Celebrating the teams bringing sustainable materials to the Indianapolis 500
One of the biggest stages in US motorsports is creating new ways to enjoy the thrill of the last lap by innovating – from fuel to tires – to help make the sport of racing more sustainable.
Celebrating the teams bringing sustainable materials to the Indianapolis 500
Read the transcript
Read the transcript
Title: Everybody Forward - Tires - Picture Lock
Duration: 3:10 minutes
Description:
In this video, we hear how Shell partnered to develop the Firestone Firehawk race tires used at the Indy 500.
Everybody Forward - Tires - Picture Lock Transcript
[Background music plays]
A dramatic orchestral adaptation of The Sound of Shell.
[Video footage]
We open on a video montage of action shots as follows: an IndyCar Firestone tire in close-up; a pit crew lines up in a garage area, and we hear the various tools they are holding at the ready beginning to power up; seen from behind, the right side of an IndyCar open-wheel car; a Firestone tire being dragged along the floor; aerial footage of the cars on the track, racing past the crowds in the grandstands and approaching the shot.
Interview with Cara Krstolic
[Title]
Chief Engineer, Bridgestone
[Text displays]
Cara Krstolic
Chief Engineer, Bridgestone
Cara Krstolic
The Indianapolis 500 is the biggest stage in motorsports. It’s the largest single-day sporting event in the world.
[Video footage]
Close up of Cara speaking into the camera, with a text box displaying her name and title at lower frame left. Various footage of the pit crew in the garage area, where we see the car in the background. Miscellaneous footage of the cars racing around the oval Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Interview with Chad Gordon
[Title]
Chief Mechanic, Team Penske
[Text displays]
Chad Gordon
Chief Mechanic, Team Penske
Chad Gordon
Cornering speeds up to 230 miles an hour.
[Video footage]
Close-up of Chad speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility, with a text box displaying his name and title at lower frame left. We see crew waiting in the pit box, with cars racing past in the background as the car pulls into the pit box. We cut to the pit crew in the garage, practicing a tire change.
Interview with Caitlyn Brown
[Title]
Mechanic, Team Penske
Caitlyn Brown
Everybody wants to win the Indy 500.
[Video footage]
A series of footage shows the actual tire change in the pit box, then the car racing off to rejoin the race.
Announcer
Team Penske at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Josef Newgarden finally wins the Indianapolis 500.
[Video footage]
Aerial footage shows Team Penske’s car on the track and crossing the finish line in first place. A wider view shows the checkered flag being waved from the flag stand above the finish line. Closer views show the car and the driver, Josef Newgarden, raising his fist in victory. We see his wife in the pit, elbows resting on her knees as she covers her face with her hands. We see Josef climbing the catch fence to celebrate with the crowd.
Interview with Mustafa Malik
[Title]
Performance Engineer, Team Penske
[Text displays]
Mustafa Malik
Performance Engineer, Team Penske
Mustafa Malik
That alone was an emotional moment.
[Video footage]
Close-up of Mustafa speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility, with a text box displaying his name and title at lower frame left.
Interview with Chad Gordon continued
Chad Gordon
You don’t really know what to do with yourself.
[Video footage]
We see more footage of Josef celebrating his win with Team Penske.
Interview with Mustafa Malik continued
Mustafa Malik
We were just high fiving each other, jumping up and down. I think I was yelling at some point.
[Video footage]
Close-up of Mustafa speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility, with a brief cutaway to aerial footage of the team in the pit lane after Josef’s win, jumping up and down and celebrating.
Interview with Caitlyn Brown continued
[Text displays]
Caitlyn Brown
Mechanic, Team Penske
Caitlyn Brown
I just remember screaming. Bawled my eyes out. I think we all did.
[Video footage]
Close-up of Caitlyn speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility, with a text box displaying her name and title at lower frame-left, then hugging Josef in the pit lane after his win. Then we see Josef wearing the Indy 500 wreath of orchids and pouring milk over his head.
[Text displays]
In its history, the 2023 Indianapolis 500 was the first time every car on the grid raced on tires made with sustainable materials.
This is the story of how that happened.
[Graphic]
Dark grey text transitions in to display against a white background. Fade to black.
[Background music plays]
An ambient keys adaptation of The Sound of Shell.
