Bernard at reins of new IndyCar

The IZOD IndyCar Series has announced a new schedule, a completely revamped race car for 2012 and the pursuit of a new brand identity that it hopes will restore a fan base lost from a bitter 1990s disagreement that crippled the sport most known for its marquee race, the Indianapolis 500.

Oh, and one other thing: the series CEO is a new guy himself.

“I know this can be hard work,” Randy Bernard, the new IndyCar CEO, said Friday.

“But I could be building fences back on the ranch in 110 degree heat. Everybody has a hard job.”

Bernard, who assumed the IndyCar CEO post on March 1, was hired to fill the shoes of departed series head Tony George, and his selection certainly raised some eyebrows.

Bernard had never attended an IndyCar race, and his previous job was as CEO of Professional Bull Riders, Inc.

Since then, Bernard has tried to be all eyes and ears in an effort to get a full grasp on where IndyCar is and where he needs to take it.

“My goals are pretty easy: work hard,” Bernard said. “I want to learn as much as I can and do as much I can to grow the sport.”

The IndyCar job isn’t entirely different from his time with PBR, an organization that started with 21 entrepreneurial rodeo riders in 1995 and blossomed into a sport that’s given away $100 million in prizes in 18 years, while becoming a standard lynchpin on the Versus television network.

That type of growth is what IndyCar is looking for, Bernard said.

“I think when you look at our sport, the 15 to 20 million fans we lost in the mid-‘90s, we know they didn’t die,” Bernard said. “We know they’re out there. We need to reignite them, reengage them to the sport.”

The lost fan base was a result of disagreements that led to a split of open-wheel racing into two series beginning in 1996.

Since then, NASCAR has vaulted to the top of the American racing landscape in terms of fans and television exposure.

The key to regaining those fans, Bernard said, is creating entertainment value with the on-track competition.

“It’s very important that they can afford it, and that they want to go see it,” he said.

He added that he wants to change IndyCar’s perception from “champagne crowd” to “beer-drinking crowd” with their future marketing strategies.

“I took this on as a great challenge, but more importantly because it has so much potential,” he said.

Bernard was in Milwaukee on Friday to announce IndyCar’s 2011 schedule and help drum up excitement for IndyCar’s return to the 107-year-old Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis.

The one-mile track was left off the schedule this season for the first time since World War II because of issues with track promoters.

Scott Dixon, a two-time IndyCar champion and the most recent winner at Milwaukee in 2009, said he was glad to be back in Milwaukee.

“The nice thing about this track is that its extremely demanding,” Dixon said. “When you finally get to win here, it’s very humbling.”

The new schedule offered some dramatic shifts. For the first time since before the open-wheel split, the series could race on more road and street courses than ovals.

Several tracks involved with the sport this season won’t be included next year, and the final event of the 17-race schedule is still to be announced.

That compounds with the other huge change of 2010. In July, Bernard presented a new chassis design of a race car that will be built in Speedway, Ind. and expects to be in competition by 2012.

The project, which features a Dallara chassis and multiple aerodynamic kit options, marks the first major change to the IndyCar chassis design since 2003.

“I haven’t done anything yet, in my opinion,” Bernard said. “The only thing I’ve done so far is listen. Yeah, we’ve made some changes, but we have to see those grow now.”