Meet IndyCar’s New Leadership – IndyCar President Doug Boles and Senior Vice President of Competition and Logistics Mark Sibla

BRUCE:

IndyCar fans, it's time to start your engines. 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 an insider's 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 SportsTicker, Sports Illustrated, AutoWeek and SpeedSport. So let's drop the green flag on this episode of Pit Pass Indy. Welcome to Pit Pass Indy as we continue our fifth season of giving IndyCar fans an inside look at the most exciting form of racing on the planet, the NTT IndyCar Series. After a long off-season, it's time to go racing as IndyCar hits the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida for the start of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season. The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg begins Friday, February 28th with practice. The starting lineup will be determined on Saturday, March 1st, and the big race will be Sunday, March 2nd. This year's Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be the first of 17 races televised on Fox. It's the first time in IndyCar history that all races will be televised by the same major network. Fox will also air both days of qualifications for the 109th Indianapolis 500, giving IndyCar 19 different television events. IndyCar also has some new leadership at the helm, as Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Bowles has also become IndyCar president. He replaced Jay Fry in that position on February 11th. Pit Pass Indy was at IndyCar Spring Training last week as the full field of teams and drivers that will compete on the streets of St. Petersburg were participating in a two-day preseason test session. On today's Pit Pass Indy, we have exclusive interviews with IndyCar President Doug Bowles and IndyCar Senior Vice President, Competition and Operations, Mark Sibla. Both were busy at work at Sebring Raceway, but took time to join Pit Pass Indy. First up is IndyCar President Doug Bowles, who joins me for this exclusive Pit Pass Indy interview. Whenever I see our next guest, I always start off with Hail to the Chief, but now I'm gonna have to sing it twice because he's now president of both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and as of February the 11th, the IndyCar Series, it's Doug Bowles. Doug, the first question our listeners will probably ask is, how are you going to do both?

DOUG:

First of all, it's always awkward when you sing Hail to the Chief, so I'd rather you just didn't do it at all versus doing it twice. You know, I think the first thing we did is restructure a little bit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway so that everything doesn't have to come up to my level. And we've got a great team there, and obviously this will be the 109th time we've run the Indianapolis 500, so a lot of that is some things that the team can repeat, they kind of know the decisions that I would make, so hopefully That'll allow me to spend 70% of my time, frankly, on the NTT IndyCar series. So as long as that restructure goes well, I think I'll be able to put the time in to make sure both work well.

BRUCE:

A lot of people ask, though, what was the reason why IndyCar decided to do a restructuring?

DOUG:

Well, all I can tell you from my standpoint is I was asked to step into this role and I'm absolutely excited about trying to see where the IndyCar Series goes. In terms of what happened before that, I can't really tell you. I just know that I'm solely focused on getting us to St. Petersburg and then all the way through the 500 and to a checkered flag in Nashville.

BRUCE:

Jay Fry held the position since after the 2015 season. A lot happened under his watch. We had different iterations of the car. We had the aero screen. We had a lot of positive things that happened under Jay's leadership. Jay is no longer part of the organization. But some credit probably has to go a little bit to what he was able to accomplish during his 10 years as IndyCar president.

DOUG:

You know, I've worked with Jay since he started working inside Holman& Company, when it was Holman& Company, and then ultimately actually worked at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway together, and then he went over to run the IndyCar Series, and I think when Jay went across the street to work on the IndyCar Series, he inherited a lot of bees' nests, and he certainly did a great job of sort of getting that all settled down and putting us in the right direction, and I have nothing but great things to say about Jay Fry.

BRUCE:

Now one of the things under your regime as IndyCar president will be moving along with the development of the new car. Where do you see that car at the moment? How far down the road are we and when might we actually see an unveiling of what the new car will look like?

DOUG:

So I'm seven days into this announcement and to be really transparent my full focus right now has been on How do we get to St. Petersburg? How do we make St. Petersburg an amazing opening event? I've been starting to study and get up to speed on where some of the conversations have gone as it relates to new car, new engine, current OEMs, new OEMs. But for me, a lot of that's really going to be digging in post-St. Petersburg as we get the season underway. So I'll have to see where that goes and certainly in the next few weeks, probably answer that question better.

BRUCE:

An unsung hero of IndyCar is Mark Sibla, who now takes over the competition department of IndyCar, has most of the responsibilities that Jay Fry had in competition, but he's not new. He was Jay Fry's lieutenant for all those years, having Mark Sibla, a guy who completely understands the paddock and completely understands IndyCar. How valuable is that?

