‘My plan is to get my hands dirty’: Boles lays out first priorities at IndyCar

New IndyCar Series president Doug Boles arrived at Sebring International Raceway on Monday to meet with team owners and drivers during the two-day test, and to spend time with the men and women he now leads on the IndyCar operations side of Penske Entertainment.

Boles also holds onto the title of president at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a position he took in 2013 after serving as its VP of communications. Compared to the light and jovial energy he’s known for at IMS, the exceptional weight he carries with his new IndyCar responsibilities were visible.

Team managers, who’d formed breezy relationships over the years with Boles the IMS president, stepped down from timing stands to congratulate him and recalibrate their connections to the person who now fills the big shoes formerly worn by Jay Frye.

With the change made one week prior, it was time for the paddock to welcome Boles as a colleague and ally in ways that are different from their interactions at the Speedway. He carries their ongoing hopes for an improved and more successful IndyCar, but Boles also inherited another facet of the job by becoming their first call to complain, drop major problems in his lap, or rant in the same way they’ve done with every other IndyCar president.

As one paddock veteran said in Sebring of what lies ahead for Boles, “Wait until he gets Chip Ganassi breathing fire on the phone, ripping chunks out of his (behind)… this ain’t a bed of roses to lie in.”

But those types of calls have yet to be made during Boles’ honeymoon phase. Fresh from his appointment as IndyCar’s latest president, the former team executive from back in the 1990’s Indy Racing League era sat down with RACER at Sebring to share some early reactions and insights about the new job.

As Boles is given more time to embrace all facets of the highly complex role, the opportunity to pose deeper questions to him will arise in the weeks and months ahead.

MARSHALL PRUETT: Doug, new era for you. You've had about a week of this becoming public knowledge. What has that week been like?

DOUG BOLES: It's been a whirlwind in a lot of ways, just trying to get my feet underneath me a little bit, really understand the scope of the entire job, heard from a ton of people, and really I'm down here right now because what I wanted to do... I obviously know all the owners, know all the drivers; don't know all the team managers, necessarily. So a lot of why I'm down here right now is just really starting to rebuild those relationships that I've had for a long time, or certainly try and build ones that I don't have. So it's been trying to put all that together.

And there's such a breadth of things from the IndyCar side of things. The Speedway; you're focused on one big facility, it's got a lot of facility stuff that isn't necessarily IndyCar. So really trying to understand all of the things in front of us at IndyCar, and then begin to start thinking through, how do we prioritize those and obviously try and get ready for the first race?

MARSHALL PRUETT: You were telling me earlier how during your presidency at IMS, especially since Roger Penske bought the Speedway, the place has become even more beautiful, more opulent, more of everything. Not a case, though, of you just simply receiving an email saying, ‘Doug, go do this,’ and you going and doing that. There's been your influence as well. And you've also told me there's some things you push back on with Roger, and had some good fights. Tell us about that side, because coming into the IndyCar presidency side, we'd hope it'll be more of that same push and pull.

DOUG BOLES: Well, I think that's the one thing about Roger that he appreciates; he's got ideas, but he wants to know what everybody has. One of the things –  perfect example, really – (from) when he bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and his first few days at the Speedway, getting his feet wet. There were places at the Speedway he'd never been. He’s been coming since the late ’60s, but he'd never been (to some areas) and then, as he started thinking about, ‘OK, well, what are some of the things that you want to do at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that you haven't been able to do,’ you start laying those lists out for him.

And then when he would come in and we would go through the facility, he didn't want to just hear from me. We were pulling people from all over to get to get a feeling for what other staff wanted, what some of our customers wanted. The first thing he did is he went through all of our free responses that we get in our customer survey. So one of the things I love about Roger is the fact that he can really take everything in, and wants that. And sometimes, it's intimidating when it's Roger Penske, and people think, ‘Oh, man, I'm not sure.’

I want to say, Roger wants you to speak your mind. So I know that he's expecting me to not only help grow the series, but let him know places that I think we need to go different directions. And at the end of the day, if we all choose to do something different than what maybe I thought we were going to do, we're all going to get on board and we're going to pull the same direction.

Boles has already established a strong relationship with Roger Penske through his role IMS, and expects the process of mapping the future of the IndyCar Series to be similarly productive. Michael Levitt/ Motorsport Images

MARSHALL PRUETT: I knew you first as Doug Boles, team guy, lawyer, background in marketing, sales side. In the VP, managerial side, (you've) also gotten your hands dirty, too. Tell me about this presidency on the IndyCar side, and what you think you can bring from your background that will lend some newer, different things?

DOUG BOLES: Well, not unlike Jay, my plan is to get my hands dirty. That's certainly what I've done at the Speedway. Even though I wear a tie when I'm there, I'm out working with everybody, and I think that's the only way this is going to work. And as I said at the beginning of this, part of what I'm doing here (at Sebring) is to get in, start understanding what some of the challenges are, what are some of the perceptions, what are some of the optics? Let's figure out how we start working through those.

