IndyCar: Series boss sends warning to outspoken teams and drivers

Verizon IndyCar Series boss Mark Miles expressed his frustration with some of the charged opinions and statement made by IndyCar's "stakeholders" since last weekend's MAVTV500 at Auto Club Speedway.

The former professional tennis executive, who now oversees various interests owned by the Hulman George family, was critical of public comments made by IndyCar's team owners and drivers that, in his opinion, strayed into destructive territories.

• Mark Miles on 2016 IndyCar schedule

"What I didn't love about it was – it's one thing for our fans and audience and all that and people that care about us to weigh in and have opinions and that's great," Miles said during a detailed 50-minute conference call on Wednesday. "If they don't, then we really are in trouble as a sport. What I didn't love was our members – I think of them as members, some of our stakeholders, by whom I mean representatives of teams and certain drivers, I thought, really going too far with their public statements.

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"One way to look at it is that at a moment when people were exhausted from the stimulation of watching that race, even during it, comments started to be made that weren't so much just opinions about the setup, but were really very, I thought, potentially damaging to the sport, to the series.

"I don't view the series as Hulman and Company, Inc. I view this series as the drivers, the teams, and us, and our investors and stakeholders, by which I mean broadcasters and sponsors, and comments can be damaging to the interest of the whole, and I personally think our sport has been probably too lax in that regard.

"So I expect to see a change in our attitude about that going forward. I don't think it makes sense to go from off to on, from one day to the next without any warnings, but I do think we need to be more forceful in ensuring that no one individual or individuals are really damaging the value for the group."

Miles also says he does not want to stifle his stakeholders when speaking to the media or their fans.

"On the other hand, it's incumbent on us to be a place where stakeholders can feel like they can express their views and they are heard and they are absolutely taken into consideration," he continued. "Again, most of them understand that their view doesn't necessarily mean that it's a universal view and sometimes timing of a discussion affects outcomes.

"That was one take‑away for the weekend from me, that I think as a sanctioning body we got to step up a little bit where it makes sense, and I think you can look for us to take that approach going forward."

A steady form of criticism directed at Miles and some members of IndyCar's management team from drivers and team owners have centered on an apparent disconnect between both sides. The volume of comments from drivers and owners regarding unanswered voicemails, emails, and text messages sent to the series on important topics has been an ongoing concern.

Former driver Dario Franchitti continues to play a role in the privately formed IndyCar drivers association and added further context to the divide in a post-Fontana tweet:

Asked if he had spoken with the stakeholders whose comments caused the most concern, Miles expressed his intent to do a better job policing future incidents, and suggested corrective measures could be private in nature.

"We're not going to be levying sanctions based on comments that were made last weekend, but I do think they provide an important reason that I do need to have a number conversations and will have them, and I think we will have them with some individuals and we'll have them with team owners and drivers generally," he said. "Saying that, I will say this: Any sport, when it doles out penalties, especially not competitive penalties but this sort of thing, has to think about their style.

"When I got involved in tennis, I went to see then commissioner of the PGA Tour, Dean Beaman, to talk about this and get some advice, his advice was 'they're yours' and you may need to show tough love, but the point isn't to show it publicly. The point is to build the culture that you want. And I think – you all are racing guys but also sports fans, you would note, you don't read a lot from golf about when they may have occasion to sanction, punish, penalize golfers. You better believe it happens. In tennis we were somewhere in between. We ended up publishing that a lot because if a tennis player took a racquet and broke it over the head of a chair umpire, it was hard to be private about it.

"Anyway, all I'm trying to do today is make it clear I'm not pleased with some of that, I'm not naming any names, and I've said it's incumbent upon us to be a responsible, responsive, intelligent sanctioning body. But we will – I will change this culture to some extent going forward by being more activist and whether we're pounding our chests about that or not, you can be sure it's going to happen if it needs to."