DOUG:

It's really valuable and just like Jay, you know, I've worked with Mark both at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway through Holman& Company and then obviously he went across the street to IndyCar when Jay went there and really was Jay's shadow, Jay's right hand guy. So I've been leaning on Mark quite a bit right now to get me up to speed. A lot of the a lot of the engine things and new car things that we'll end up dealing with. Mark's pretty up to speed on, so we'll continue to work together. But I think we're really fortunate to have him, because you're right, a lot of those components that reported to Jay will continue to report to Mark. He has relationships throughout our organization that I think are super valuable and looking forward to sort of reigniting a relationship with him that we had before he went full-time to IndyCar.

BRUCE:

And also you and Mark go pretty far back and we're both at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway around relatively the same time. He was originally in sales and marketing. So he has a broad understanding of the series and the sport which really has to help because even though it's competition you're still dealing with engine manufacturers and other constituencies on a business standpoint.

DOUG:

Well, so much of what we're doing is about the relationships, you know, it's the relationship with the fans, it's the relationship with the OEMs, it's the relationship with the teams, the drivers, and Mark brings a lot of that and an understanding of certainly the commercial side of things, so I do think that is invaluable in terms of his ability to help us continue to move the company forward.

BRUCE:

You always showed up at St. Pete as in the role of the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to help promote that year's Indianapolis 500. Now you're going to be showing up at St. Pete as the IndyCar President, and that's coming up here February 28th through March 2nd. How excited are you, once again, to go to the Firestorm Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which has become one of the most popular races on the schedule?

DOUG:

Yeah, I'm excited about it. I've been coming to that race since 2005. I think when the IndyCar Series or Indy Racing League, maybe back then, started racing there. I've obviously known Kevin Savery from his time on the team side. I've known Barry Green. Both of those two are the promoters there. So I've already reached out to Kevin and talked to him. We've stayed in touch over the years and talked several times during the year about how can we promote together. So being able to have a more active role with people like Kevin and Barry and then, sorry, Kim, The rest of the group, I think, is really important. The Green Brothers, I go back with Barry a long time, and certainly Kim as well. So Kevin and Kim, I think it's just really helpful to be able to work with them.

BRUCE:

You started out with a legal background, but you grew up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Your father was a USAC official for many, many years. How valuable is it to have the experience both from a race fan perspective, a race team owner perspective when you were at Panther Racing, and also having the legal background to understand everything that comes from a legal standpoint?

DOUG:

Well, I think all of it, all of it together helps. I think the most important thing, and it's the one thing I won't lose sight of, the most important thing we do is connect with our fans. This sport doesn't work without the fans. We have to continue to maintain that relationship with the fans. They have to know that we hear them. They have to know that we see us interacting with the fans. So that's super important. Honestly, the legal side is probably the least valuable to me. I use it when I need to. We do have a legal team. I'm probably the last person to think about what's in the contract and really the first person to think about what's best for the constituents, including the fans.

BRUCE:

But as far as your life in racing, I remember you telling me that there was a rule in your family you had to be a certain age before you were allowed to attend your first Indianapolis 500. When did you reach 10? Why did your dad have that rule? I think I know the answer to that because at that time, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, especially the snake pit, was pretty wild. But also, when was your first Indianapolis 500? How cool was it to finally get to go for the first time?

DOUG:

Yeah, my first 500 was in 1977. I turned 10 in the fall of... 1976, and so I ended up going to my first Indy 500. I was an A.J. Foyt fan. He was my hero growing up. Was bummed out I didn't get to go in 1976. I told my dad, look, I'm closer to 10 in 76 than I will. I'll be closer to 11 in 77. That didn't work. It's an arbitrary rule, I think. And I'm fortunate, though, that my first Indy 500 was A.J. Foyt's fourth win, and I've had an opportunity to attend every Indianapolis 500 since 1977. And whether I'm working for the Speedway or the series, I plan on attending every 500 until I can't get get there anymore.

BRUCE:

Well, you picked a tremendous year to attend your first Indianapolis 500 because that's one of the most historic Indianapolis 500s in history. May have been the biggest crowd ever that day, even though the only time you've announced a sellout was for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. But now that you have seen IndyCar grow, if we go back to 2013, 2014 and compare IndyCar today, It's so much stronger than it was back then.

DOUG:

Yeah, it's absolutely stronger. I think our fan passion is better. The racing is definitely better. The talent of the field is certainly better. I think there's a lot of great things that we have in this series now that we didn't have 10 or 12 years ago. But we certainly can't stop. I mean, we've got a long way to go. We've got other competitors out there in terms of the same kind of space product that we have to continue to work on. And I know that everybody in the NTT IndyCar Series paddock, whether it's folks that work for IndyCar or the teams and the drivers, we're going to do everything we can to make 2025 a banner breakout year.

