Why did IndyCar split with Jay Frye?

Yesterday at 05:36 PM

In a Zoom meeting that lasted approximately 40 minutes, Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles and new IndyCar president Doug Boles met with select members of the media on Tuesday to field questions on the personnel changes that included the firing of Jay Frye and the elevation of others within the organization to new or increased roles.

Below is a transcript of the key conversation items in the call.

MARK MILES: I want to personally, and for the company, thank Jay Frye for about 11 years of service in that role, and for getting us through a lot of really major accomplishments on the track and for IndyCar racing. As to these changes and Doug’s appointment, we are entirely focused on the fact that we believe, given that we’ve had several years now of single-digit growth, now we have an opportunity to really accelerate the growth.

And if you watched some football this weekend, you would have seen some evidence of that from our partners at FOX. So I think Doug is the perfect guy to lead us in this time of with this kind of an opportunity. If you look at his background with Panther Racing and their success, he absolutely has been for what, maybe eight years, something like that, in the role of a team owner and in the paddock, and completely understands that perspective. And more recently, I think Doug is well understood to be one of the absolute best, most effective promoters and marketers, certainly in racing, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been the beneficiary of that, through his leadership there.

So to be able to apply that skill set and that background in Doug to both IMS and IndyCar made a lot of sense to us. The other thing that it does is… really, since I first got involved even more years ago, we’ve wanted to make IndyCar and IMS as working as closely together as is optimal. It’s not an absolute merger. It’s not just one entity, obviously, but we’ve been doing that in marketing communications now for a while under Allison Melangton's leadership, and we think there are other opportunities.

And with Doug having this role at both IMS and IndyCar, I know Doug will be smart and eyes open to opportunities to have the talented staffs, we sometimes say on both sides of the street stitched together in an optimal way. So I think it’s a big opportunity. I think Doug is the right guy at the right time, and I believe that the changes that we’ve made in both organizations will give him every opportunity to be a great success.

DOUG BOLES: I’m really excited about this role. It’s an amazing organization with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series. You know, the Indy 500 doesn’t work without a really healthy NTT IndyCar Series. And the NTT IndyCar Series doesn’t work without the Indianapolis 500, so weaving those two things together, I think, is one of the strengths that we’ll have, because the success of both is interdependent.

So looking forward to that, we have a great group of folks on both sides of the fence, as Mark had mentioned, and really trying to maximize and take advantage of the growth that we have right now, the FOX relationship that we have right now, the amazing racing on track, and then really trying to focus on, how are we going to just continue that momentum exponentially, build that momentum so that we can continue to be successful?

Mark touched a little bit on some of the changes that we have in place. So you’re looking at Mark Sibla taking on a lot of the comp(etition) and op(erations) role over at the NTT IndyCar Series, which I think is going to be a seamless transition there. That’s going to make that work well, elevating some people here inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to do some of the day to day things that have historically maybe been in my world, so that I can really focus a lot of my time on and with the IndyCar Series. In fact, I’m going to get on a plane Sunday and head down to the open test there on Monday, Tuesday, (in) Sebring (and) start talking to teams and drivers and others and on and trying to really learn as much as I can about how together we can continue to grow the sport.

MODERATOR One follow-up, then we’ll open up for questions. With the role with Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now with IndyCar as a sanctioning body, how do you do both?

DOUG BOLES: Well, I alluded to a little bit there, just with the with the people. Mark talked about how we’ve restructured some things so that we can move forward. So a young guy here in our organization named Louis Kissinger is going to take on a lot of the operations role, working with Jason Penix and Dan Skiver, a team of folks who really understand how to put events on here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, so that I can remove myself a little bit from that piece of the organization, with Mark Sibla stepping in on the comp and ops side of things, I think that’s going to be a really strong addition there inside of the IndyCar Series side.

And for me, I’m just going to have to spend the bulk of my time over with the folks at IndyCar, especially as we get the season kicked off. And just going to be a little bit of a balancing act. I’ll still be here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on occasion. But right now, the focus is, how do we just pick up the ball and keep things going forward in the IndyCar Series?

MARSHALL PRUETT: Mark, I’ve been hearing about this possibility (of replacing Frye) for quite some time. A couple of weeks here before the start of the season… bit of a surprise on the timing and the change.

What led to this decision on a Tuesday, race week of Daytona 500, a couple weeks before we head to St Pete? I know I’m one of many who expected to hear of this change, maybe right after the season ended, but what was it about timing, or right now, to do this here on the precipice of a new season?

MARK MILES: I would just say that we’re completely confident that this can be seamless and that we won’t drop balls or miss anything as Doug takes the reins here. So as he said, it’ll be he and Mark (Sibla). Mark’s already over there, right? And all the other seats have not changed. So those people are full steam ahead. They actually report to Mark now, as opposed to him being in that Chief of Staff, kind of coordinator role. So if anything, I think it stitches it more tightly together, but it’s the same people who’ve been making these plans.

