Indy 500, The 'Double', First Women's Sports Franchise to Hit $1 Billion

0:00This sports spotlight is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One offers no fees or minimums on checking accounts. Did you know that in January of this year, flag football was officially added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program? A step toward giving the sport NCAA championship status. Flag football will make its Olympic debut at LA 2028. Capital One, what's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash Bank Guy for details. Capital One, N-A, member FDIC. So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need.

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1:29That's genius. This is the Business of Sports. Our aim is always to leverage the global appeal of football. Having representation in college sports is even more important than pro. 10 % of Americans now claim soccer to be their favorite sport. We estimate the youth sports audience has$3 trillion in spending power. The nature of baseball is it is worldwide and it is global. I'm very happy for the WNBA and how the NBA has embraced them. Sportsbooks are not going anywhere, and sports betting is only growing. We have a super team running this league, and this league is here, and it's here to stay.

2:05Bloomberg Business of Sports, from Bloomberg Radio. This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports, where we explore the big money issues in the world of sports. I'm Michael Barr. I'm Vanessa Perdomo-Maglione. And I'm Miranda Williams. Coming up, we'll talk about the big racing weekend with the Indy 500, the Canadian Grand Prix, and the Coca-Cola 600. and one driver who is looking to make history by being the first woman to attempt the racing double. But the racing world is still in shock and saddened by the news that two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has died at age 41. Busch's family said that he was hospitalized just days before he was to compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a severe illness.

2:48The NASCAR family, including Richard Childress Racing and NASCAR, issued a joint statement saying Bush was a rare talent and a future Hall of Famer who will be deeply missed. And then later on, we are going to speak to the president of the first billion dollar women's sports franchise in history. That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. But first, let's tap into arguably the center of racing in May and also the hometown of my fiance, Indianapolis. We are joined by IndyCar President Doug Bowles, who is going to give us some insight on the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500.

3:22Doug, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. Well, thanks for having me. And it is a great day, a great weekend coming up when you get to see all kinds of racing around the globe. And for us gearheads, it is a pretty special day. Now, I know, obviously, you know, the big one, you got the Indy 500. This year is a little different because we motorheads and gearheads, we were used to having Monaco early in the morning. Then we would go to Indy, and then we would go to the Coca-Cola 600. But now that we have the Canadian Grand Prix weaved in there, it's a little bit of a viewing thing. But, of course, the big one is the Indy 500.

4:03Tell us more about the 110th running. My gosh, 110th running of the Indianapolis 500. You know, it's pretty funny you say 110th running. Every time we say it, I find it hard to believe that we're at 110 runnings of this amazing, amazing race. You know, it started in 1911. And, you know, you think about the reason this place was built was to test, you know, the new technology of the day. And it was really about business. You know, it was about growing the automotive industry and certainly in Indiana, but in the U.S. as much as anything. And it's turned in to be a huge economic driver for the state of Indiana.

4:39it's over a billion dollars of economic impact this this facility and in part this race put on and this year you know 110 runnings and we're going to sell out the grandstands they have sold out the grandstands this year um though there literally will be over 350 000 people on property second largest city in the state of indiana right here in the racetrack on race day um it's been a pretty pretty great year and we're just excited to uh you just continue to keep the engine that drives at least motorsport on the IndyCar side, keep that thing running, running smoothly. And hopefully we have a great a great race.

5:13It is something so cool about motorsports that 350 ,000 fans can all gather together. I mean, that's so unique to racing. Doug, tell me about how you guys have done this with with the grandstands. Now, this is the second year in a row that it's sold out. But last year marked the first time that it happened since 2016. What were you able to do to heighten attendance over these last few years? Well, at the end of the day, it really comes down to just our fans' passion for the sport and the passion for the Speedway. They just continue to come back, and more importantly, they continue to bring people back.