Interview with Tammy Little
[Title]
General Manager, Shell Energy and Chemicals Park, Norco
Tammy Little
Traditionally, everything would start with crude oil. Now, what we’re doing…
[Video footage]
Aerial footage of Shell’s Norco Manufacturing Complex. Drone footage of Tammy, seen from behind, wearing a red coverall and standing on a flat commercial roof, looking out over the plant, followed by a medium view of Tammy smiling into the camera. We see Tammy standing next to, and speaking to, a colleague seated at a long row of workstations facing banks of computer screens.
[Text displays]
Tammy Little
General Manager, Shell Energy and Chemicals Park, Norco
Tammy Little
Is we’re replacing some of that volume that used to come from crude oil.
[Video footage]
Close-up footage of Tammy speaking to the off-camera interviewer. She is dressed casually, holding a large mug and standing next to a wall decorated with photos of children and other personal décor. A text box displays her name and title at lower frame left.
[Text displays]
Shell’s Energy and Chemicals Park, Norco supplied the sustainable materials used in the tires for this race.
[Graphic]
Dark grey text transitions in to display against a white background. Fade to black.
Tammy Little
So out here are two pyrolysis oil tanks. Pyrolysis oil is plastic trash that was headed to your local landfill. And they basically melt it and turn it back into an oil.
[Video footage]
Aerial footage of the Norco Energy and Chemicals Park. We see interior footage of Tammy speaking to the off-camera interviewer as she is driven through the park. As she explains the process, a series of footage shows a Yancey Bros. loader shifting a load of recycled plastic in a warehouse. We see piles of recycled plastic in a warehouse, then snow-like particles of plastic floating down onto a pile of particles. Then, a beaker of yellow liquid is seen on a counter in a laboratory.
Tammy Little
And we’re able to turn that pyrolysis oil into butadiene. And butadiene goes into the tires that goes into the Indy 500s.
[Animated sequence and Video footage]
A brief animated sequence shows bubbles travelling through a gold liquid, after which a large golden bubble is seen forming in a dark liquid. We see exterior footage of Tammy at the plant, speaking to the off-camera interviewer. Next, we see piled of brand-new tires, and working with them is a man wearing a Firestone-branded shirt. We see one of the tires being spun on a machine as it’s tested. We cut to a close-up of the Firestone branding on a tire.
[Background music plays]
A dramatic orchestral adaptation of The Sound of Shell.
[Text displays]
Every car on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES grid runs on Firestone Firehawk race tires.
[Graphic]
Dark grey text transitions in to display against a white background. Fade to black.
Interview with Cara Krstolic continued
Cara Krstolic
We have some really ambitious sustainability targets. We looked at what kind of materials that we could put in the race tire that would either be IO or circular or recycled. Even I had to be convinced that we could use recycled plastic bags as a substitution of our normal butadiene. They were able to prove me wrong.
[Video footage]
We see interior footage of Cara and Bridgestone colleagues meeting together, then close-up footage of Cara speaking into the camera. We return to footage of the meeting, then see Cara walking purposely through a facility. We return to close-up footage of Cara speaking into the camera, with brief cutaways to a mass of recycled plastic and a man leaning over to grab handfuls of recycled plastic.
Cara Krstolic
We decided that this was going to be the perfect place to use a sustainable material.
[Video footage]
We see the Firestone-branded tires on a car covered with black cloth in a garage. Close-up footage shows ‘NTT IndyCar Series’ signage. More close-up footage shows the Shell branding on the rear wing of Team Penske’s Indy 500 car. We see high-angle footage of the car on the track.
[Text displays]
Firestone’s engineers added Shell’s sustainable butadiene into the tires for the 2023 INDY 500.
But what would the teams make of the change?
[Graphic]
Dark grey text transitions in to display against a white background. Fade to black.
Interview with Caitlyn Brown continued
Caitlyn Brown
When we find out about new tires, it’s always exciting, because it’s a new challenge for us.
[Video footage]
We see Team Penske in the garage, and Caitlyn kneeling beside the car’s rear wheel, holding a new tire at her side. Close-up footage of Caitlyn speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility.
Interview with Chad Gordon continued
Chad Gordon
Some of the conditions these tires have to withstand are straight-line speeds of about 240 miles an hour, temperatures of over 150 degrees.
[Video footage]
Close-up of Chad speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility, with a cutaway to aerial footage of a snaking line of cars rounding a corner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to come down the straight, approaching the shot.
Interview with Mustafa Malik continued
Mustafa Malik
And the fact that they can do that now with new sustainable solutions is even more impressive.
[Video footage]
Close-up of Mustafa speaking into the camera at the Penske Racing Facility, with a cutaway to Team Penske’s vehicle moving along the track.