MARSHALL PRUETT: You mentioned something interesting in your preamble about going through single-digit growth, belief that the new partnership with FOX will be a big help to grow and raise IndyCar's fortunes. And also tied to that, a belief that with Doug in place, that can accelerate things.

Is that the expectation here for IndyCar's president to spur growth for the series? I’ve been under the assumption that really all major decision making across all areas was held by folks like yourself in Penske Entertainment's senior leadership. Is this a new expectation being placed on Doug to be a bigger agent in improving IndyCar's fortunes compared to Jay, who I would say was maybe more focused on the competition and operations side? I don’t know if that’s what you were saying in that comment, but that’s at least what it was interpreted as by me – that Doug has higher expectations placed on him to elevate IndyCar.

MARK MILES: Yeah, well, perhaps yes, right? I mean, Jay focused more on cop and ops, and that’s on the track, and less on the other commercial aspects of the sport and IndyCar, and Doug is incredibly well suited to work on both. I haven’t thought about it in sort of comparative terms, but I know he can punch his weight class on both making sure we’re in good shape for the racing as well as the commercial side. Maybe the way we like to think about the way the companies run is, it is a team.

It's hard to think of the things where one person, me or anybody or Roger or anybody else decided everything. So again, I just go to the fact that the bench is at this point unchanged, and those people have the experience and expertise, they’re ready for St. Pete, and I think Doug can help us maybe broaden the president’s impact at a time when it’ll really bear fruit because of the opportunity that’s right in front of us.

DOUG BOLES: The success of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway really is attributed to everybody that works here, the teams, the drivers, our fans. It’s a collective that’s really grown the Indianapolis 500 and I think that’s what we need at the IndyCar Series side. So it’s not going to be one person who’s responsible for it. It’s going to be a whole collection of us that’s responsible. Mark, it’s Roger, it’s the teams, it’s the drivers, and frankly, it’s our fans alongside us to help us grow our sport. And I hope that that’s one of the things that I can bring to the table, is there’s this unity together. We all love this sport. The sport’s amazing, the racing’s amazing, the venues are fantastic.

Let’s figure out how together we can continue to move it forward and address some of the challenges that we have together as a team. And that’s really part of the reason I think we’ve been so successful here. So I don’t view it as more stress or opportunity for me as it relates to growing the sport. I view it as an opportunity for all of us together to row in the right direction, and let’s get us across the finish line with some victories.

MARSHALL PRUETT: Two more questions. Doug, you’re stepping into this role at a time where, separate from the start of a new season, launch of this positive new relationship with FOX, etc., series has been actively trying to develop a new chassis concept, engine formula engine, manufacturer contracts expire at the end of 2026 for both Chevrolet and Honda. Those need to be managed and re-signed.

There’s some big, big items here, little bit down the road, but this change is happening in the middle of some pretty serious development work. Tell me about that side. Because you’re having to jump straight in and take over a couple of major projects and lead that as well. I know you’re game for the task, but it’s a lot of weight on your shoulders. And by the way, you get to run the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well.

DOUG BOLES: Well, I guess I go back to what I said a minute ago. I don’t know that this is necessarily just on me. I think even today, those conversations about new OEMs and what does IndyCar look like post-2026, it’s a collective. There are a lot of people that are working together to make this happen. It’s not fair to say that it’s been one person, or will continue to be one person.

Is it a daunting task for everybody, sure, but we believe we have a product that we can sell that brings value to those partners, and certainly is something that it with the FOX relationship is we feel very good about those conversations. I’ve got a big learning curve to catch up to some of those conversations that have been ongoing pre the time that we’ve made this announcement today, but definitely excited about continuing to work with that going forward.

There’s folks inside the IndyCar office right now who have direct conversations with those OEMs and with Dallara as a manufacturer and other folks. I think we’re going to be OK as we go forward. It’s not really the responsibility of one of us. It’s the responsibility of a lot of us to make sure that we get these things across the finish line, and be able to make some of those announcements, as it relates to 2027, and beyond.

MARSHALL PRUETT: I tried presenting this in a soft manner up front, but to be honest, didn’t get much of an answer. So Mark, I’ll throw it back in a more direct way, because I know that my phone, and I’m sure many of the reporters here, their phones and otherwise have been filled with the same question: Why did you fire Jay Frye?

MARK MILES: Exactly how things unfolded with Jay is not a matter that I'll get into. I started this call by thanking him, and I mean it. I personally have appreciated working with Jay, and I feel like the fact that he’s no longer with us has created this opportunity to, as you sort of put it, with Doug, to broaden the impact to go from the very strong base we have in terms of comp and ops and integrate more, maybe break down the silos a bit between comp and ops and the commercial side of the sport, and I think that’ll just tighten our growth.