{"id":2475,"date":"2016-05-28T17:04:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T17:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=2475"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","slug":"no-microphone-eating-for-miles-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/05\/28\/no-microphone-eating-for-miles-76\/","title":{"rendered":"No Microphone Eating for Miles \u201976"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><em>\u201cIt is going to be an extraordinary 100th running. I\u2019ll come back and eat this microphone if it isn\u2019t sold out, and that hasn\u2019t happened since 1995.\u201d<\/em><\/h4>\n<p>When <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wabash.edu\/news\/displaystory.cfm?news_ID=9945\">Mark Miles \u201976<\/a> visited Wabash in April to talk about <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/04\/12\/alumni-impress-at-indycar-and-the-liberal-arts\/\"><em>IndyCar and the Liberal Arts<\/em> <\/a>during an event sponsored by the College\u2019s student newspaper, he made a prediction about this year\u2019s Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n<p>The CEO of Hulman &amp; Company\u2014owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and IndyCar\u2014talked about the progress IMS and the series had been making, then concluded: \u201cIt is going to be an extraordinary 100th running. I\u2019ll come back and eat this microphone if it isn\u2019t sold out, and that hasn\u2019t happened since 1995.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There will be no mic-eating for Mark Miles this year. This week IMS officials announced the race was completely sold-out\u2014including the infield. And IMS threw in a bonus\u2014for the first time since 1950, race fans across the entire state of Indiana will be able to watch the Indianapolis 500 live.<\/p>\n<p>The excitement around this year\u2019s 100th running underscores\u00a0the success Miles and his team have had since he arrived at Hulman in 2012. During three years with Miles at the helm the Speedway has added a family-friendly road race at the beginning of May, seen multiple changes in leadership positions, and made a $90 million investment in the facility.\u00a0TV ratings for the series are improving, fascinating story lines are introducing fans to a new generation of great drivers, and the success of the 100th running of the 500 bodes well for IndyCar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we\u2019re making real progress in the place being more like we know and we want it to be,\u201d the Indianapolis native told the audience at April\u2019s IndyCar and the Liberal Arts discussion.<\/p>\n<p>So how does Miles balance the changes that need to be made with what needs to be preserved?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s an alchemy to it,\u201d Miles said. \u201cYou think about what is fundamentally the tradition that this place represents, and what\u2019s just habit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve done some things differently. Three years ago we decided to reclaim the month of May by adding the IndyCar road race. We tweaked qualifying. We\u2019ve added music\u2014there will be more than 100,000 tickets sold separately for music events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday [during race weekend]. That\u2019s what\u2019s new.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The traditions?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe parade laps, the flyover, the songs that are sung, the celebrities who are there, and then those cars line up\u2026. When May comes this place lights up just like spring.\u201d<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wabash.edu\/news\/displaystory.cfm?news_ID=9945\">Click here<\/a> for an interview with Miles as he prepared to take the job at Hulman, and see photos from <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/04\/12\/alumni-impress-at-indycar-and-the-liberal-arts\/\">IndyCar and the Liberal Arts here<\/a>\u00a0and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wabash.edu\/news\/displaystory.cfm?news_id=10789&amp;photo_album_id=4472\">read about the event.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt is going to be an extraordinary 100th running. I\u2019ll come back and eat this microphone if it isn\u2019t sold out, and that hasn\u2019t happened since 1995.\u201d When Mark Miles \u201976 visited [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/05\/06-miles-speaks-best-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2475\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}