5:46But really over the last, call it 15 years, as we were leading into the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, we sort of changed the way that we market. For a long period of time, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 didn't really do a lot of marketing or promotion. They just opened the gates up, and people just continued to come back. And I think we view it as a 365 day a year job to make sure people know that this event is taking place. And frankly, the strength of the IndyCar series that runs the 70, 18 races this year, 16 of them outside of this market. The IndyCar series health and momentum has really helped also drive the excitement for for the Indy 500.

6:27So, you know, for a period of time, the event, the 500 and maybe the series didn't work directly together. And I think now we've found a way to just help each other, the series and the Speedway grow. So I think it's a combination of things. But at the end of the day, it's really about the fans' passion for Memorial Day weekend Sunday, showing up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for an Indy 500. So we mentioned the Indianapolis 500 grandstand selling out. I have a culture question for you, because it seems like racing culture has never been bigger in America, specifically even outside of IndyCar.

6:58You think about F1, you think about NASCAR and Chicago street race. And I wonder if you have felt the culture of racing in America shift over the last few years. You know, definitely. And I think one of the fears that sport in general had, but certainly motorsport live events had, was none of us really knew what sport would look like on the backside of 2020. And there was some concern that when we get back out of 2020, that people will be so used to doing everything at home, that live events would be a thing of the past or at least struggle. And we found that that's really been the opposite. And so we've really focused on, you know, how do you make that experience of the live event that you can't get when you're at home?

7:37So it's really important for us to focus on that live event. And then the one thing I've seen that's really changed the culture around here as much as anything is just youth. Seeing young people, young adults who are embracing live events where prior to 2020, it just felt a lot older in terms of the people in the grandstands and the people that were around here. So focused on youth has really, you know, has really changed the way that sport and in particular racing operates. Last year was the first year of the media rights agreement between Fox and IndyCar. And once again, this year, it will air on Fox.

8:15Take us over the year to your ratings for IndyCar. I know they had to be up big time. Yeah, our ratings in 2025 versus previous years were significantly up across the board. we had some record record highs in certain events the indy 500 for example had the highest rating that's had in in a couple of decades in fact for the first time since the early 2000s the indy 500 was the most watched motorsport event in america even more than the daytona 500 which is something that that we hadn't seen in like i said a couple of decades so that was the growth has been pretty strong what really was strong though and i think what we're most encouraged about was our growth in the 18 to 34 category.

8:57One of the things that motorsport in general has struggled with was how do you gain the momentum in that youth category, in that young adult category. You know, part of it may be because of Drive to Survive and Formula One and people getting interested in the personalities behind the sport. So I think that's set a great foundation or jumping off platform for many of us. But what we were encouraged with the most is not necessarily that all of the ratings were up, but then in that critical 18 to 34 age group, our ratings were significantly better. And we've seen the same thing this year. We've come out of the box with a new schedule where the IndyCar series started three races in a row.

9:33Last year, we had big gaps between it. That's helped drive some significant ratings, almost 30 % up as we go into this year's Indianapolis 500, just with really strong, strong events. And again, that young market tends to be helping drive that for us. We're talking with Doug Bowles, president of IndyCar, and this year's Grand Marshal of the 500, Caitlin Clark. Gee, I wonder who she is. Tell us more about that. It's funny. When the Fever drafted Caitlin Clark, it didn't take but maybe 30 seconds for race fans to be saying, hey, you got to get Caitlin Clark to the Indianapolis 500. She needs to drive the pace car.

10:16She needs to wave the green flag, all those different things. And we have such a great relationship with Pacer Sports and Entertainment who own the Fever. And together, we just decided that the most important thing Caitlin Clark could do is just get acclimated to the WNBA and certainly the Fever. And her main job was to go win games with the Fever. So we agreed together to just let her get used to playing for the Fever and let the fever really establish the relationship with her. So we've stayed in touch over the last couple of years. So this is the first year where I think we've, we and the Pacers folks felt it was the right time to bring her out here.

