If 250,000 fans are Penske’s goal, when will a final decision on crowd size be made?
“We haven’t made a decision,” Penske answered. “That’s going to be in conjunction with the governor and the mayor.
“You hear all sorts of numbers. The Kentucky Derby, 50 percent. So, I think, the numbers are getting much better and certainly going in our favor,” Penske said. “Our goal is to hopefully be able to have some indication as we get into April. We don’t run until the end of May, so, remember, we have this generational customer, this guest that’s been coming to the track for many years and they have their tickets. I think as we sit here today, we’ve got over 170,000 tickets that have already been taken, so we’re in good shape.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Image by Walt Kuhn
“It’s a matter of do we open up the rest for GA (general admission) and some of the other things that have to happen and that’s going to be limited basically to what’s specified by the authorities.”
The first three venues on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule have announced spectators for their races including the season-opening Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama (50 percent capacity) on April 18, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 25 (20,000 spectators) and the oval doubleheader at Texas Motor Speedway on May 3-4.
“What we’re doing with each one of the promoters, based on what the local rules are, we’re going to have the sponsor capability with the teams,” Penske said. “We limit some of the hard cards (annual credentials for teams, sponsors, VIPs and media), etc., but we’re flexible, and then the promoter will decide how many fans they will have, but in every case as we did in St. Pete the last race, we’ll have fans at all those races.
“The good news is that we’ve got network TV on the first six of our eight races, which will give us a good shot in the arm,” Penske noted. “You’ve seen the number of teams that are entering. We’ve got a lot of new teams and drivers, so we feel good about it — what we have to do to go racing. The guys all can’t wait to get here on the track and get ready to go.”
Penske celebrated his 84th birthday on Feb. 20 and has been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I got mine earlier on,” Penske said. “I hit the top age bracket, so that’s one time the age worked out for you.
“I checked the box.”