
was fun.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
I think, yes, it was.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Switching gears a little bit, excuse the pun, but I
know you spent some time with NBC as a producer
and so we've made the switch now to Fox. I
think that it's wild that we got that deal in
the first place. I think is amazing. It's fully exclusive
with one network. Nobody has to question every week, Hey,
what's the IndyCar race on like what channel, It's on Fox,
(19:30):
and they're doing a great job with all the commercials
around the drivers and everything. Do you think that this
is going to be a big deal for IndyCar and
for ims and how from your insider producer brain, do
you think that will kind of play into things in
the future.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Well, you're absolutely correct. It's been a really great experience
working with Fox so far. And I will call out
they have a female producer for all the IndyCar races
this year, Pam Miller, and she's she's great. Yeah, so
they put her in the driver's seat. Not to use
another pun, they put her in the driver's seat for
(20:08):
every single race this year, including the Indy five hundred,
which I'm so happy for her. She's worked in motorsports forever.
She's unbelievably talented, really easy to work with, and as
soon as they named her as producer, she jumped in
with both feet. So that's been a huge win for us. Second,
Eric Shanks, the president of Fox Sports, is from Indianapolis
(20:29):
and he grew up not too far from here. He
did an internship, but he was I think in college here,
which got him really focused on IndyCar he's a huge fan,
and so to have the president of Fox Sports in
most of our meetings and not delegating it to his
marketing people and his digital people, he's not delegating anything.
(20:49):
He is in it with us each and every day.
So that has been a real driver in what you're seeing,
the product that you're seeing externally. The marketing campaign they have,
I think is fab us. And they've got those initial
three driver commercials out, as you said, and they're edgy,
that's probably the best word. They're giving us a different
They're giving our fans and our viewers and new potential
(21:12):
viewers a different look into what our driver's personalities are,
and that is attracting new eyeballs. The first race we
had a great rating. I think last year our average
total audience delivery was almost six million, So Fox is
doing a great job. It was the first time we've
had commercials run during the Super Bowl. We had three
in the hours leading up to the Super Bowl and
(21:32):
three in the actual Super Bowl. So my phone was
blowing up all day, people like, oh my gosh, IndyCar's
in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Your world's are crossing.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, it was really interesting. So circling back to your question,
I think that Fox is going to be an unbelievably
great promotional partner for us. So far, they've been a
great planning partner. They've got all the right people in
the right jobs helping in supporting, and we are really
looking forward to a great season of growth for IndyCar.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, I think it helps to make it mainstream. You know,
Flate Joseph Newgarden becomes a household name like Jimmy Johnson
or whatever on the NASCAR side, then I think that
that can only help both IMS and IndyCar because they kind.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Of tied together a lot.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
How much did you change, like the fan experience and
the people who were like chasing the epic events. I
think there's a lot of those people, and I think
that it has become more epic andy. So when you
came into the role ten years ago, how did you
transition all that, What did you change and how did
you think about taking everything that you learned from the
Super Bowls and the Olympics and everything and putting it
(22:35):
into IMS.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
That's a great question, and we've worked on it hard
for the one hundredth running. So the way we looked
at it, which was in twenty sixteen, the D five
hundred had I don't want to stay declined because that's
too dramatic of a word, but it had eroded sort
of slightly, just a little bit in attendance and meaningfulness
in the sports industry. So we started in twenty sixteen
(22:59):
with a plan to reactivate what the race means to people.
It's Memorial Day weekend, which is also significant, and you know,
sort of up the military presence in the event, feeding
into the actual race, up the exposure of that in
the pre race, and then look in the entire region
and say, how can we lift the event up. What
(23:20):
we did was pull in all kinds of community activations.
I'll give you a simple example, Welcome Race Fans. We
started a program where we used local artists to paint
different forms of art saying welcome race fans. Sounds so simple,
but we got lots of people involved in it. We
(23:42):
got lots of people promoting motorsports together with the arts community.
We got the entire arts community involved, and so that's
one little thing. So we have this huge program called
Welcome Race Fans. We're still doing it today. We took
drivers street signs you've been here and now.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
The street signs, you always have to go and take
pictures of your own.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So we started that in twenty sixteen and we said,
you know, why don't we name every street in Indianapolis
after a driver that's going to be in the Indy
five hundred. So we've got thirty three signs, and people
like you go and take their picture in front of
those signs that send it out on social People love it,
so people come from all over to take a picture
of themselves in front of their favorite driver street signed. Downtown,
(24:22):
we started something called porch parties, so in May, we
asked people to activate their neighborhoods with a racing theme.
Get flags, put them in your mailbox every Friday and
Saturday night, pull people together. And you know, there's data
that shows that neighbors that know each other get along better.
