Q: It sounds like you had some insight that Jay Frye was on the way out, but maybe something behind the scenes caused the sudden ouster? I understand that Mark Miles can’t divulge personnel details, but it would be interesting to know what drove the sudden firing at the start of the season.
I think your questioning in the Zoom call about whether the president of IndyCar is now responsible for growth was spot-on, and too quickly overlooked. Doug Boles seems to be doing a great job, and is well respected by competitors and fans, but I wonder if he’s being put in a no-win situation, with Penske Entertainment making him responsible for the series growth, when factors like marketing and race promotion are outside of his control.
Did anyone in the series or Penske Entertainment give you any additional feedback that you can share? Have any team owners given feedback about Boles taking over the dual roles? We sure wish him well.
Tom Pate
MARSHALL PRUETT: I heard from approximately half of the owners/leaders and countless drivers from today and yesterday asking what happened and why. The fact that the most in- the-know people in the paddock — the people who dealt directly with Frye — were left scratching their heads and didn’t get a straight answer from Penske Entertainment is telling.
Nobody is providing answers, but I have a suspicion it might be related to repeated disagreements around where Penske’s executive steering committee is trying to take the new car. I’ve heard that Frye routinely championed a cost-saving compromise where as many of the current parts as possible would be carried over into the “new” design.
A new tub is needed, for sure, and some other components to reduce weight, but Frye had been pushing for a compromise while the Penske execs are said to have been pushing an all-new car. And while many of us would love a 100-percent new car, that note above about costs being on the rev limiter — while using an extremely old car the teams all own outright — is a fear that Frye held.
I believe his latest salvo to Penske to try and steer the new-car conversation away from where the execs are taking it might have been the final straw. I’m aware an email was sent days prior to his firings, and by last Monday, a press release was being written and the wheels were in motion for his termination on Tuesday morning. Coincidence? If so, then I have no idea why it happened, nor can I explain the bizarre timing.
Q: I wrote in to the Mailbag some time ago about the possibility of Doug Boles taking over IndyCar altogether, and as I read the news I have to say I’m excited for the future of IndyCar. If he is half as passionate about IndyCar as he has been about IMS, the future is bright.
If you were Roger Penske, what three projects would be at the top of the list for Mr. Boles to work on right now?
Kaleb Hartman
MP: Great question, Kaleb. Penske Entertainment’s three biggest problems to solve with IndyCar:
1) Its fans are waaaay to old, and that means more than half of its current audience will be gone in 10-15 years unless it backfills that audience with a big wave of newer and younger fans. As the saying goes, “Father Time is undefeated.”