INDYCAR Undergoes Pre-Season Executive Changes
Big changes were announced by Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles on Tuesday, February 11 for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. All owned by Penske Entertainment, both the series and the racetrack will, henceforth be run by J. Douglas “Doug” Boles, who has served as president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 2013. He will keep that post and assume the presidency of the series as well, replacing Jay Frye, whose tenure spanned nearly 11 years.
Frye was named the series’ president of competition and operations in late 2015 and added marketing and communications operations three years later. During his tenure, the open-wheel series has seen its competitor numbers increase to an average of 27 cars each race; getting 33 Dallaras together for the Indianapolis 500 isn’t the trial it had been before he showed up. He was the leader of the aeroscreen project that was undertaken with Red Bull (Frye had worked with the energy drink company in NASCAR) in 2020 during the pandemic. He was attempting technological updates, like the hybridization that began this past year after being promised for 2022, 2023 before the in-bellhousing unit was finally fitted to cars for competitive use lmid-season during 2024’s 17-race campaign. It still needs updating to be seamless and adds inextricable weight to the cars – that definitely were not designed for it.
Boles, who was a hands-on co-owner of Panther Racing during the Indy Racing League’s tenure as one of two open-wheel series – CART/Champ Car was the other as the two series split apart following the 1995 season – has decades of experience in the sport, along with a law degree that could be of assistance for both entities he now commands. When he was with Panther, the team earned a pair of championships with driver Sam Hornish Jr., who was poached by Team Penske in 2006, rewarding Roger Penske with yet another Indianapolis 500 victory and championship that year.
What’s positive about this change is the absolute love of racing that permeates Doug Boles. He’s a guy who writes “thank you” notes to fans, always takes time to talk with people at The Brickyard and other tracks where INDYCAR performs, and has deep-seated appreciation for how open wheel racing is run and how it can be improved. Boles oversaw the first outright sell-out of seating at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 100th edition of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500, and he has been at the forefront of changes to IMS and to the IndyCar series.
There is nothing unusual about seeing Doug Boles at races other than the 500 and the road-course race that precedes it each May He appears to be omnipresent, but presiding over both of these entities is not going to be a job his wheelhouse is accustomed to and will take up all but a few of 24 hours each day. And the fact that this change was announced just a few weeks before the start of the 2025 season at St Petersburg, FL on March 2, makes the move appear hurried and not readily thought out.
That and the fact that this change, together with others that were announced simultaneously, mean that the organizational chart at IndyCar is in a state of flux. Some insiders have stated this change has been on the drawing table for about a year; others appear to be surprised by the fact that Frye is gone and Boles is taking over. At the very least, consider this an endeavor that keeps insiders inside and outsiders where they belong. Indianapolis is ringed by Interstate 465; it’s often said that no one at INDYCAR believes anything is relevant outside the circle. (Indianapolis is known as the Circle City).
Remember that this series has been using the [relatively same] Dallara chassis that was developed initially with the assistance of the late Dan Wheldon, a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. It debuted in 2012 and has been updated, particularly with the addition of the heavy aeroscreen that has likely assisted in protecting drivers in accidents. The chassis is old; it needs to be replaced and the series has been talking about replacements for years. But not doing anything. The talk continues.
With regard to engines, Chevrolet and Honda have been dutiful in their assistance to teams and their own developments. The past few years, Chevy has had the upper hand and, with little assistance from the series, Honda has grumbled about the need to update powertrains. It’s threatened to leave and that would put Chevy in the same position Honda once had as the sole powertrain provider. Talk about a third engine provider has been ongoing. Not one manufacturer has taken the bait and it’s doubtful, even with these changes to the upper level of management at Penske Entertainment, whether another manufacturer would consider joining INDYCAR. The series owner has, of late, taken over the Long Beach race via purchase and is handling all marketing, promotions for 2025’s Nashville finale, in addition to sponsoring the St. Petersburg race.
Other appointments trotted out when the departure of Jay Frye and elevation of Doug Boles was announced included Mark Sibla’s promotion to senior vice president of competition and operations. He’s been part of the management team for over a decade. Kyle Novak is now vice president of officiating and race control, making him the overall enforcer of rules in both the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and INDY NXT. Novak has served as race director since the 2018 season began and is part of FIA’s General Assembly, where he begins his third year of participation.
Penske Entertainment has also promoted Alex Damron to chief marketing officer for INDYCAR, where he’s working on a promotional plan for the sport. Long a part of Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s communications team, Damron is now leading marketing and communications teams at INDYCAR and continuing as vice president of corporate communications for Penske Entertainment and the Speedway. No doubt he, too, will be spending more time at work than ever before.
In just a couple of weeks, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES starts its new, 17-race season at St. Petersburg, FL, which has been the season starter for a number of years. This 2025 campaign marks the first year of its new charter system for teams, with three cars allowed to have a charter per team. That means squads like Chip Ganassi’s, which fielded five cars last year, had to jettison two, and Andretti Global is down by one. It allowed others to expand, but at this point, the bigger news is Italian team Prema’s joining the series, but not with a charter as they haven’t competed here before now.
INDYCAR has a new broadcast partner for 2025 in FOX, which will show all races on broadcast television, but it’s unknown at this point whether practice and qualifying, which had been available to Peacock subscribers until now, will be duplicated. INDY NXT by Firestone will be on FS1 and FS2.
All of these changes could be good for the series in time, but to make such adjustments with days until the new season begins, one has to wonder why the purge didn’t occur last fall, as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES finished its 2024 season in September. Was it done in haste or was the change fulminating below the surface and just now brought to the fore? While it’s doubtful answers to those questions will be answered readily, they exist and they are valid.