After prevent the event from falling from the Indycar 2024 calendar And offering the most successful and most exuberant season final for years, Scott Borchetta will not be the promoter of the Music City Grand Prix at the Nashville Superspeedway.
Bornchetta and Penske Entertainment confirmed the decision Thursday morning, making Penske Entertainment Corp. The seven races promoter – The newly acquired long Beach Grand PrixThe IMS road race, Indianapolis 500, the Detroit Grand Prix and the double program of the Iowa Speedway, as well as Nashville. Indycar leaders also remain strongly involved in Milwaukee Mile and the thermal club.
In addition, Penske Entertainment will serve as a co-promoter for the Arlington Grand Prix around the stages of Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers in 2026 and courtes other races in Mexico City, whose sources are currently should be deployed for 2026and Denver, that the officials of the series did not hesitate to qualify as an ambitious market to addBut which is not acquired to land for 2027.
The recent decisions arise while Penske Entertament tries to more actively control his own destiny and shape the configuration and implementation of his six -month shopping calendar, which in 2025 will be broadcast exclusively on the TV network in the United States by Fox.
To assume the growing role of Penske Entertainment on the market, Anne Fischgrund, who joined the series as an intern in 2011 and spent more than a decade in various marketing roles and promoter/media relations, promoting events and operations for almost 14 years, has been appointed. The new president of the Music City Grand Prix. She was previously Managing Director of the Double Hy-Vee Indycar weekend since the series announced her return in August 2021.
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Bornchetta, founder, president and chief executive Big Machine Labs Group And all its linked companies will continue to serve as a connection with the entertainment community and the Civic leaders of Nashville in order to maintain the link of the Grand Prix with Nashville while the action on the track will take place 40 minutes to the west. Bornchetta will continue to organize a launch party in downtown Nashville on Friday of the race weekend (August 29) with music and entertainment numbers which will be announced on a later date.
Big Machine will also continue to be the title sponsor of the race weekend, a role it has occupied since the beginnings of the event in 2021.
“The first year at Nashville Superspeedway was a huge success, largely thanks to the formidable partnership and the solid leadership that Scott Bornchetta and his team at Big Machine said,” said Mark Miles, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Entertainment Corp., in a press release. “While we are developing our portfolio of events at Penske Entertainment, it is strategically important to take the reins of the final of our season on such an exciting and renowned circuit.
“And seeing the relationship with Big Machine continues thanks to this continuous partnership only underlines the growth opportunities that are available to us in the Music City.”
Sources: Indycar has thought about a proposal to modify the championship format
According to several sources with a direct knowledge of relations with Indystar, the reshuffle of Thursday of the final of the Indycar season is largely due to the desire of Bornchetta to take a step back from a role also concrete in parallel to his vast responsibilities At the top of Big Machine Label Group. , combined with the growing desire for Penske Entertainment to be more involved in the races of his calendar.
Although it is not an ultimatum, several sources have indicated that Bornchetta and Big Machine contacted Penske Entertainment with a proposal aimed at modifying the format of the championship of the series in order to guarantee that the title of the series would be decided in The Grand Prix de closing de la season. Such a change in format has been proposed by Bornchetta and Big Machine as a means of adding value and drama to the final.
Among the formats discussed during the first conversations was a configuration of the SERIES type series similar to NASCAR, although it would have been smaller in size, given the current regular season of 17 Indycar races against 36 races in the CUP series ( A 26- (regular racing season and model of 2 10-races eliminations). The championship has been decided in the final in 18 of the last 19 seasons And the disproportionate effect that such a change would have on the championship. No change in the format of the title race was given only one exploratory overview.
Once the changes are proposed, the discussions turned to the new promotional format, putting the assets of both parties in the foreground while keeping them strongly involved.