Image courtesy of INDY NXT by Firestone -- Travis Hinkle

One of the privileges of working at PRI is that our offices are located in the heart of Speedway, Indiana, just a stone's throw away from one of the world's great sporting venues—the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). It's an exciting place to be, especially when May rolls around.  

But for most of the year, the track sits idle, empty. 

I drive down 16th Street every morning on my way into the office, tracing the south end of the Speedway property, and always try to peer through the gaps in the grandstands to look for signs of activity. 

Sometimes it stirs. The video boards will be on some mornings, the pylon lit up for a photo op on the frontstretch. There are even tests here and there. Driving schools and corporate events, too. 

Usually, though, there's nothing. 

It always feels off to me, seeing it so still. It's like a college campus in the summer, an empty apartment on the day you move out. Sure, this has to happen at some point. Without the quiet, motionless moments, it wouldn't feel so special when it's full. But still is not the natural state of this place. 

The first sign of life is when the flags go up atop of the grandstands. They create a rainbow of sorts, repeating in the same order around the perimeter of the track—green, white, blue, checkered, red, black and yellow. Then the Yellow Shirts—the Speedway's volunteer crew of crowd marshals, security guards and ticket-takers—start hovering around the entrances, and pretty soon the haulers are passing through the tunnel on the way to the paddock.

In just a matter of days, the Speedway transforms from a sleeping giant to a bustling city, echoing with the tremendous roar of the engines, cheers from the faithful Indy crowd, the constant drum of wheel guns and wrenches.  

These days, the "Month of May" starts feverishly with a full slate of on-track action, kicking off a magical few weeks in the Circle City. Cars roll out on track bright and early—the first session starts before 8 a.m.—and the last car doesn't leave the racing surface until long after the sun has set behind the frontstretch grandstands. 

But at a track that was once reserved for Indy cars—and Indy cars only—May now includes a lot more than just the top tier of American open-wheel racing. These days, every step of the development ladder is invited to race at the "Brickyard," giving aspiring drivers a chance to compete at one of racing's most hallowed grounds. 

Yes, the Indy cars are here, too, of course, competing in the 11th edition of the Sonsio Grand Prix, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES' annual stop on the IMS road course. But they only make up a fraction of the track time during the first weekend.  

If you were at the Speedway on Friday, chances are you watched the future stars of INDYCAR hone their skills as they continue their climb through the ranks of American open-wheel racing. Both USF PRO Championships had ample track time, with USF2000 competing twice on the 14-turn road course, and its big brother—USF PRO 2000—racing three times over the two-day event. INDY NXT, the step just below INDYCAR, also held two races over the weekend, once on Friday night and a second time on Saturday morning.

The amount of track time granted to these series helps to shine a light on the path drivers must take to get to the top tier of American open-wheel racing, as well as the people helping develop the next generation of drivers. 

One of those people, Jay Howard, hung up his own helmet in 2018, ending a driving career that included the 2007 INDY NXT championship and three Indianapolis 500 starts. But he still finds himself at the track most weekends thanks to his new role as owner and team principal of Jay Howard Driver Development.

Unlike some other teams involved in the ladder system, Jay Howard Driver Development is structured to guide drivers from the early days of their careers in karts, through Formula 4 and USF2000, and all the way up to USF PRO 2000. The aim, Howard says, is to give drivers the structure and support he could have used as an up-and-coming driver. 

"When I was going through my career, I did everything myself. I was learning on the job, making mistakes. It was rough," Howard said. "Every year I was with a [new] team, I loved my team, and then I had to move to a different team. And I saw this void. There was no team that did the multi-level ladder. Every time you go to a new team, it's new engineers, new mechanics, new car, new team procedures. There's a lot of new."

And all that "new" hinders how a driver develops, according to Howard.

"I felt like we could speed up the process of getting better if you have that continuity with that same team," he said. "As you move up, you know how the team works, the team knows you. That relationship starts developing, and every year they're with you, that relationship gets stronger."

By all accounts, the model is working. And with an alumni roster that includes multiple entrants in this year's Indianapolis 500 and several championships to its name, it's hard to argue. Howard and company claimed the USF2000 and USF PRO 2000 titles in 2020 and 2021 with Christian Rasmussen—attempting this year to qualify for his second "500"—and the Formula 4 U.S. championship in 2022 with Lochie Hughes, who won the Friday night INDY NXT race from pole driving for Andretti Global.

That success has given Howard designs on spanning the full open-wheel ladder, but it's not a decision he takes lightly, he said. Instead, he's set on—well—developing the team methodically, just like he does with his drivers.

"We're always trying to figure out what's next," he said. "We always have the approach of brick-by-brick: make sure we're successful and then we can talk about moving on. That's worked well so far."