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The $1 Million Challenge at The Thermal Club was an ideal way to lessen the six-week gap between IndyCar’s first race of the season in St. Petersburg and its second in late April at Long Beach.

The series made its debut at Thermal in 2023 as a pre-season testing event, but it has since been elevated to an in-season test and non-championship race for money, so where does it go from here? Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles said it will be a matter of conversation once the $1 Million Challenge has concluded.

“You could list the things that we will take on board: How the drivers and the teams felt about it; how the racing turns out; the calendar going forward,” Miles told RACER in an interview. “Is there a hole there, and what is the best way to fill it?” However, it is essentially the total of the experience’s insights. We had a fantastic experience last year, and this year is different. “We’ll see.”

The Thermal Club is trying something unique by inviting spectators into its exclusive facility for the three-day IndyCar race. At $500 per ticket — far less than the $2000 the track initially charged — and a limit of 2000 tickets made available to the public, fans who have spoken with RACER have been overwhelmingly positive about the experience, with many citing the per-day cost of $166.66, all-you-can-eat food, and up-close access to the cars and drivers in a beautiful setting as something entirely unique on the 18-event schedule.

When asked if Thermal had a possibility of becoming a full points-paying race in the future, Miles mentioned the small spectator presence as one factor to consider.

“I don’t know if there’s any scenario where they really could invite the public fans to buy tickets,” he went on to say. “Maybe [the tune] has an explanation for that, but that wasn’t my perception last year. So that’s something we’d have to get over, because if we did this with a small number of fans, it’d be more of a private event. And is it appropriate for us and our followers to hold a quasi-private tournament with championship points?”