Miles sees 100th Indianapolis 500 as launch pad to historic season

The Verizon IndyCar Series is embarking on a legendary season in 2016, which has Mark Miles eager for it to unfold.

In an unofficial "State of INDYCAR" discussion during Media Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Feb. 2, the CEO of Hulman & Company - the parent of INDYCAR and IMS - said he sees the series continuing its "ascending" trend that has included 38 percent growth in television viewership in the past two seasons.

"In broad strokes, I would say we are all about as excited as we could be about the 2016 season," Miles said.

The centerpiece of the 16-race Verizon IndyCar Series schedule is the historic 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race presented by PennGrade Motor Oil. It is drawing worldwide attention and will be used as a platform to promote the entire legendary season that also includes returns to famous venues (Phoenix International Raceway and Road America) and a new street-course event in a key market (Boston).

"One of the things I think is very cool is to show the plans for how we view the year from a communications perspective," Miles said, "which basically is to design, to leverage the absolutely unique, important, pivotal hundredth running of the Indianapolis 500 and to draw the connections to that legend and to that history, to that epic moment, to all our races.

"We intend to use that moment, that historic moment, for the benefit of the promotion of our drivers and our promoters and events throughout the year," Miles added.

Miles also summarized several key technical updates that will be in place for 2016, including additional car tethers to limit debris during incidents, rear wing beam flaps to help prevent cars from going airborne when spinning backward on superspeedway ovals, more sensitive and quicker responding fuel probe sensors and an increase in the amount of horsepower added when push-to-pass is activated on road and street courses.

Contact:

mkitchel@indycar.com

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