There's less crime, there's more cooperation, there's more collaboration. So
we had a huge push for porch parties to gather
(24:44):
people with the celebration of May, get people together. So
we're still doing that. So we had all these different
community activations and we've looked at it that we don't
have to activate just at the track to make a
global event really mean something. You have to do things
outside the property where the event is too, and the
Olympics does that, you know better than anybody. So we
(25:05):
have twenty or so programs that we do support the
ND five hundred and make it the community and regional
celebration that it is and that brings national and global
people here from all over the world to come and
be a part of all of it. You know, the
mini marathon is another big piece of it, the parade
and so on. So to make it the greatest spectacle
(25:27):
in racing and the world's largest single day sporting event
and then add on to it owning may That's how
you take an event and you make it really global.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, that takes a lot of planning and probably a
lot of years in the making, but it's definitely working
because it's definitely growing again after all this time.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And it's so bizarre.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
To me, like if you look back in time and
I know that it's been one hundred and however many years,
But you've got Lamont, you've got Daytona, you've got Indie,
you've got Backpast, You've got some events around the world
that just have that name, and no matter how hard
you try with new events is never going to be
(26:07):
that because whenever you drive into ims into the speedway
in May and you drive onto the tunnel, it's different
and you get goosebumps, and it's just it's an indescribable
energy that it has. And I don't think that no
matter how much you can market it to make it
better and bigger and all the things. But it's like
(26:28):
inherent in its past, I guess. And it's history that
does that to people.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, And you know, it's interesting before I've worked here,
because I was working all these Olympics, but I was
living in Indianapolis. I had some year that had Indy
five hundred on it or just Indianapolis. I remember being
in the Tokyo Airport and I had just a little
Indianapolis pull over on because I was getting ready to
fly back to the States, and people kept coming up
to be pointing to my shirt. I don't speak Japanese
(26:56):
and they would just say Indy five hundred, Indy five hundred.
So just Indianapolis makes sense. Think of the wow, yes, yes, exactly.
And so Indianapolis is recognized globally for the Indy five hundred.
And I remember when we did the presentation to host
the Super Bowl in two thousand and eight. Part of
our pitch was, we can do the Super Bowl because
(27:18):
we do the Indy five hundred every year, by the way,
and there's three times as many people, so we can
do this with our eyes closed. And all the NFL
owners were like, yeah, you're absolutely right. So it's a
it's been a great thing for Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
You hear the name Indiana is you just think racing right, Like,
Indy wouldn't be on the map, so to say, without
the speedway and without the five hundred. How many Indy
five hundreds had you been through before you started working
on I am.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Well, it's it's funny. I moved here in nineteen eighty three,
which is a long time from I was in Colorado.
Oh lovely, yeah, Colorado one yes, I was living in
Colorado Springs, and so I came here and I went
to my first Indy five hundred that next year. So
I moved here in the fall. So nineteen eighty four,
I had a friend that I met here invited me
(28:05):
to the Indy five hundred and I said, what do
you wear? She said, oh, we'll bring you something like Okay,
so she shows up at my house and they have
handmade all their clothes. Everything's checkered, and they have made
these tops and these shorts and the whole thing. And
I thought, really, but I came and I was all
in too. And you know this, it is a spectacle
(28:27):
in people watching at the Indy five hundred, and having
come from sort of this events background, I was fascinated
that people were taking a week, two weeks, three weeks
to make their own outfits for the Indy five hundred
and so I think I had been to about ten
of them prior to working here, fascinated by the people
part of it. And you know, the Snake Pit is
(28:53):
the first year I worked here. We had back in
sixteen again we revived the Snake Pit to include EDM
music and made it what it is today. And I
did go out there for a short period of time
and I thought, whatever I'm seeing in here, I will
never unsee in my head.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I've never been, but I've heard the stories. I think
it's going to be an experience that I have to
do before I die.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
You have to do it sometime. There's not a lot
of clothes on everybody. At some points during the day,
so little teeny shorts to tops, but all smaller that
I'm used to wearing.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Yeah, Conna was trying to explain to me what it
was like, and it sounds it sounds really interesting and
terrifying at the same time.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
That is a very good description. That's the things you
don't unsee again after you grow out there. But it's
a lot of fun. People people go every year. There
is a point when you sort of grow out of
that and then you want to buy a grandstand ticket
and we're like, perfect.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, No, it depends I guess again, whether you want
to go and actually watch the race or you just
want to be there and experience it all and see
the start and then beat the traffic. Because there's two
different types of fans.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Yeah, and during at the Snakepit, we do splice in
race footage because we want people to know that there's
a race going on, and that's an important piece to us.
