Rollie Miller embraces General Manager position at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park By Mary Lendzion

Miller is consistently clearheaded, and quickly taking the correct course of action appears to come naturally to him. All of that contributed to his success in previous positions with the NHRA Safety Safari, ProMedia and FM3 Performance Marketing, and will now serve him well as the new general manager at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indiana. He was warmly welcomed to his new role at the end of 2025.

Miller, who was born and raised in Katy, Texas, was in the process of moving from Wimberley, Texas, to Indianapolis for his new role when Drag

IllustrateD caught up with him for this interview.

You have an impressive work background. Will you share a bit about it? I was a warehouse operations manager for a Walmart Distribution Center for a while, and I worked for the NHRA Safety Safari from the early 1990s through 2013, before accepting a position in 2013 with ProMedia, where I ran the NMRA and NMCA series for 11 years. In 2024, I moved over to FM3 Performance Marketing as a senior event manager.

Your position as general manager for Pro- Media really showed the wide range of your abilities. When I went to work as the general manager for ProMedia in 2013, that included the NMCA, NMRA, and NMCA West, and my position was all-encompassing. I ran the drag racing series, and we had Race Pages magazine, before we stopped publishing that magazine and focused on Fastest Street Car magazine. When I was in the office during the week, I was managing all aspects of event planning as well as series contracts, staffing for events, leading tech and competition committees, and more. Some years, there were more than 40 classes with different rules, especially for the heads-up classes, and that required a lot of attention and maintenance. We met each week for that. I worked with ProMedia through 2024, when the company ceased operations, and I continue to have a lot of respect for the company owner, Steve Wolcott. He earned a lot of loyalty over the years.

Did you then expand on those abilities during your time with FM3 Performance Marketing? I did, because I was the senior event manager in charge of the drag racing portion of the company’ s events, including the Holley Ford Festival, Roadkill Nights, HOT ROD Power Tour and others. My responsibilities were to design and create the schedule and the classes, and to put together the production teams. I brought over most of my team from NMCA and NMRA for positions in staging, track prep, fire safety, and others, and welcomed some new team members as well.

All of your previous positions were in fastpaced environments. Is that where you are most inspired? Yes, I thrive when working among all of the moving parts, and when putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together with my team. When it comes to helping to run a business, my biggest passion is putting together a team and working with that team to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished. That is how we all grow together. That is why it is so important to inspire your team to have the same goals. It is about meaningful work and making things happen.

What will your new position as general manager at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park entail? My job is to run the entire facility and work with the team within the entire facility. My focus is on everything having to do with the facility, including budgets, improvement projects, staffing, equipment, concessions, and filling our schedule for both the oval track and dragstrip. With the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U. S. Nationals, NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series, USAC Sprint Car events, Cleetus and Cars, and other events at our premier facility, we will be focused on producing and presenting big events almost every week. I am looking forward to seeing where the role takes me Mondays

through Fridays in the office, and wherever I am needed on the weekends. I am just excited to get started on building a relationship with our team, so that we can produce the best events together at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

The Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U. S. Nationals is a storied event, and your position is integral to its success. What does that personally mean to you? The fact that I am running the facility for that event is really special to me. I still get goosebumps when I pull into Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park each morning. It’ s Indy.

What are your plans for sportsman racing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park? We have the Brown’ s Oil Service ET Bracket Series, and I want to work on building that up even more. We will also have the Mini Million, which will welcome a lot of bracket racers, among other programs. Those markets are big for us in Indy.

You were born and raised in Katy, Texas, and living in Wimberley, Texas, when you accepted your new position in Indianapolis, Indiana. What are your thoughts on moving to an area with a much colder winter climate? I consider myself a south Texas boy, so moving to Indianapolis is a change. I think the high temperature one day my first week here was 4 degrees, so it is a big change for sure, but it is very exciting to be back with NHRA at the start of its 75th anniversary.

As a longtime and loyal fan of the Texas Longhorns, do you see yourself rooting for the Indiana Hoosiers? I do not want to upset any Indiana Hoosiers fans, but I have to stick by my Texas Longhorns. I will root for the Hoosiers in the playoffs this month since Texas has already played our Bowl game, but will always be a Longhorn. Hook‘ em. DI

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