BRUCE:

And finally, now that you have the dual roles of being president of both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series, I imagine you get a lot more texts and a lot more phone calls from Roger Penske.

DOUG:

Well, I got a lot of texts and a lot of phone calls from Roger before. It's just now it's a lot more, a lot different questions at least over the last week than maybe I got before. I mean, the one thing we know, there's nobody that loves the NTT IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500 and our events more than Roger Penske. It is really what he is all about and his fans I mean, frankly, we're fortunate to have somebody that loves our sport like we, the fans, love our sport. And he certainly has a lot of great ideas, a lot of great questions, and I look forward to continuing to work with him and together continue to make the NTT IndyCar Series grow and hopefully we'll sell out the Indianapolis 500 in 2025.

BRUCE:

Well, I've always admired your passion and your energy that you put into your job. You've been very loyal to me and very loyal to Pit Pass Indy, and I really appreciate that. Doug Bowles, congratulations on becoming IndyCar president. Continued good luck being the Indianapolis Motor Speedway president. Good luck in 2025, and thank you for joining us today on Pit Pass Indy. Thank you so much, Bruce. We'll be right back to Pit Pass Indie after this short break. Welcome back to Pit Pass Indie. Mark Sibla has a new role and a new title, but the new Senior Vice President of Competition and Operations is not new to IndyCar. Since 2016, he was IndyCar Chief of Staff, working directly for then-IndyCar President Jay Fry. Prior to that, Sibla worked in sales, marketing, and partner relations for IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In his new role, Sibla oversees the competition side of IndyCar. It's a very important responsibility, but Sibla took time out of his busy schedule to join me for this exclusive PitPass Indy interview from IndyCar Spring Training in Sebring, Florida. Our next guest may have a new role and a new title, but he's certainly not new to IndyCar competition. It's Mark Sibla, the senior vice president of competition and operations for IndyCar. In your new role, you're basically the man in charge of competition. I don't want to say that you replaced Jay Fry because in a lot of ways Jay Fry had a pretty strong tenure, he had the title of IndyCar president, but you worked right with Jay and handled a lot of the same responsibilities you're going to be handling now. So if you could tell our listeners the new role that you have and how in a lot of ways what's new is really old again.

MARK:

No, absolutely, Bruce. And first off, thanks for the opportunity to talk a little bit about this. You know, as chief of staff with JFRI, gosh, that's been since 2016. You know, I work closely with the engineering department. I work closely with our operations departments, you know, both from a business sense and also from learning what they were trying to achieve, whether it was raceability of the car, whether it was some of the rules and regulations. And so this role just makes some of that a little bit more official. a little bit more of involvement from my standpoint on the project, the flow of that, how all of that goes. It's something I'm very excited about. Jay was a great teacher. I worked with him since 2014 in two different roles. And so looking to continue what got started and keep growing IndyCar.

BRUCE:

I imagine that you build up quite a friendship with Jay Fry and had a lot of respect for him. So in some ways, it's a positive move for you to be able to take over. But in some ways, there's got to be a little bit of a bittersweet feeling in seeing him leave.

MARK:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, as I mentioned, you know, 2014, Jay joined us as the chief revenue officer. Right. And that's how he and I first started working. My role was overseeing all the partnerships, both for IndyCar as well as Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And it was, you know, enjoying that collaboration and working with him that when he moved over to become president of IndyCar, that I reached out to him and said, hey, I'd like to come with you. I'd like to get closer to what I often term the heart of the sport, the engineering, the rulemaking, the operations of it. And he said, yeah, let's bring you over. And then from that point forward, Gosh, he and I worked extremely close together, so it's certainly a change. I wish Jay nothing but success. I know he'll be very, very successful in whatever he decides to do next. And I appreciate all the opportunities that he gave me.

BRUCE:

It's one of the greatest challenges in being in competition and operations is, in some ways, it becomes the complaint department. And you may have a long line of people from the paddock that have a complaint about one thing or another. How difficult is that to deal with? Every organization has issues and challenges. How difficult is that to deal with and what type of personality does it take to be able to handle that?

MARK:

Yeah, so I think you're, you know, you're exactly right. Some of the conversations we've had over these last two days, you know, whether it's been suppliers or teams, a multitude of folks have said, listen, you're always going to hear complaints. You're going to hear things that that should be different or could be better. And you got to take that in. You got to listen. Everybody has a voice. You need to make sure they're heard. At the end of the day, what you need to do is you need to realize that it's about the sport, right? It's about IndyCar racing, and you need to be making decisions that are in the best interest of the sport. And sometimes people are going to be happy with those decisions based off of where they are and where they fall. And sometimes they're not. But if you constantly keep IndyCar racing as your North Star, and that's how you're making your decisions, it's the best way to do it.

