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Everyone has been saying we need to see Miles Rowe in the 111th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Are you ready for that opportunity?
More than ready. I'm absolutely more than ready for the opportunity.
Hello folks and welcome to Speed with Harvick and Buxton, fuelled by Poet. This week delighted
to welcome to the show a young man who has been impressing us in the road to Indy for many years
had a great win a couple of weeks ago on the Oval at St Louis from last to first.
Having said that, he needs no introduction. He is Miles Rowe. Buddy, how are you? Great to see you.
Yeah, thank you for having me. It's good to be here.
Dude, take us back to that race if we can. Very good. I know you've talked about it so much over
the last few weeks and you're probably sick of talking about it. But last place to first place,
what an incredible race. It's never been done before in Indian next history and you did it.
Yeah, that race was absolutely thrilling for me. I mean, to come back from last, we knew we had
the pace. We had the P1 time, ended up getting taken away because we took an extra lap at the
end of qualifying. At the end of that Saturday, normally I never really am like, oh, I'm going
to win this race. You know, anything can happen. But I told my dad, first time I really ever told
on this, I'm going to win this race no matter where I am. And it was really able motorsports
in the Force Indy crew that gave me the confidence to have that mindset going in from all the way
back there. We only had 75 laps and it was 23 different cars, different people to pass.
And that's, as we all know, a very difficult feat. It was really amazing to be able to do that.
And it's not like you had strategy. It's not like you had pit stops. It was just lights to
flag, well, flag to flag, start to finish, just make the moves, make them high, make them low,
make them wherever they came up. You had pace in abundance. You were right to make that call to
your dad because nobody, nobody was driving at the speed that you had. Yeah, it was so that night
and that morning, it was, it was really hard to sleep. You know, I kept in this tap typically
happens, you know, you run through scenarios like the race starts and everything, they kind of fall
into your dreams. But that night, definitely was, was very dramatic in terms of how many
scenarios were going through my head. But by the time I got to the track, I really had a plan.
You know, again, the 99 car gave me the confidence to have this sort of plan. But I knew
there was certain amount of cars I had to pass within 10 laps. And by about lap 60 was the kind
of goal to be in first place or to be challenging, you know, the top three cars. But by lap, as we
know, by lap 40 or so, I was up to, I think it was P three, and then by lap 48, I got to P one.
So I was well above schedule. I think by about, by about lap 20, I was, I knew how much ahead of
schedule I was. And even then I was just allowed to kind of pace and take my time as such an early
point in the race and ended up leading the most laps at the end of the race. So got an extra
point for that as well. So it was definitely, definitely very cool to actually extract that
strategy, make it better, optimize it more than I thought I could. And that sort of situation,
it was, it was no doubt great for my racing career and great learning experience and just
how to manage a race from all sides. That's absolutely wild. I didn't know the stat that
you led the most laps in that race. So it came from last, took the lead with enough laps to go
to have the most lead wraps of the race. That's just absolutely nuts. You go so well on ovals.
What is it about this car and an oval and you and your style of driving and racing that kind of
naturally lends itself to ovals, do you think? Yeah, the Able Motorsports guys, they really
have a good, good oval program under them. And so it allows me just from practice one to really
come out of the box very strong with a lot of confidence. We really have a good direction going.
Like I said, at the start of practice, going into qualifying, so to speak,
a good program knowing how to make the car work in traffic, but also make it work really well
in qualifying. And so all of those things kind of trickle down and it's a snowball effect,
especially on a noble. And I live in New York City and I was really into skateboarding. And so
the bulls and things like that, the vert ramps, you have to have a certain sense of balance and
like we call it in racing, the platform. And so a lot of your balance in terms of how you make
the board go, right? How you make it carve correctly goes into how you manage that platform,
how you manage your body's platform. So on an oval, it's kind of the same thing,
just, you know, obviously with the throttle and the brake. So a lot of those things relate.
It's very momentum focused, obviously. And I do have a very keen sense with just being in traffic,
understanding turbulence with the air. There's a lot of anticipation needed in order to race a car
well on an oval. Because of course, we all know, even if you start in the lead, you end up with
lap traffic. So where the car is, where the next car is in front of that and where they're moving,
all dictates where you have to be. And the better you can anticipate that lap after lap,
the better you can execute things you need to do to get the runs or so and so defend is
kind of what makes those opportunities for victory open up. And Ablemodus Sports gives me
a great car in order to do that very well. That's fascinating. So all the way back to being a kid
and skateboarding and that natural feeling of kind of balance and flow, like how much is about flow
and feel and how much of it is, as you say, having your wits about you and not necessarily just
looking one car ahead, but 234 and figuring out everyone's positioning to
place you. Because those are two very, very different things. One is really having to use
your brain and the other is very much being in a flow state. Yeah, it's a huge equilibrium between
just basically cognitive output, how much you're thinking ahead, and then just simple intuition
and what's going on in your body and your heart, kinetic feelings. And so it's about really,
really trying to hone in onto understanding just, it's almost like chess pieces, right? Where everyone
goes is kind of where you're going to figure out how to optimize yourself the best. But at the same
time, like we're talking about the equilibrium, understanding the balance of the car in order
to make that achievable is key. If you don't have the right balance going, if you don't have the
right inputs into the car, you can't optimize that position for you to be in the right place to
take that opportunity. So a lot of it is just understanding how much of an equilibrium is
needed in order to make those opportunities come together. Because one without the other
will not give you the set opportunity. That's fascinating. When you talk of equilibrium,
how do you balance racing and time away from the track? What do you do away from the track to
keep yourself in a calm place? Yeah, I think off-season is very key in just getting back with
friends, trying to see the world as much as you can, being with loved ones. There's a certain
different balance off-season and end-season. In the season, it's a lot of travel,
back-to-back races, and I think the best of the best understand that flow and understand how to
switch something in their mind to make that flow something you naturally want and that rhythm
that you naturally want. Being away from basically society in general and always being at the track,
always going from wherever it is, Ohio, Wisconsin, Laguna Seca, Long Beach,
it's really about being able to switch the focus and always want to be improving, always wanting
to get better. So right now, that's all I can really focus on because it's really healthy for me
right now. Because in season, I make the switches to where it's all about personal development.