10:51So it's exciting to have her, you know, and the other place where we're excited to have coach Kurt Signetti, you know, the IU national championship football team is going to drive the pace car. So having both of those huge profiles, sports figures, part of our event is really special, but finally getting Caitlin here, I know for a lot of our fans, is a really big deal. So we're looking forward to hosting her on Sunday. I mean, talk about gaining fans, you know, with the 18, 34 year old, I'm sure she's going to help out with that as well. You know, she's really, really popular. Doug, one of the other things I wanted to talk about when we were talking about, you know, the Fox and how they've come in and done with the media rights, but also last year, they acquired one third of Penske Entertainment, which includes an E-car and the Indianapolis Winter Speedway.

11:32Can you tell us about the strategy behind that, bringing them on as a partner in that way? Yeah, it's an interesting one. You know, we were excited to have them as a broadcast partner. And they obviously we just talked about the numbers and just the promotional strength that they brought to the brand, to the to the NTT IndyCar series, as well as to some of our drivers, you know, beginning to build them into superstars, whether it's Pato Award or Alex Pillow or Joseph Newgarden. It really makes a lot of sense there. And then about a half halfway through the season last year, the folks at Fox and Penske Entertainment said, is there a way that this relationship could be even stronger?

12:09And that's that's really where where the minority ownership component came. Obviously, Roger Penske doesn't need an owner or a partner, wasn't looking for one. But this one felt natural. And so we got to a point where it made sense. Well, I can tell you has changed the most for us with that. we're great operators we are at Penske Entertainment we're great at putting on events we're great at building things we're okay at marketing but what we aren't is what we aren't is great at marketing and that's where I think you bring somebody like Fox in and they're in the boardroom now with us you can have conversations with them that you wouldn't just you might not have with just a traditional television broadcast partner and I can tell you that our team is on the phone with somebody from Fox every day, not just talking about the broadcast side, but how do we grow the sport?

12:56The number of times that I'm talking to Eric Shanks, the president of Fox, or our team is about ideas and ways to get creative to grow the sport. That's where I think you'll see the long-term benefit of the relationship is just that they look at events through a different lens. We look through it primarily at operating and putting on a great event and then sort of marketing it. They look at market everything and then sort of put on the event. So when you marry those two together, I think we're going to be really strong and that's just going to continue to allow the sport to grow. That was IndyCar President Doug Bowles.

13:27Up next, you'll hear our interview with Catherine Legg, who is going to be the first woman to attempt the racing double this weekend. We spoke with Catherine before the news about Kyle Busch. That is straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports for Vanessa Perdomo-Maglione and rando williams i'm michael barr you're listening to the bloomberg business of sports bloomberg radio around the world brought to you by the capital one saver card with the capital one saver card you earn unlimited three percent cash back at grocery stores and on dining entertainment and popular streaming services that's unlimited cash back on ordering takeout from home or unlimited cash back on tickets to concerts and games so grab a bite grab a seat and earn unlimited three cash back on food and fun with the Capital One Saver card.

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16:19We are joined now by Catherine Legg, who will be racing in her fifth Indianapolis 500 this weekend. But Michael, she won't just be running the Indy 500. She's going to be attempting the double by racing the Indy 500 and then heading to North Carolina to race in the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day. Captain will be the first woman to ever attempt a double, which has only been attempted by five drivers in history and only completed once. Catherine Legg joins us now to talk about the historic feat. Catherine, welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports. You are about to make history. Yeah, crazy, right?

16:58What possessed me? When they said, did I want to run the double? I mean, doing one or the other is a huge deal in itself. You know, not many people get the opportunity to be part of the Indy 500, let alone five times. And then not many people get to race in NASCAR Cup, let alone do the Coke 600. And so the opportunity to do either would have been huge in and itself. But then they said, why don't we do both on the same day and do the double like Kyle Larson did? And I was like, why not? that sounds great and then after I committed to it I was thinking about it and I was thinking oh that's quite a lot for what I've let myself in for why why did I say yes to this but I honestly think it's going to be an epic awesome day that um you know I share with my partners in elf cosmetics uh GM and and Chevrolet have been wonderful trying to get everything set up And I'm obviously in a Chevy on both the Indy side and the NASCAR side.

