A new 1.645-mile track was constructed in the shadow of the Renaissance Center, the global headquarters of General Motors, and used some stretches of the Formula 1 track, which was used from 1982 to 1988.
Penske Corporation’s president Bud Denker was the mastermind of the project, inspired by IndyCar’s successful event on the streets of Nashville. Penske moved the Detroit race weekend from Belle Isle, where the current incarnation of IndyCar had raced since 2007, back to the area where CART raced from 1989 to 1991.