BRUCE:

My advice would be stay off Twitter, stay off social media, because there's people on those that are never happy about anything. But as far as those moving IndyCar forward, you're busy at work with the new car design and with the new car program. Where does it stand at the moment? What stages it is? I imagine it's still in the rendering stage and the computer model stages. So what can you tell fans who anxiously want to see a new car and update on that project?

MARK:

Yeah, absolutely, and I think this is a great topic, right? This initiated well over a year ago, and it started with parameters that our team put together, our engineering team, you know, Tino and Bill and Darren, of what they wanted the next car to be capable of in terms of safety, in terms of raceability, key factors such as that. And that initiated the process. And where we've gone from there is we are now in a multitude of meetings every week with our key partners, whether that's Dallara or Extract or a multitude of other groups that are providing input, products, expertise. And it's progressing well, right? We are moving to a stage where you really start honing in on the design look of it, but still have a lot of elements that we can continue to refine and work on.

BRUCE:

Are you in race control every race or do you sometimes, because oftentimes during practices and qualifications, you'd see Jay Fry out on pit road in a quiet place, taking it all in. Will you be in race control or will you do similar to what Jay did?

MARK:

Yeah, I think you'll probably see my role more out of race control, right? Working closely with our team on both the operation side as well as the engineering to understand how's the event unfolding and what are we seeing from the vehicle, what are we seeing from the drivers and the teams and so forth. The race control element, certainly Kyle Novak in his expanded role will be overseeing that and we're in great hands there.

BRUCE:

Are you getting a lot more texts and phone calls from IndyCar owner Roger Penske now?

MARK:

I used to get a lot from him anyway, so I don't know that the cadence has picked up necessarily a lot, but certainly I expect that, you know, between him and certainly Doug and Mark and others that are involved, we'll be certainly having conversations on a much more frequent basis.

BRUCE:

You started at IndyCar when it was a bit of a struggle to maybe get IndyCar the credit that it deserved, because the racing was great back then, but the ratings weren't real high, and sometimes we'd go to races where the crowds might not be very good. But here we are in 2025. You've got so many entries, you had to come up with a charter system, essentially. 27-car, 28-car fields for regular races. Yeah. We're going to have more bumping at the Indianapolis 500, hopefully. That's purely up to the engine manufacturers, how many engines that they're going to supply between Chevrolet and Honda. But when you see how far IndyCars come since you started working here, it's pretty impressive.

MARK:

It's great, and it's great to see, and you know, I've been with IndyCar since 2008. You know, prior to that, I was at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, and you know, I got to a point in my career there where I said, if I could be anywhere, where would I want to be? And it was IndyCar. And as I mentioned in a meeting internal to staff, I feel the same way now as I felt then. It's great to see the growth. It's great to see what Fox is coming in and doing. I couldn't be more happy with how collaborative they are with our team, how they, from everything to really down into the details and to see what they're doing promotionally has just been fantastic. And I think you're gonna see a lot of growth this year. I know a lot of us are excited. You've got a new race coming in in 2026. So there's a lot of good things that are happening for IndyCar.

BRUCE:

I just came from the 67th Daytona 500, and I gotta admit, I never ever thought I'd see the day where on the Daytona 500 broadcast in the press box, we'd be seeing IndyCar promotional commercials. It was almost like a brave new world that we live in now. But to be able to now be promoted during the Daytona 500, to be promoted during the Super Bowl, That's reaching an audience that may be introduced to IndyCar.

MARK:

Absolutely. And you mentioned it earlier. We've got a great product. You know, we constantly hear from fans, from key stakeholders, how much they love the product of our racing. It's now just, you know, letting more people experience it, letting more people know about what we're doing. And, you know, I think that the spots that they're running are fantastic. I've gotten a ton of texts, a ton of emails from people saying, you know, I love I love this ad. I love all three ads. And so hats off to them. They're they're starting off just just really, really strong.

BRUCE:

There are two approaches to a new car. One would be to help keep costs reasonable for the team owners since they're the ones that have to pony up the money to buy new cars. Two-car team, that could be six to seven million dollars. There was a faction that wanted to maybe have some pieces from the current car be able to be utilized with the new car. Then there's also the camp that says clean sheet, start from scratch. That way, all the components fit together and are designed to work together. So what are the pros and cons of each approach?