18:01And then we've got the new air club who are like doing all the logistics of getting me from one place to the other. And so it's kind of like an adventure. It's kind of like Catherine's own amazing race. No, it really is. I feel like it has to be. And that's what I want to talk a little bit about. Can you give us a little bit more of the detail for people who don't know all of the logistics that go behind that? How how does your day look on Sunday? oh goodness so i actually said to them oh hey uh no don't tell me just tell me where i gotta be i don't want to stress about it i'm gonna be fine and then literally a couple of hours later i was like hey how are we getting to the helicopter how are we doing this and so knowing me and my um ocd kind of control freaky ways they gave me all the details and so we're very fortunate that We have a new air club on board and they're helping us to organize golf carts to obviously GM vehicles.

18:56We have a Chevy truck ready to take me from the golf cart to the helicopter, to the plane, to the helicopter, to the golf cart to drive it in. I don't know. We haven't got like a food partner. I was just going to ask, when do you eat? I was just going to ask that. there's a training facility in indiana in charlotte called pit pit and they specialize in race car drivers and pit crew and things like that and i've been working with them on and off for 20 years my career and um i texted jim leo the owner and i was like hey what do i do here is it like when i did the iron man and i'm gonna do booze and gummies and that kind of thing baby food even but i have to decide what i want to eat on the plane in between so like a recovery meal and you get out the car and you feel physically sick right because of all the g-force and the heat and everything else so it's got to be something that's gentle on my stomach i'm gonna have an iv in the plane um and so yeah lots of lots of moving parts so you mentioned the g's you feel in a race car and i was in vegas a couple years ago and rode in one and i don't understand how you all do this, but I do wonder physically, is there a difference that you feel between the IndyCar and a NASCAR?

20:18Yeah, absolutely. Very different class. It's almost like a different sport. So the IndyCar, you're sat relatively horizontally in the car. Your feet are at the same level as your bum, basically. And it's all core and upper body because you're not using the brakes are you know it's it's hard on you the steering's heavy it's hard on your shoulders it's hard on your chest uh forearms because of the like the repetitive nature of it it's not really heavy doing it once but when you have to do 500 miles worth then it becomes like you're doing it a thousand times right and um i just it just takes it out of you and then you get in the NASCAR and it's hot, it's over 130 degrees and you're fighting with the car and it's moving around and the center pressure is heavy and it's rolling around and you've got tire degradation and all these things.

21:12So it's like two totally different sports. And I think the NASCAR will be the one that wears you out in terms of heart rate will be higher, but it's less strength-based. So I just need to start carving up yesterday, really. We're talking with Catherine Legg, race car driver competing with AJ Ford Racing in the Indianapolis 500. And I want people to understand, this is, forgive me for putting it this way, this is a dangerous business. It is. Catherine, you are currently 27th on the grid. you qualified at 229.456 miles an hour. That's about five miles faster than what they do on I-80 here in New Jersey.

22:02But the thing that really puts it in my mind is that this past week we had a big practice crash. Alex Rossi paid a award and Romain Grosjean. um it was it was a clean week up until that take us through what it's like to compete in indianapolis racing especially with the man on the pole alex blue 232.24 miles an hour on the pole this this is dangerous folks yeah it is dangerous but in the same breath they've made massive strides at trying to make it less dangerous you know they've got safer barriers now the cars are stronger there is no escaping the fact you're doing 230 odd miles an hour average right you're turning into turn one at 243 or whatever it may be so yeah it's dangerous everything should be going in the same direction unlike driving and you do but it's it's just one of those things you have a real healthy respect for but you don't think about in any way, shape, or form.

23:14And you do your best to be as smart and minimize the mistakes, but some things can happen and you can get taken out. Look at the Alex Rossi crash, right? So he spins mid-corner turn two, and then the people behind him can't avoid the carnage and end up crashing as well. So something like that can happen, and it's through no fault of your own. You're out of the race, hopefully uninjured. And same goes for Charlotte. I mean, there are some massive NASCAR crashes as well, and it's an unfortunate byproduct of this sport that we love so much. I hope that it's going to minimize the risk by all these advances in modern-day medicine that we have to make sure that when we hit a safer barrier, we don't get conquestions and things like that, hopefully.

