IndyCar owner Roger Penske is revved up about Grand Prix’s return to downtown Detroit

The 2023 Detroit Grand Prix is officially open for on-track activities, an event reborn on the downtown streets of the city.

Detroit-based racing legend and promoter of the Grand Prix Roger Penske controls the IndyCar series itself, owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — home of the flagship Indy 500 race — and holds a record 19 wins at the track as a team owner.

Some critics complained about the time it took to produce the Grand Prix at its former site at Belle Isle, and accused race organizers of “marring the beauty” of the island park.

But Penske says he’s revved up for the Grand Prix’s return to Detroit’s downtown, especially just on the heels of his team’s dramatic final lap victory at the Indy 500 last Sunday.

The following interview has been edited for clarity.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: You own the [Indianapolis] speedway now and you’re running the IndyCar series. Is it hard to separate that when it’s your car and your team that actually won?

Well, I guess I was a track owner up ‘till the last two laps of the race. Then I became a car owner. So, it was pretty exciting.

Now you’re down here back in downtown Detroit for the Grand Prix. I talked to you a number of times about Belle Isle and you said you thought it was almost the perfect circuit because of the layout and the beauty of that island and everything. Are you happy with it being run on downtown streets now?

I think it’s a much greater event downtown. We get more people to see it. The access wasn’t very good coming on to Belle Isle and I think there was lots of issues there with some of the people who wanted to use it. This is going to be an amazing track. If you look at what we had to do here, the state, the city, the county, General Motors and all these roads were owned by different constituencies. We had to go to them, [Detroit] City Council and the Mayor [Duggan] to get this. But it’s gonna be exciting, it’s going to be terrific.

It’s going to have this split pit lane now with cars stopping on both sides of it. They were having people sliding at Indy and having incidents in the pit lane just with a typical set up. Do you have any concerns about this new kind of layout for the Grand Prix?

Well, it’s probably almost three times as wide as Indy so you got at least two lanes for each side plus more. We’ve measured it. Look, if these guys get into each other, it’s their own problem.

No worries that an incident could block the whole lane or something?

Well, if it does, we’ll have to throw a red flag [laughs]. (Ed. note: The last red flag at the 2023 Indy 500 race gave Penske’s team the chance to take the lead on the final lap.)”

“It’s gonna be bigger than when the Super Bowl was held in downtown Detroit.” – Roger Penske

I don’t know if they were anticipating it being as hot as it’s going to this weekend, with temperatures in the 90s. And now you’re going to be at a street circuit where it’s all pavement. Are there any extra precautions being taken to try to help fan comfort, cooling centers and the like?

We’ll have to use whatever we can. Remember, these people have access to all these restaurants, all these different things around the city downtown here. So I’m sure they’ll know where they want to be to stay cool. For a lot of the spectators and different groups in the garages, we’ve got places where we’ve set up access to restrooms and other things. So we should be in good shape.

And you’ve said this new site is designed to bring economic activity downtown again, right after a pandemic where a lot of it seemed to go away.

I think the economic benefit down here is terrific. It’s hard to measure, I’ve seen all sorts of numbers. But it’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be bigger than when the Super Bowl was held in downtown Detroit. Remember, only people who had tickets came down for the Super Bowl. This is open to the public in the entire Detroit area, which is terrific.