I would you know, I just want to mention one
thing about pre race. In all the different events that
I've had the opportunity to work at, including all the Olympics,
there is no better moment in sports. And I can
(30:20):
say this because I've been everywhere. There's no better moment
in sports than when taps place in the pre race
for the Indy, five hundred and three hundred thousand people
stand in reverence, in quiet during that sort of sequence
of the military recognition there. It's fascinating to me and
(30:41):
inspiring that you can get that many people to not
speak and to stop what they're doing and pay respect
to the drivers and pay respect to the military. It's
a moment unlike any other.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yeah, it chokes me up every year.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
And the first time I was there was actually two
thousand and six. I was in the stand and turne
one and I remember just thinking like, you can't experience
this anywhere else, and you can't explain to anybody what
this feeling is. And then standing on the grid for
the first time and experiencing it, I was like, don't
let it in. Put your blinkers on, don't let it in.
(31:17):
You've got a race to run, you like, don't focus
on it. But like the hairs on your arms stand up,
and it's this energy, and it's an indescribable energy, and
it's so bizarre to me even now, and I love it.
You know, they sing back Home again Indiana and It
still chokes me up, but there's just there's nothing like it.
It's absolutely terrifying as a driver, by the way, because
(31:39):
you have this really emotional moment right when you're trying
to be the least emotional you've ever been in your
life and do a robotic job like driving a race
car because you can't let emotion into that, and so
it's like a rollericus. You go from that to getting
in the race car, and it's the same even on
the pace laps, you know, the three wide. You don't
do that anywhere else. That's the only time you do that.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
I'm racing.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I don't know how you don't be overcome with emotion
during that. I mean every year I marvel at that
when I'm standing down there. How do you do that?
I'm going to interview you now. How do you get
your head from coming across the stage and all the
things that happen and all those people everywhere? How do
you get your head into that next place where.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
You have to be.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
It's a learned skill, let's say, because you learn very
quickly when you're coming up through the ranks. The emotion
in a race car is a bad thing, and you
have to drive with your head and emotions make your
decision making cloudy. It's quite quite easy, so you have
to learn to switch it off. And when I first
did it, it was no good at it. I was like,
don't look, think about what you have to start, don't look,
(32:44):
don't do this. And then now I can take it
on board and I can still be okay.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
But actually it caught me off.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
God, when I did my first EB NASCAR cut race
and I let the emotions boil up, and I remember
on the warm up that's I was thinking, my head's
not in the game I doing here. I'm so not
focused because of that emotion because I hadn't controlled it
getting into the car, and I hadn't realized that it
would be a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
And so it's still a process.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Off to twenty years of driving professionally, it's still a person.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Yeah, I can imagine just the whole sequence of that.
And I have to have my not certainly the way
you do, but I have to have my head in
the game to race day, right, because you've got a
million million puzzle pieces and it's hard for me. And
you know, yours is much more serious than my situation
for sure, but it's interesting because it does. It is
a sweep of emotion over you during all of those
(33:35):
free race activities. Again, I'm circling back to what I said.
There is nothing like it in any sports event I've
ever worked on.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
And that's why I say you have to go to Indy.
You have to experience the five hundred because it is indescribable,
Like we cannot get across the feeling that everybody has,
and every single person in that place has that feeling, right,
But you can't describe it, Like I don't care how
good you are with words, there is no words that
describe what it is.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
And I'm excited because Eric Shanks says exactly what you
just said, the president of Fox Sports, like you can't
describe it, and he is chomping at the bit with
his team to show it and try to make the
viewer feel it.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Yeah, how do you showcase that?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Is?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
That is a non easy task.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So we roll out of Indy and you put that
behind you, and then you've got to get ready and
ramp up again full of brickyard race with Nasco.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yes, is it like? Ugh? Okay? We did in Like
this is easy.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Like you said about doing the Super Bowl it's just
like another blip weekend or is it different?
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Is there a different fan base? Like how did the
two compare?
Speaker 3 (34:38):
Yeah, it's very different than the Indy five hundred, But
we love the NASCAR race. You know, it's got incredible
roots here and the NASCAR fans they come from all
over for that race, and so we absolutely love it,
and it's got its own complexities. They are in and out.
That's a different piece of the puzzle, right because they
get in on Friday and it's a huge, massive load
(34:58):
in at one time and and then quick out. So
the logistics of it are very different than the eighty
five hundred, which is we got three weeks to get
ready for that. So there's similarities but also a lot
of differences.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Thanks Allison, it was lovely to chat with.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
You you as well. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Thanks for listening to Throttle Therapy. We'll be back next
week with more updates and more overtakes.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
We want to hear from you.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us
what you want to talk about. It might just be
the topic for our next show. Throttle Therapy is hosted
by Katherine legg. Our executive producer is Jesse Katz and
our supervising producer is Grace Fuse Listen to Throttle Therapy
on America's number one podcast network, i Heeart, Open your
(35:46):
free iHeart app and search throttle Therapy with Katherine Legg
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Host
Katherine Legge
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