The event features the thrilling, wheel-to-wheel action of the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship. Read More>
The special events will take place in April in Indianapolis, Bloomington, Evansville and Fort Wayne. Read More>
Season One of the popular docuseries looked at the buildup to the 107th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge last spring. Read More>
Josef Newgarden unveils the 2024 Indianapolis 500 Ticket View Photos>
Remembering the life and career of Gil de Ferran. View Photos>
Photos from Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 2023 Indy 8 Hour. View Photos>
On this episode of Doug and Drivers, IMS President Doug Boles sits down with four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves. The modern legend discusses his historic Drive for Five, his transition to an ownership role within Meyer Shank Racing, the loss of his dear friend Gil de Ferran, and more. Watch Video>
On this episode of Behind the Bricks, IMS President Doug Boles heads all the way to Arvada, Colorado, on the outskirts of Denver for a fan party at the Sonsio headquarters. To celebrate their new role as the title sponsor of the Grand Prix, Sonsio unveiled Scott McLaughlin's Sonsio car and hosted nearly 200 Denver-area Indy 500 fans! Watch Video>
On this episode of Doug and Drivers, IMS President J. Douglas Boles sits down with Graham Rahal to discuss his growing businesses off-track, as well as the gut wrenching memories of failing to qualify for the Indy 500 last year. Watch Video>
August 18, 2016 | By Donald Davidson
John Cooper, who died Wednesday at the age of 84, was a major player in the motorsports world, not just during his time from 1979-82 as the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was the kind of man who knew not only the big sponsor developments of the day, but why Joe Smith missed Saturday night’s feature at the local dirt track. Cooper was as much of a racing enthusiast as a mover-and-shaker. The Iowa native attended Northwestern University and then started hanging around tracks in 1953, serving as a “stooge” for sprint cars and championship cars. He even appeared in crew photographs from 1954 Indianapolis 500 qualifying. The next year he was the first employee of the United States Auto Club. In December 1955, USAC hadn’t held a race yet, but he became its first official employee when good friend Duane Carter, then an eight-time “500” starter, was named the first USAC director of competition but couldn’t come to work right away. The first USAC race was at Fort Wayne on Jan. 8, 1956, and Cooper remained with the organization for a few months before going to work for the Leo Burnett advertising agency. In 1972, Cooper was named president of Ontario (California) Speedway, at time when the track went through several management changes. In 1974, he played a pivotal role in helping motorsports through the energy crunch that swept the country. He kept a small office in Washington, D.C., as a lobbyist and legislators essentially asked him to help the motorsports industry implement a 10 percent across-the-board reduction in energy consumption. In late October 1979, Cooper took over as president of IMS. Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) had just been formed and there was a movement in open-wheel racing to reunite the sport again. Cooper helped merge CART and USAC into the short-lived Championship Racing League (CRL). He moved on from IMS just before the 1982 Month of May to serve as chairman of the Automobile Competition Committee of the United States (ACCUS). Cooper always maintained close ties with NASCAR. He helped lead several “500” drivers to race at Pocono in the late 1970s including Tim Richmond, who arrived in NASCAR as a one-off and ended up making a career in stock cars. Cooper deserves a lot of the credit for that. His ties to NASCAR and longtime friendship with Bill France led to the presidency of Daytona International Speedway from 1987-90. Before that, while he was IMS president, he began talks to get NASCAR to race at Indianapolis. That proved to be a bit premature, but later when Tony George realized the time had come for NASCAR at IMS, Cooper was instrumental behind the scenes in making that happen.