AllRacing

Reimagined IMS Museum “exceeded every projection” since opening

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, in its completely revamped form, has been open for two months now. Its president Joe Hale and head curator Jason Vansickle spoke to RACER about how the transformation has been received by the public.

RACER: What feedback have you received regarding the museum?

Joe Hale: We’ve exceeded every projection we had in terms of attendance, in terms of revenue earned, so we’re very pleased with the initial reception. There haven’t been any naysayers: people have been positive about the museum and their experience there, and feel it does a great job of fulfilling our mission of preserving the stories about the 500, and other history around here. Jason and his group have done a tremendous job of how the cars are displayed.

RACER: How often will there be special exhibitions and how often will displays be rotated?

Jason Vansickle: We have a five-year plan in place for rotating exhibitions, not only large ones like our “Best of the best” celebrating the four-time Indy 500 winners, but also our feature gallery, the Bobby Rahal Family gallery, and even the mezzanine and Gasoline Alley gallery. The Museum as people saw it for the first two months will remain the same for the summer months but we look to change out the Bobby Rahal gallery, the NASCAR Brickyard 400 gallery will also be changed a couple of times this year, in the fall and winter time. Also we have another exhibition which will replace the Best of the best, and that’s the Chip Ganassi Racing gallery, coming in late 2025. So yes, there’s plenty of rotation coming over the next nine months that will keep people returning.

RACER: Has it all transpired in the manner you aimed for when the renovation was first mooted in 2017?

JH: Yeah, 2016-’17 was when the idea was first proposed, and at the time the Board decided for a variety of reasons not to move forward. So then five years ago we talked about reviving a variation of that plan, and when Roger Penske bought the track, they were involved in some early discussions too, and he challenged us. He said, I want you to double the size of the Museum but it can’t grow upward or outward! Interesting…

But as you know, previously the basement was off-limits – you had to know someone to go down there and see the cars that just didn’t fit on the ground level, so we’ve now integrated the basement as part of the general admission [just $25 for basic adult ticket, concessions for seniors, military personnel and children – visit https://imsmuseum.org/tickets/

] and then we found out we had enough room for a mezzanine, which offered a further 6,000-plus sq. ft. exhibition space. So we were able to double the size of the museum without altering its height or footprint.

Honestly, I’d say the reality exceeds the plan that we had. And just watching people react when they come into the museum is great. They’re getting to learn about the history of the track, the technology progression of the cars, and why the place is so important and iconic not just in Indiana or in this country but around the world. Seeing people understand that and respect it too has been so gratifying for all of us.

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RACER: What’s been the most popular exhibit in terms of folks wanting pictures?

JH: Probably the Starting Line Experience, where you get to stand on the grid behind the front row, looking down to Turn 1, pitlane and Pagoda to your left, wall of grandstands to your right. We said our objective there was to get cheers, tears and goosebumps, and that’s what we hear from most people. Even if you’re not a car person, it really gives you a sense of what this place is about on raceday in six-plus minutes, from the firing of the cannon at 6 a.m. when the gates open, to the race itself and the call of “Drivers, start your engines!”

But there are a lot of places around the museum that are selfie-type areas, where people want pictures of themselves with certain cars or in certain areas. We have lines of people wanting to hit the simulators in our Qualifying Zone. And the other thing that’s really exploded is the educational program, the field trips. We’re launching summer camps, learning about robotics, and coding, and so on. You can have just the casual visitor there in our Innovation Workshop for 30 minutes or 60 minutes because there are so many experiences they can try. The number of kids that are coming here on field trips and learning about the hundreds of motorsport jobs that are being created right here in central Indiana has been reassuring.

RACER: And are the track tours still a popular addition to a visit to the Museum?

JV: Yes, the tour program continues although of course it is dependent on track availability. The dates are on our website. One of the things we’ve done is really integrate the tour program into the Museum presentation. Before we closed for this renovation, most of the people would buy their ticket for the tour and almost directly leave the Museum building to take their ride first; now the way that it’s set up, visitors will be able to experience certain parts of the museum – Starting Line, Gasoline Alley – before their tour commences, which gives them a better sense of what Indianapolis Motor Speedway means before they take their lap around it, and then absorb the atmosphere of the place before returning to the Museum to continue their tour.

RACER: That’s a good point. Are people still awestruck by the venue itself? Even when the grandstands are empty on a wet, windy Wednesday in November, there’s something special about it.

JH: Yes, I think so, and I think that’s partly why we’re a bucket-list destination: 60 percent of our guests are from outside Indiana and 20 percent of those are from outside the country. We get a truly national and international crowd, but when you drive in to the Museum you perhaps don’t get a true appreciation of the scope and scale of this place, so on the lower level we have a projection map that really shows you not only the development of the venue from 1909, when this was just farming land, right up until today. And it ends with that wonderful display showing 10 of the world’s largest attractions, including Vatican City, Yankee Stadium, the White House and Churchill Downs that can all fit inside of this place. That really astonishes people.

RACER: Obviously, exhibitions celebrating teams like Penske, Ganassi, A.J. Watson and so on are no-brainers. Legends of the track. Do you plan also to highlight the plucky, brave guys who used to prep their cars in sheds and go up against the big guys?

JV: Yes and there are a few different options there, because increasing the number of rotating exhibitions allows us to tell more of those kinds of stories. Obviously the 500 is founded on legendary car owners and legendary drivers, but to your point, you have those great stories like this year with a rookie team like Prema taking pole with a rookie driver, or 2019 when Juncos bumped out Fernando Alonso, and so on. We recognize that those, too, are what makes Indy so special. And then there are ways to celebrate the last-lap passes, the closest finishes, or even the teams who put everything into it just to make the race. Those are all aspects of the 500 that, as we go through temporary exhibitions and start planning the years out, we’ll be able to highlight those other personal dramas from well over a century of holding the race.

RACER: Do you have any metrics on how successful you’ve been in increasing attendance to the Museum compared with 2023, before you closed it for this remodeling?

JV: Obviously we’ve only been open for 60-something days now, but we’re already trending higher than in ’23, and anecdotally, we’ve seen a lot of return visits from people who may not have been for a few years, and they were bringing people from out of town who had never been before, so that’s important and encouraging.

JH: One of the comparisons we do have is that on race “weekend” – which we classify as Thursday through Sunday – in 2023 we had 12,240 guests, and this year we had over 44,000 guests.

RACER: Holy moly, that’s an awesome uptick. Joe, you of course are stepping down as Museum president in a couple of weeks. I assume that your five years in that role, helping kick new life into the 50-year-old Museum and deliver it on time and under budget is the achievement of which you’re most proud.

JH: Yeah, being able to stand out there on April 2nd and welcome people back to a museum that has a $100m endowment, and has one of the best staffs around was a great moment. And then just watching people’s faces in response to the new experience. I’ve seen the opening film about 120 times, but to see other people react to it and then leave there and walk out into the atrium to see a grand staircase in front of them with every car lit like a jewel. It’s special.