It can come out the car as well. When you come out the car, you think about your discipline off
the track. How much are you working out? How much are you paying attention to your mental game?
Reaction and things like that. In the season, it's all personal development and the more
attentive you are to it, the more you record it. It's almost a sense of relaxation because
with the pressure, you ease that. You basically dilute it by preparing. It's all in your preparation.
In the season, your preparation is all your relaxation, for me at least.
Fascinating. So you don't have anything to kind of like music or art or something like that?
Yes. Of course. Take it away from the track.
Yes. Out the track, when you've done all the work you can in everything, there's certain things
that I think every athlete and anybody in any career, you find your equilibrium. For me,
I really love filmmaking and storytelling. So I went to school for film and screen studies
at Pace University in New York. I really fell in love with storytelling. I did a lot of photography,
studio photography, fashion photography going through there. Then as racing started to pick
up because that was when my college career was ending, it kind of coincided. I kind of fell
out of photography and filmmaking, kind of focusing more on the craft and being in the
moment of my racing career. I actually fell deeply in love with writing. I started doing
these 100-day journal challenges and things like that. Then I realized, because for me,
I want to do, it's my big dream to do a feature film at some point in my life before I die.
With racing going on and to manage my focus, but also to manage the equilibrium between
my preparation and then what else am I doing off the track to kind of keep me at a level,
at a level head. I took on a project of basically have this story for a screenplay,
but instead of going straight to the script, I decided to make it a book instead first and
actually tell the story, figure out how to write the story, write the characters, and make it actually
mine before I put it into camera type language and things like that. So that's a big project
that I'm doing right now that I've been doing for a year and a half or two now, and it's a
through line also. It's a thread that goes through in the season, off season, and it's
something that's very consistent because as an athlete, as racing drivers, it's very volatile
nature in terms of your schedule and where you're going and what you're doing. So that's
something that's been really healthy for me. Incredible. So you're kind of writing a novel
first, and then you can dilute the novel down into a treatment, and then you can take the treatment
and write the screenplay from the treatment, right? Exactly. Oh man, that's fascinating.
So it's an exercise for me. It's an exercise for me to learn how to write. It's an exercise of
focus, of discipline, and then once I get past that exercise, almost like my own little class,
you know, I can work on it as much as I need, and when I pass that class, when I'm done with
that class, then I can move on to the screenplay in the script and have that other, that new thread
and that new through line through in season and off season. Yeah. That's great. I'm going
through the same thing. I'm writing a screenplay at the moment, and it's so hard, right? Because
it is a totally different style of writing to anything that I've ever written before.
It's really tough. It's a different language. Completely, completely. And that's why I love
it so much too. That's why I do it in the season as well, because it's very important to exercise
both sides of your brain, right? You have the right side and left side, and
high performance sports is mainly one side of the brain, and then the writing, storytelling,
just art in general, it exercises the creative side of the brain. And it's very important for me
to be very well rounded in this time period in general. To be multifaceted is a strong asset
for anybody in this time period, I think, and so I try to exercise that as much as I can.
How much does your knowledge of using photography to tell stories, and in particular a still camera,
sort of help you to create narrative function within your storytelling? Because I think of
someone like Stanley Kubrick. So Stanley Kubrick started off as a still photography. It was a
newsbeat photographer, brilliant still photographer, and became one of the all-time great movie
directors. So does that kind of work with stills? Does that help you to kind of create
your scenery in your mind? Absolutely, absolutely. I'm really glad I started,
because I'm a visual learner. So me starting in photography and filmmaking was kind of the
way to start, I believe, and just learning how to, just going from that, learning from your eyes,
learning from sight, perspective, composition, depth of field, it can go all into it. And then
learning how to take what you can see, and then for me, writing the new medium that I'm working
with, learning how to articulate it into certain passages, into language in a very cohesive way,
in a relatable way, in a way that society can understand and actually really learn from,
rather than just seeing it and taking it in. That's one power, but then being able to do
the opposite and put it into language, that's a completely different power, a different skill,
opens up, can open up new doors to people. Sometimes you might see, let's say we're
actually trying to compare an image, and then we're thinking of it in a photograph,
and then thinking of it in writing. Some person might get a certain impersonation,
a certain impression from that photograph, a certain resonance that they might not get
from the language, and the language form might give them a different sort of resonance as well.
