The Star of IndyCar Comms with Kiran Brar

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Getting her start in Motorsports

#1. What was the first moment that you can remember discovering motorsports?

The first memory I have of learning about motorsports actually wasn't until my senior year of undergrad, back in 2022. I was never introduced to motorsports before that point. I didn't grow up going to any races despite having lived 20 minutes from The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) for most of my life.

I just got introduced to it through an internship posting that I found my senior year, and that's just how I fell into it. It was a little happy accident.

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#2. When did you decide that this is where you wanted to build your career?

Throughout the internship is when I realized that I really enjoy being within the paddock, working alongside the IMS track, as well as the IndyCar series.

So that was just a little lightbulb moment for me throughout the entire internship.

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Kiran's Current Role

#3. What was your first role and the first step you took towards working on the IndyCar Comms Team?

Yeah. My first role was that internship with IMS as a comms intern, and I honestly just stuck around and moved into the series itself instead of the track! You meet the right people once you're in the space - especially working at IMS.

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#4. What does a standard day look like for you at work?

Standard day... I feel like so many people have said it before. So many people will continue to say it.

No day is ever the same.

For the most part off track, a lot of my daily responsibilities will be planning for media events or other promotional events - for a race weekend specifically and for some other promotional things that the IndyCar series is doing.

A lot of it is working with promoters! Working with the different venues we work with to race at. A lot of working alongside teams and drivers just to get driver confirmations or team confirmations for different promotional events. Along with that, there's also a decent amount of outreach that our team does - whether it's for content creators or podcast groups or even up to high level influencers and national media reach.

We do a little bit of everything. We communicate (hah, great pun here) with every single person involved.

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‍#5. What are the most rewarding and the most challenging parts of working in IndyCar with so many moving pieces?

Rewarding

Actually the the little mini checklists I have in my head. I feel like I'm a very organized person. I just I like having those like checklists.

Most rewarding.... I think the most rewarding part of being a part of the IndyCar Series is being able to like work on something from start to finish and also being able to do it with an entire team. Whether it's with other other departments within the series, or it's with different teams for whatever we're trying to promote or put out. Even content creators or what have you...

Being able to work on something from start to finish and see what the finished product actually looks like is just always rewarding to me.

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Difficult

Yes, challenges. There's definitely always challenges on the job. Nothing that irks me so much that I feel the need to speak about it. Yeah. Alright that would be the answer! Not much!

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#6. What are the top 3 qualities that have helped you succeed?

Organizational Skills

I think within Comms and PR, specifically, being organized and on top of whatever there is that needs to be done is a HUGE ONE. Whether it's small forms of communication or even press releases, and any events- organization is key.

Be comfortable yourself out there

For any professional, I would say, being able to just put yourself out there is very important.

Introduce yourself to whoever, whenever. I feel like that is always important. That's been the biggest thing for me.

Starting off as an intern and just introducing myself to everyone that I'm surrounding myself with or working with really helped me advance. That is always step one.

Be flexible and adaptable

I definitely think it's important to be flexible and adaptable. I think within sports in general, that's just always a good rule of thumb to have. if you're flexible and adaptable, you can basically overcome anything.

No thing and no project is ever going to go exactly the way that you've planned it.

So that's just a very important quality to have within motorsports or sports or really anything in general.

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Kiran's Advice

#7. If you could go back and change anything about your path to where you are today, what would that be?

I don't know that I would have changed anything within my career trajectory.

I think it would have been more helpful if I was a fan of motorsports prior to joining this industry, but I am thankfully within a team that is super accommodating to all of my questions. I feel like I've been able to learn so much in such a short amount of time. So I think that's maybe something I would maybe change just to have more of the history, within my knowledge.

That's always something that can be learned on the job as well!

Kiran Brar with IndyCar Team and David Malukas at the White House

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#8. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to follow in your footsteps what would that be?

One piece of advice that I would give is to not feel afraid or intimidated to reach out to anyone within whatever department that you're interested in, within motorsports, within IndyCar, within sports in general.

That's always going to be step one. You don't know unless you ask. Whether it's for some time to talk. Whether it's for any volunteer opportunities, internship opportunities, or just connecting in general in case something comes together down the road. Maybe a role that comes together down the line for you that could come about because you had one simple conversation.

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Kiran's Favorites

#9. What is your favorite race/ event/ moment that you’ve had in your career thus-far?

I'm definitely gonna have to go with my favorite moment being the Indy 500.

Whether it was my first year as an intern in 2022, or the last couple years being full-time with IndyCar, I feel like there is just no sight or feeling that has compared to being at the Indy 500 on race day. All the way from the start of like gates opening to the end of the day. It's a completely different energy than anything I've ever seen when it comes to any sort of sporting event.

This is especially true for last year, 2024, with there being the rain delays. I was so surprised, but also so excited to see that - despite there being rain delays, the stands still looked completely filled even though we weren't dropping the green flag.

That was super cool to see people stick it out because it was such a cool event. I feel like the Indy 500 can't beat it.

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#10. You are on a very heavily female team, which is very exciting and very rare in motorsports. How do you think that has enriched your experience working in motorsports straight out of college?

I have thought about that a lot, actually... being surrounded by a team that's dominated by women within PR and IndyCar. I feel like it makes me feel so much more comfortable to be able to speak about my ideas.

I'm not afraid to speak up in general. I don't know that it would be different if it wasn't a woman dominated team that I'm working on, but I can definitely feel myself feeling very comfortable within my team. Definitely empowered.

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