Pruett: That’s a good point and also highlights a bigger issue that might not seem as immediate as others, but probably needs to come first. We need new and younger fans. IndyCar has a dedicated group of followers, but the series does very little to create new fans. And with those new ones that do show up to the track, not much is done to educate them on the unique aspects of the sport—what makes it different from a NASCAR, for example, which is easy for anyone can grasp. Same with many stick-and-ball sports, but open-wheel is different. IndyCar is a lot like Jazz in the sense that the more you understand the complexities, the more you can appreciate it, but in theory, that shouldn’t limit the series from going after all types of fans.

Miles: It’s a really interesting line of thought. And my reaction is what you described as the detailed knowledge, the complex understanding is the hardcore fan. But we’ve got to be able to translate the sport at a much more general, higher, visceral level. I think I can take any kid to the Indianapolis 500 – and I don't need to dwell on the 500, I'm sure it's true for any of our races – and get him blown away by the visceral sense of excitement from the power and the speed. And they might have a clue about what's a Chevy or what’s a Honda. And never have any understanding of the difference in technology between IndyCar and NASCAR. But I think at another level, there isn't any reason our sport can’t reach fans that are never going to be the most hardcore fan. And once you get that done you start converting casual fans all the time to more hardcore fans. This gives us some hope.

I've got four kids, three sons between 29 and 20. They lived in Europe for a while but they were not soccer fans. Today they and all their friends can name 75 of the top 100 international soccer players and they never watched a minute of live soccer or tape-delayed soccer. Why? It’s from Video games. I'm not making this up, and my kids are not an anomaly.

There's just so many different ways to get new fans interested. First of all, I hear people say, ‘I knew how to change the spark plugs and change the oil and maybe the carburetor. And since you can't do that today with production cars as an owner, we can't reach kids because they don't understand.’ I don't buy that for a second. I mean what kid doesn’t get in the car when they’re 15 or 16 and want to go fast and spin the wheels feel the rush of power? I think at this much higher level we can reach lots of casual fans through the power of it, the speed of it and eventually through the personalities of the drivers and just the vibe from the events. And I do not think there's any reason that we have to be limited to people who understand how these cars work.

The world has just changed. The same kids are huge Indianapolis Colts fans. And yet with the exception of the Colts game, they almost never watch an NFL football game because they watch the NFL Red Zone. Every single one of them and all their friends play fantasy football. What does that do? That means they care about certain players from whichever teams all over the league and everything that they do individually, it doesn’t matter whether their team wins or not. So they sit there and watch the Red Zone, which is the constant barrage of the scoring plays. They don’t sit and watch a game from start to finish like most people grew up doing.

Times have changed. The way we consume sports is different and there’s a lot of different ways to make fans. I’m not the least bit persuaded that until we have translated the technology of the vehicle to a set of eyeballs and a brain, that we can't make that person a fan, I don't buy it. It doesn't mean that stuff doesn’t matter, right? Because every sport has levels of fans. And you need content to feed the appetite of every level of fan.

(This portion of the conversation started by talking about the increasingly old, white and male demographic that makes up the bulk of IndyCar’s fans. Getting younger is a must, as is appealing to both genders and Americans that haven’t traditionally been embraced by open-wheel racing.)

Pruett: You’re inheriting a number of different businesses, but it sounds like IndyCar will become you No. 1 job. Is that the case, and if so, isn’t that a significant change for the position?

Miles: I think it’s pretty on-target. I tend to be very activist. All the business units report to me. Although, that wasn’t true with Randy and Jeff. Randy reported to the IMS board separately and I don't think it was optimal. I'm not talking about the individuals, I'm talking about structure. So, no, I feel like it's my responsibility to make every part of our business perform and the greatest opportunities – it all matters, as long as we’re in them – but the greatest growth opportunities are with IndyCar. And it’s a really exciting opportunity that we’ll be very engaged in.

(It’s just a hunch, but I have a feeling that when a new IndyCar CEO is hired, that person will be working side by side with Miles on a daily basis—like a quarterback receiving instructions from the head coach.)