Heading into the doubleheader weekend at the Milwaukee Mile, the focus should have been on NTT IndyCar Series first visit in nine years to the oldest motorsports track in the world, hosting its first auto race back in September of 1903.
IndyCar’s storied history at Milwaukee goes back to 1937 when the track was still covered in dirt. With the exception of 1940, 1942-1945 and 2010, open-wheel racing had a home at Milwaukee every single year from Rex Mays’ victory in 1937 through Sebastien Bourdais‘ win in 2015.
Through open-wheel racing’s heyday, the grandstands at the venerable old mile were packed as Miller and Marlboro spent heaps of cash promoting their brands to race fans with money to burn on tickets, souvenirs and more cool stuff that would get put away in a box in the attic only to be discovered years later.
But while heading from Indianapolis to Milwaukee on Thursday (Aug. 29), worries about weekend attendance started to surface after comments from Mark Miles to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel indicated that IndyCar “would not be satisfied with 15,000 people for a race, but we could be satisfied with that as a starting point.”
The attendance starting point can’t be beneath the seating capacity of a Milwaukee Bucks game at Fiserv Forum or barely a third of the seating capacity of American Family Field for a Milwaukee Brewers game.
But why is the expectation that low in the first place? Well, let’s look first of all at the Wisconsin racing scene. On Labor Day weekend, Crandon International Raceway has their annual season-ending race for the AMSOIL Championship Off-Road Series. In 2023, the World Championships weekend brought over 68,000 fans to the twisty dirt road course 200 miles north of Milwaukee.
For 2024, the events were also the same weekend as the NHRA’s U.S. Nationals just outside of Indianapolis. While many traveled from Indianapolis up to Milwaukee, several more either stayed home or went further north of Milwaukee to get their racing fix.
In 2025, the Milwaukee IndyCar weekend will be one weekend earlier, with one race on Aug. 24. Thankfully, that conflict will be avoided next year (and apparently for 2026 as well), but that now brings up a new set of issues: marketing.
IndyCar’s marketing has long been a target for ridicule on social media. The series does a fantastic job of marketing its drivers and on track action during the month of May and for the Indianapolis 500. There’s no denying that, after all, the 500 is the crown jewel event on the calendar and has earned the name the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. However, outside of those few weeks in May, it appears to many that there is little awareness of the rest of the IndyCar season, even in race markets.
This writer and his wife stayed at an AirBNB booked by a close friend. The friend who booked the AirBNB said that our host had no idea that there was an IndyCar race literally less than three miles from where we stayed.
After posting that on social media, the stories came flooding in about how people in surrounding markets saw no commercials advertising the race from Green Bay to Chicago. And then people that live near Milwaukee chimed in, saying that there were only a few billboards promoting the race and a little bit of advertising.
Speaking of people in Milwaukee, there were some bars that didn’t know much about the race or that it was taking place. Many bars have shuttles that take patrons from their establishment to the Brewers or Bucks games and back to the bar after the game is over, provided that they’ve spent a minimum amount at the bar. But after asking a few bars if they extended that policy for the IndyCar race weekend, they said they didn’t know about the race.
There was some effort put into marketing the race. David Malukas, Josef Newgarden and Will Power all spent time in Milwaukee promoting the race over the course of 2024, but it’s clear that more needs to be done so that the local area knows that a race is happening.
Show car appearances, local sports talk radio interviews, appearances at local home games like Malukas did, billboard blitzes starting 2 or 3 months in advance, radio and TV ads starting about 6 weeks in advance or even earlier, newspaper ads (yes, people still read them), local news spots and social media graphics starting weeks in advance should be the standard for all races going forward, not just on Memorial Day weekend.
Penske Corporation President Bud Denker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the crowd estimates were higher than expected, around 20,000 per race day for the doubleheader weekend. That very much exceeded expectations and, given what else was taking place that weekend, is actually a win for IndyCar.
But there’s a lot that needs to be looked at so there aren’t that many sections of grandstands tarped off for spectators in future years.
The Penske empire has grown off of the saying that “effort equals results,” and for that to be true, then with more effort, there would naturally be a larger audience.
Make the effort so we can all see the results. Otherwise, Milwaukee will be gone again, likely for good.
Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.
For many years, Milwaukee was the weekend following the Indy 500. Hardcore Chicago area fans would do both events and head for Road America a little later in the summer.