IndyCar CEO Mark Miles told Autoweek on Friday the announcement of a new series sponsors is coming sooner than many people are expecting.

“I expect it to be put to bed and have an announcement soon,” Miles told Autoweek. “I hope we have a new title sponsor and a new logo on the firesuits and the cars for the open test at COTA on February 12-13. If we are going to roll it out by the middle of February, that means an early January or mid-January announcement.”

Miles would not reveal who the new sponsor will be because the deal is still being negotiated, only to say, “In due time, you will find that out.”

Verizon’s sponsorship of the IndyCar Series will conclude on December 31. Verizon was series sponsor for five seasons beginning in 2014 and will remain in IndyCar as the primary sponsor for driver Will Power at Team Penske. A change in Verizon management is one reason why its involvement as the title sponsor will conclude.

Having a series sponsor is important for many reasons, including financial and promotional.

“It’s both of those things,” Miles said. “First of all, it’s a significant financial relationship. We take the rights fee the title sponsor pays us and then we pass along a lot of that to the race teams that put the sponsor's marque on the race cars, the firesuits, crew uniforms and the transporters.

“We do the same for our race promoters. The rights fee that is paid by a title sponsor is an important contributor to the financial systems for our ecosystem. It helps fund expenses for the teams and race promoters.

“Then, there is promotion. IndyCar right now is an incredibly strong platform from a marketing point of view for business-to-business (opportunities). It’s where businesses can entertain their own customers and find new ones. That’s very helpful to them. We aren’t quite as strong at the moment as we hope to be someday with respect to being a consumer brand. Right now, I think marketers are more likely to sign up for business-to-business opportunities than they are on direct to consumer opportunities.”

Given Miles' comments, the next series sponsors for IndyCar may fall in that business-to-business category rather than a direct-to-consumer brand. All of that will be answered very soon, according to Miles.

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