Interview with Cara Krstolic continued
Cara Krstolic
Once Josef Newgarden took the checkered flag and the race was done, it was just a really great sigh of relief, just showing that we could have sustainability and not have any sacrifice to performance.
[Video footage]
Aerial footage shows Josef Newgarden bringing his car to a stop after his win and removing the steering wheel in preparation for exiting the vehicle. Close up of Cara speaking into the camera, with a cutaway to footage of Josef standing in front of the catch fence, raising his arm in victory, with the crowds and the Pagoda in the background. Close-up profile-view footage of Josef facing the photographers and the crowds in the grandstands after his win, his hand raised in victory.
[Video footage and animated sequence]
We end on a yellow background sequence where we see various people, including the featured Team Penske technicians, successively posing against the yellow background and smiling into the camera. An animated Pecten shape displays at frame-centre over the flashing images, neon light appearing to move around the outline in a chasing effect.
[Audio]
Shell brand mnemonic played on keys.
[Text displays]
#PoweringProgress
© Shell International Limited 2023
[Animated sequence]
Successively larger Pecten shapes briefly pulsate out from the original shape, which ultimately expands to fill the frame, dissolving out. The small classic red and yellow Pecten transitions in to display at frame-centre against a white background. Text is displayed below this.
[Text displays]
Tires incorporated ISCC Plus certified recycled butadiene, a monomer produced from hard-to-recycle plastics.
The recycled material is allocated using the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) mass balance approach.
The new monomer produced from hard-to-recycle plastics replaced a percentage of the petroleum-based monomer historically used in the tires. Shell has processed limited quantities of hard-to-recycle plastics for the purpose of assessing viability.
[Graphic]
Centre-aligned text displays against a white background. Fade to black.
The nail-biting finish at the 2023 Indianapolis 500 came down to a one-lap showdown after the third red flag. The crowd of more than 300,000 were on their feet as the race cars edged each other in the final lap.
All eyes focused on the spinning tires, few knowing those tires were making a debut of their own. This would be the first Indy 500 raced on tires containing sustainable materials*.
A surround sound win
Just before Josef Newgarden entered Turn 3, he powered past his closest opponent, and used a snaking driving maneuver to hold on to his win – making this only the third time in Indy 500 history a driver has used a last-lap pass to win.
This was a monumental win on several fronts. For Newgarden, this was his first Indy 500 win, and for the teams behind the win, it brought many to tears of joy.
This win was also an opportunity for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES to showcase its decarbonization journey and how it’s finding ways to innovate, together.
Cara Krstolic, Chief Engineer, Bridgestone TiresWe all love racing, and we want the sport to be enjoyable for those people that come after us – we want our kids to enjoy racing. We want to make sure we’re doing the right thing.
The anatomy of a race tire
Tires in this series withstand straight line speeds up to 240 miles per hour, with temperatures over 150 degrees Fahrenheit. While Firestone Firehawk race tires maintained the construction and compound design used in last year’s Indy 500, one component made an impact toward increased sustainability efforts this year.
Firestone used a synthetic rubber with ISCC+ certified circular butadiene in this year's Indy 500-specific race tire*. Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Norco** produced the butadiene with hard-to-recycle plastic waste, such as used plastic shopping bags, film, stretch wrap and other flexible plastic packaging.
Every car on the grid was also powered by Shell Renewable Race Fuel***, the first US- based motorsport series to do so, helping demonstrate that reliability, drivability, and performance remain paramount on this journey to decarbonization of the sport.
A lower carbon future at a century old plant
Located outside of New Orleans in Norco, Louisiana, near the Mississippi River, sits Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Norco - a 100-year-old facility with unique capabilities to make traditional products alongside renewable fuels, lower carbon ethylene, and circular chemicals derived from recycled plastic waste**.
*Tires incorporated ISCC Plus certified circular butadiene, a monomer derived from hard-to-recycle plastics, allocated using the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) mass balance approach. The circular monomer derived from hard-to-recycle plastics replaced a percentage of the petroleum-based monomer historically used in the tires.
**Shell in the US has processed limited quantities of feedstock derived from recycled plastics waste for the purpose of assessing viability.
***The Renewable Race Fuel is blended from components derived from bio-waste that meet the renewable fuel definition in the Renewable Fuel Standard. The definition for renewable fuel can be found here: eCFR :: 40 CFR Part 80 Subpart M -- Renewable Fuel Standard. The Renewable Race Fuel is not available at Shell retail stations.