Sometimes there's a bridge, and making that bridge is also a certain skill as well,
and that gives you, for me, it's two perspectives, and it gives me the opportunity,
whether I'm imagining something, or I have a bit of language, it gives me the option to,
do I want to make a bridge here? Do I want to, is one medium better than the other?
Is it better separate? And it gives you options on how you want to tell the story.
Right, and I think that's why I really fell into writing, because it gave me another option,
and it gave me an option of a bridge as well. And yeah, I think that relates to my life,
because I am a very creative person, so being very into racing, and then,
nationally, going to school, going to college for the arts and everything,
it's kind of like the same thing, finding that bridge for people to connect to,
and people to really see me better, and things like that.
That is fascinating. We would be able to talk about this for hours, but we should probably
get back to talking about racing before we completely lose people. We'll find each other
in the cabinet and discuss this more at length. IndyCar, everyone is going to want to know,
Miles, when are we going to see you in an IndyCar? Be that on a full-time basis,
be that in the Indy 500, particularly after St. Louis, everyone has been saying,
we need to see Miles Rowe in the 111th running of the Indianapolis 500.
Are you ready for that opportunity, and we hope that it does come your way?
More than ready. I'm absolutely more than ready for the opportunity. I'm ready to be in a good
car there. I believe I could really, really turn that speedway on its head and make some noise,
no doubt. Working on a campaign, looking for sponsors, looking for investors,
into this story, into the mission to get to the speedway, and become the first Black
driver to win the Indianapolis 500. That's what I'm after, and I believe I'll do it,
but yeah, I need help. It's a lot of just time and investment, a lot of care needed
for this mission, as we all know, but those looking to be part of it and really be at the
speedway and be part of history, they're all welcome. You have an amazing story. You are an
incredible talent. How is it that you don't have the funding that some people would automatically
assume would naturally come your way? It's a part of this sport that has confused me for
the 25 years that I've been in it. I have seen so many talented kids not get the backing that
their talent deserves, and it's never made any sense to me that if you are going to back someone,
back the best. It blows my mind that you, of all people, would struggle for backing,
because you have shown consistently through your junior formula. The skills, the abilities,
you've won championships, you win races at the highest level. It makes no sense.
Yeah, I obviously can't agree anymore. We can theorize all the things that go into it.
Like all the successful drivers in the pro series that we watch, I watch, it's a combination of skill,
luck, and just passion. I have the skill, the passion, I think, from the support around the
motorsport community is there. It's just a little bit, I think, of that special factor in the universe
that brings investors, different organizations into the mission of a driver, the mission of a team.
Those threads are just, that's part of the quantum physics, the stickiness of the universe that we
can't see sometimes. I'm trying to figure that out, no doubt. Like you said, we see it all the
time with many talented drivers, and I'm doing my best to make sure that I get there and I can be
part of it. You have had mentors on the way. Will Power was instrumental early in your career.
Obviously, you're part of Force Indy and Roger Penske, having the overall control of that. How
are you doing in your career to this point? Yeah, Will Power, he's him and Liz Power. They're such
a great family. They've really helped me thread the way properly and just knowing a little bit,
having a better head on my shoulders and just how to talk to people and how to engage in productive
conversations about getting further in my career, whether it's with investors and managers and just
teams and things. He was just very pivotal. Me being known in the Penske organization,
along with Rod Reed and Kelly Jones, were also big parts of that. He's a dear, dear
mentor of mine that I wouldn't be here without. He does so much for the community in general.
He's a huge role model for me. For one, just being a dad and being a family man.
I'm 26 now. I start to think about things like that, especially being a racing driver
and doing that. Will has been an exceptional role model in that regard. Then we go into the racing
aspect of it. His experience, his professionalism, his talent in the car, his commitment to detail
and passion and all the good things that the teams and drivers have to say about an individual,
the whole community. For him to be that close to me and helping me, it's really given me
what I need, the passion, the goal to fixate on. I'm so grateful for him.
Love that. Miles, you are a rare breed. You are both fast and fascinating. This has been a joy.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. Appreciate it massively. I've always been a
hope that we see you at the Indy 500s and more next year, mate. Thank you for being on the show.
We really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Will. It really was a pleasure. Thank you.
All right. Well, thanks for joining us, folks, for this special interview episode
of Speed. If you are enjoying the show, do us a favor. Subscribe to the channel. Follow us on
social media. Jump into the comments to let us know what you thought and what you want to see
next. Thanks, as always, to our friends at Poet. We produce high-octane bioethanol delivering
maximum performance with zero carbon intensity. You can't beat zero. With our thanks to Miles Rowe,
I've been Will Buxton. Thanks for catching speed with Harvick and Buxton, fueled by Poet.
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