Penske president: Detroit Grand Prix's return downtown 'a great show'

DETROIT – An idea sparked in early-August 2021 that was formally announced less than eight weeks later and put into action that November became a reality last weekend as IndyCar returned to downtown Detroit for the first year of what Penske Corp. officials hope can be a tentpole event of the series’ schedule moving forward.

In Sunday evening's post-event news conference to recap an event that weathered harsh criticisms from across the paddock Friday and Saturday, Bud Denker, Penske Corp. president and chairman of the race weekend, made his team's successes known.

"Just think about putting on an event downtown with approvals, construction, road repairs, engineering studies. The fact we had three entities that had to fix roads, the complexity of that alone could take you a year-plus, and we did that in a matter of months because of the cooperation we had," Denker said. "In the middle of the track, you have an international crossing. Find me anywhere in the world with that. You have the world headquarters for General Motors. Find me anywhere that has a worldwide HQ around a racetrack. You’re not going to find it.

"And ... we didn't disrupt any businesses. No businesses were closed because of our event. Think about that in a city like Detroit. Anyone downtown this weekend saw a clean city, a safe city and a very beautiful city. I think we changed a lot of perceptions for our city, with potentially 200 countries watching, and we put on a great show."

Denker and Michael Montri addressed possible changes for Year 2 and what parts of the racecourse (hint: most) are here to stay. Here are the biggest takeaways:

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Typically, Denker would provide an official weekend attendance figure for the Belle Isle races somewhere around 100,000. Because of the nature of this year's event, however, where 50% of the track was open to the public free of charge, some with elevated viewing platforms along with surrounding parking garages that organically became focal points of the weekend – organizers said it will take time to come up with a figure for the new event.

But after sending drone footage to folks to study and make projections, it will only be a rough estimate. What Denker did say, though, was that the event hosted roughly 5,000 fans in its various hospitality chalets each day, along with 3,500 at the event's "Party Porch" and 10,000 a day in the grandstands for somewhere around 20,000 ticketed fans onsite per day. "And we could’ve had a lot more if we build more grandstands," Denker said, "because those were all sold out."

One of the many lessons learned, Denker noted, from his Sunday afternoon spent traversing the venue?

"How about those parking decks all lined with people?! Did they all pay to get up there?" he said with a chuckle.

This race has been held the weekend immediately after the Indianapolis 500 and with a week in between. Though running the weekend immediately following the hectic Month of May, which certainly wears on the paddock, Denker explained why it's so important to the Detroit-area community to hold onto that weekend moving forward:

"Michigan schools close this coming week, and when that happens, guess where people go? North, so those sponsor chalets, if I had a race next weekend, they’d be empty for those sponsors who want their guests there."

Denker said the event's projected economic impact for the city of Detroit had risen nearly 50% ($58 million to $77 million before the addition of the free viewing) after shifting away from Belle Isle Conservancy, the nearly 1,000-acre island park in the middle of the Detroit River that had hosted the event since 1992. In recent years, environmental activists had put pressure on Penske Corp. for the impact the race weekend had on the park's greenspace. In response, Penske had dedicated significant funds to the upkeep of the park, though the several-week closure of parts of the park late-spring each year for event prep still irked many locals.

"With Belle Isle, everyone would park somewhere and then get in a bus, and they’d return, get in their cars and go home. This year, they had to come downtown," Denker said. "We know we made a big impact on the city, and why? Because all the hotels were filled up, and they weren't always filled up for Belle Isle."

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One of the most frequent questions from drivers and team owners was: Can the 1.645-mile course be lengthened? Yes, it's not significantly shorter than street tracks in St. Pete and Toronto, but as drivers explained, Detroit's tight profile in many spots and sometimes blind 90-degree corners (all but one of which are taken in first gear) exaggerates its shorter length.

And when you combine that with the largest full-season field in more than a decade, it makes for a tight race at times with very few legitimate passing zones and truly chaotic practices. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Marcus Ericsson was one of many who suggested practices at Detroit in 2024 and beyond should have the field split in half to alleviate congestion concerns.

Denker, however, said lengthening the course simply isn't feasible within the same general area that includes the riverfront and GM's Renaissance Center, among other attractions.

"Michael (Montri)'s original design included going through the tunnel (that connects Detroit to the city of Windsor in Canada) and going down the riverfront a while longer, but we couldn't find a place after the tunnel to have the cars go back the other way," Denker said. "We are where we are now. Once you go east, you’re in neighborhoods. You can't go anywhere west without hitting the tunnel and you can't go anywhere north because then you’re in businesses."

Drivers and team personnel also took issue with the bumps in the straightaway between Turns 2 and 3 that made up more than half of the Detroit's track length. With a straight nearly as long as the ones at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, drivers had predicted it would make for prime passing zones.

But even with a great run on the car ahead and with the use of push-to-pass, running in the outside lane was almost always slower due to the bumpiness. And so drivers often ran single file until the very end, where they’d either try to pop out on the outside and encourage the leading driver to defend before a dive back in, or to undercut the leader if he didn't hug the apex perfectly.

That hairpin provided plenty of exciting late-race moments, including a battle between Arrow McLaren teammates Felix Rosenqvist and Alexander Rossi and another with Will Power and Scott Dixon that saw the former with two wheels off the ground, and that may be all drivers can hope for moving forward.

"The reason there's bumps (on the right side) is because everyone of those is an intersection (at least 10 in all along the straight), and when you have those, there's always a little crown for drainage," Denker said. "So the question will be, ‘How much can we remove those crowns, while still having the effectiveness of what a state highway has to have?’ Those are all things the state will help us look at."

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What Denker did say could be changed was various smaller grinding projects they’ll seek out in the coming days from walking the track and surveying where the cars’ rubber marks were and then cross-referencing that with driver feedback. Projects like that won't be carried out until early next year after the upcoming winter's impact.

Additionally, Denker said the runoff for Turn 8, which saw a lot of traffic during practices, will likely be widened by three feet with the concrete blocks the fencing rested on top of placed on top of the curbs instead of the road. He didn't mention any of the other runoffs, though the one for Turn 3 saw action that caused multiple cautions during the race because Sting Ray Robb couldn't get himself turned around. Another concern – drivers believed there to be a leading edge in at least one of the concrete barriers in the Turns 6-7 chicane where multiple drivers crashed Saturday – Denker said was likely caused due to heavy gusts of wind getting under a banner on a barrier and getting it to move a couple fractions of an inch.

Other proposals about moving the alternate timing line for qualifying or shifting the restart zone will have to be made by IndyCar president Jay Frye and race director Kyle Novak, Denker said.