And it's just going to take being in the paddock and working with my hands dirty. So I'm really ready for that.

MARSHALL PRUETT: As you mentioned, you're only a few days into this right now, but looking around, I'm sure you're a person who'd love to dive in. How soon do you think (it will take), in terms of truly starting to have a "Doug Boles effect" on IndyCar? Are there any areas in general – don’t give away any secrets – but any things you're looking at going, "Hmm, wonder if I could nudge that a little bit, or nudge that over there?"

DOUG BOLES: Well, I think where I am right now, certainly I love the marketing side. I love the PR side. I think there's a lot of great opportunity where we can move the IndyCar Series forward right now. Let's focus on St Pete. I called (St. Petersburg race promoter) Kevin Savoree a couple days ago with some thoughts and some ideas of, ‘How do we make sure that we leverage the investment that FOX has made,’ and just continue to work with those promoters to try and get us there.

MARSHALL PRUETT: We also have a lot of things on the not immediate horizon, but that are pretty important. We've got a new IndyCar in development, new design, possibly some new engine rules. We've got at least one manufacturer, if not two manufacturers, that are currently here in Chevy and Honda, you want to sign and make sure they're here for the long term. Plus, we're starting a new season, and the 500 is going to be here in a few months. Where do you start on some of these big ticket items that aren't tomorrow, but you’ve got to get moving now?

DOUG BOLES: Certainly on the car and the engine conversation, that's a place where I'm going to have to really get my feet wet. I've been on the periphery of it. I certainly don't know a lot of where it’s (at), but for me, it's really just going to be a challenge of, get with the Chevy folks, get with the Honda folks – hopefully I get with both of them while I'm here. I've already talked to one of the manufacturers, one more tomorrow, and then we'll just see where that goes. I’ve got to learn a lot on that as we go forward.

MARSHALL PRUETT: Tell me about the staff that'll be supporting you on the IndyCar side. I doubt there's anybody you didn't already know, but now you're in a position where Mark Sibla (IndyCar SVP, Competition and Operations), for example, is going to be vital for you, just as he was for Jay. But tell me how you manage that side, because being 100 percent president of IMS and 100 percent president of IndyCar is a little bit hard without folks helping to fill in in some areas.

DOUG BOLES: Well on the IMS side, we made some substantial changes there to help get me out of day-to-day (responsibilities) so everything isn't going to filter up to me. So what was 100 percent of my day I think now becomes 30 percent of my day, and then I'm going to have to compartmentalize things in the way that I work. I'm going to have an office on the IndyCar side so that I can really get to know the staff better. I know most of them; some of them I don't know as well. So I’ve got to get to know them, understand what they're working on, what I can do to make their lives better as they execute their jobs.

I know Mark Sibla from before he even went to IndyCar with Jay. So I've known him from the commercial side, and he's been in the sport for an awful long time, so he comes with an awful lot of knowledge. He was actually Jay's shadow in a lot of ways. So I think that's helpful as we start thinking about those engines and cars as we go forward.

MARSHALL PRUETT: So you've had a chance to speak with some folks, as you mentioned, not everybody that you wanted to. Are you getting the support you'd hoped for in this? You didn't engineer this change – you were asked to take this role, but that doesn't always mean you're welcome when the door is opened. Are you getting the welcome you were hoping for?

DOUG BOLES: Yeah, I've been pretty happy with the conversations, and the text messages on the day of the announcement were overwhelming, to be honest with you. People that were excited about that also understand why people have been asking me, OK, what's going on here? How are you going to how are you going to interact with us versus how Jay did? So we have to work through a lot of that, but for the most part, it's been a unanimous positive conversation.

MARSHALL PRUETT: Last thing for you. We have this really interesting movement going on right now with IndyCar. I know most of us thank FOX, saying, "Wow, you are hitting home runs from the marketing, promotions, activation side." From what we've seen so far, it looks like the integration between FOX and IndyCar itself has been really, really close. Are you able to insert yourself there and help that to flourish? It seems like what's going on there would fit all of your skill set; marketing, promotions and so on. Get IndyCar back to where it once was.

DOUG BOLES: Yeah, I think we're really fortunate with the FOX relationship. Now what we have to do is deliver on the product that they are partnering with, which I think we can do. Had an opportunity to get to know (FOX Sports boss) Eric Shanks, really over the last year and a half, got to meet him when he first started thinking about FOX and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series. So that was a great thing.

I've been out to the studio a couple of times, getting a chance to see them out there. The night of the announcement, Eric called and we started thinking through ideas. So I think I'm going to be in pretty good shape on the FOX side in that relationship and continue to help leverage it. Got a great relationship with all of them, really, on the production side. So I think that will work out well.