24:07I mean, they're just working wonders to do it. but it is fast and it is dangerous and that's why we all love it so much or one of the many reasons now i want to add more to expand on that you qualified 27th on the grid but because of that big practice crash are you going to be able now to move up on the grid because will some of these guys have to go to their backup cars yeah i'm not sure really i know that a couple of people got excluded from post-qualifying technical infringements so i think we move up one spot and then i don't know what the rule is with regards to going to the backup car i think i think they should be okay but i i'm not sure honestly there were only 33 cars attempting to qualify this year and so all 33 got in where you qualified is less relevant than in previous years because we got rained out on day one.

25:02And so the qualifying sort of got condensed into day two. So whether I'm P20 or P30, it doesn't make too much difference to the start of my day. Although I will say my plan is to start the race conservatively, watch, learn, figure out how everybody else is driving and sort of move forward. It's 500 miles, it's a long race. You've got a lot of time to move forward. So I feel a lot less pressure being back in 26 or wherever it is that I'll end up starting. Catherine, Elf is going to be Elf Cosmetics is going to be with you. You know, they're your sponsor and they're going to be with you through both races.

25:44Tell us about having a sponsor like that who's going to take you through this whole day who really supports you like that. And is they're really supportive of women in sports, right? So Elf Cosmetics are amazing. Their ethos is honestly incredible. I'm super proud to represent them as a brand because of their products being amazing, but also because of the values and what they stand for. And I was actually four years ago, we got connected and I was the first sports person that they had on deck, so to say. And after me, along came the likes of Billie Jane King, who's just amazing. You know, just a random name there.

26:27Legend. Legend, right? And Elf have always been about empowering legendary females and just empowerment in general, in all honesty. And so the fact that I'm the only woman in both series and I'm the first woman to attempt this and everything, it kind of underlines what they believe in the, you know, some barriers, they're only perceived barriers. They're not actual barriers. And you can do anything that you set your mind to if you want it enough. And so I think that me trying to strive to do these things and having a partner who believes in me and believes in the possibilities is, it's not to be cliche, but it is empowering, right?

27:18Without them, I wouldn't be doing this. Without me, they wouldn't be doing it. So why not? I mean, they changed the face of racing, in my opinion. Two years ago, we had a pink Elf Cosmetics car and they were the first beauty brand cosmetics company to sponsor in major racing, whether that's Open Wheel or NASCAR or anything. They were the first. There have been others that have kind of jumped on the bandwagon and come along since, but they were the first. And they said, we're going to do a pink car. I said, no, we're not. I don't want to be the girl in the pink car because I've spent the entirety of my career just wanting to fit in and just wanting to be another driver and not pointing out the fact that I am a girl.

28:10That was professional race car driver Catherine Legge. Up next, we are looking to the WNBA and the team who was able to be the first women's franchise ever valued at$1 billion. That's straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports. I'm Michael Barr with Vanessa Perdomo-Maglione and Randall Williams. You are listening to the Bloomberg Business of Sports, Bloomberg Radio around the world. This sports spotlight is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One offers no fees or minimums on checking accounts. Did you know that USC great and two-time WNBA champ Lisa Leslie was the first player to dunk in the WNBA?

28:47In July of 2002, in her second season with the LA Sparks, Leslie gathered an outlet pass and threw it down in the open court to make history. Capital One, what's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash Bank Guy for details. Capital One, N.A., member FDIC. Running a small business takes everything you've got. But with Chase for Business, you're not alone. They bring together local support and a broad range of resources to more than 7 million customers. With a deep understanding of your day-to-day needs, they provide products and guidance built to help you thrive. Right now, earn$500 when you open a new Chase Business Complete Checking account for new business checking customers with qualifying activities.