MARK:

Well, I mean, I think you touched on it, right? So, you know, there's there's cost containment. There's, you know, design elements and and, you know, those types of things to think about. What you have to do is you have to balance everything, right? We're known for a great racing product, so that's where you start. You also say, we're known for safety, and that's got to be paramount. So those are your two key initial drivers. Then you start to say, OK, how do we Create a new design. How do we freshen it up? How do we excite people about the product of the car? And at the same time, be cognizant of the financials. And I think we've done a fantastic job over the last, you know, six to eight years of always being cognizant of team costs. You know, you'd always hear us talk about a five-year plan, and that five-year plan would have not only the updates on it, but it would have the expected cost of it. We're taking the same philosophy, the same approach to this new car. How do we do something new? How do we make sure it's safe, it races well, fans love it, but at the same time, we're smart about the costs.

BRUCE:

When this car was designed, there was no aeroscreen, there was no hybrid assist device. I'm not sure that IndyCar doesn't get enough credit for being able to get both of those on the current car when the car was never designed for them in the first place.

MARK:

Yeah, you know, I think that's a really good point. And I think the credit goes to a combination of groups. I certainly think our engineering team, you know, Tino, again, Bill and Darren have worked great with our partners. What I have really noticed is the relationship that we have with our suppliers, whether that's Dallara, whether that's Honda and Chevrolet, has gotten much, much stronger. And so you're working together, not only on this project, but the projects you mentioned previously. And it's that working together that's really allowed us to bring some of those new innovations, if you would, to the sport.

BRUCE:

How involved are you with new race markets, potential new race markets, and also the Grand Prix of Arlington?

MARK:

So, you know, initially the focus right now is on what lies ahead with St. Petersburg. You know, we're going to be there in basically, you know, 10 days. We're obviously working feverishly on the new car project. I'm sure that I'll get pulled into some of the new market. But that falls to, you know, another group of people. Certainly Michael Montrey and Mark Miles are involved with that. But like we do on other things, there'll be a multitude of people that are providing feedback, suggestions, and things to be cognizant of.

BRUCE:

At the end of 2024, Honda made some noise about how they would like to see certain things done with engines or they may consider leaving after 2026. You don't hear so much about that anymore. So has that issue been resolved?

MARK:

Well, I think the key thing there is, again, back to communication, right? We need to make sure that we're constantly talking with any of our stakeholders, any of our suppliers and partners about what they're experiencing, what's working, and maybe what needs tweaked. And I think, you know, that approach will always put you in a good position to have a long and fruitful relationship.

BRUCE:

And finally, February 28th through March 2nd, the season kicks off with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. That event has grown to be one of the most popular events weekends on the schedule. And just how excited are you to know that they'll be racing?

MARK:

Well, obviously extremely excited. You know, the product again that we've got is fantastic. That is such a great way to start the season. Outside of just wanting to get out of the cold of Indianapolis, the on track racing is great. They do a fantastic job. The fans down there are passionate. You see at the restaurants and so forth, banners, a lot of excitement. I'm ready to get the season started.

BRUCE:

One other final question that I've always been curious about. So we're testing here at Sebring International Raceway, and I don't think people really understand and realize the budget that goes into having an IndyCar open test with the transporters, the fuel, the hotel rooms, the meals, and getting the track ready. I'm sure there's a track charge for the track rental. How do you describe how massive it is in the budget?

MARK:

Well, I think the key thing is the importance of it, right? It is something that you really want to have before the season starts off. It gives us a great chance, it gives the teams a great chance, everyone that's involved a good chance to work out anything that maybe, you know, through the off season you introduced. So, you know, while there's a financial element of it, it's critical for our success and it's something that we'll do.

BRUCE:

Well, it certainly shows that IndyCar is committed to doing what's best for the sport. But Mark Sibla, you and I go back a long time. We do. You've always been a very good and loyal supporter. You've been a friend. And I really want to congratulate you on your additional roles and responsibilities. Good luck in 2025. And thank you for joining us on Pit Pass Indy.

MARK:

Well, thank you, Bruce. I really do appreciate it.

BRUCE:

And that puts a checkered flag on this edition of Pit Pass Indy. We want to thank our guests, IndyCar President and Indianapolis Motor Speedway President, Doug Bowles, and IndyCar Senior Vice President, Competition and Operations, Mark Sibla, for joining us on today's podcast. Along with loyal listeners like you, our guests help make Pit Pass Indy your path to victory lane in IndyCar. We will have a special bonus edition of Pit Pass Indy later this week as IndyCar gears up to start the season in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. For more IndyCar coverage, follow me at X, previously known as 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. Learn more at evergreenpodcast.com. Until next time, be sure to keep it out of the wall.