AVONDALE, Arizona – In the comfortable new Curve Club suite at ISM Raceway, filled with important movers and shakers from the Verizon IndyCar Series and other prominent professional sports entities to businesses and corporate sponsorship, Zach Veach’s story of resilience resonated on all levels.

The 23-year-old Andretti Autosport driver, entering his first full season in the series, spoke at Friday’s “Sports Business Arizona: A Prix View of Things to Come” symposium about how he learned a long time ago that talent wouldn’t be enough to make it in racing. Like so many other promising young drivers, he needed a primary sponsor.

Enter Dan Towriss, CEO of Group One Thousand One, which sponsored the morning event focusing on the regional impact of sports. Veach had an AJ Foyt Racing ride lined up for last year’s Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil, but needed that big check to make it happen. Desperate after going through his contact list three times, Veach phoned his pastor for help.

Divine intervention came in the form of an email address the pastor gave Veach. It was for Towriss. Veach sent the email. They spoke the next day, a Friday. Towriss needed the weekend to decide.

“I waited all weekend, woke up at like 5:30 a.m. on Monday, went to a coffee shop and sat there for like six hours, just waiting, staring at my phone, willing it to light up,” Veach said, recalling his angst. “Five o’clock (p.m.) came around and I hadn’t heard anything yet. I was starting to get a little nervous.”

Finally, the phone rang when, of course, Veach was showering.

“I jump out of the shower, grab a towel, answer the phone and within the three-minute conversation, Dan said, ‘You’re making it to the big leagues. You’re getting to run the Indy 500,’” Veach said. “That single moment is what set all of this forward.”

Group One Thousand One manages financial services companies. It’s connected to Guggenheim Life and Annuity, which sponsors the annual Indy Women in Tech Championship LPGA golf tournament at Brickyard Crossing on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grounds. Veach’s Indy 500 car promoted 2017’s inaugural event, which this year will be Aug. 16-19.

Towriss and former Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, both of whom attended the symposium, were instrumental in landing the LPGA golf tournament for Indianapolis. Sponsoring one race led to something more as Towriss agreed to be a primary sponsor for Veach in the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series. Veach will drive the No. 26 Group One Thousand One Honda for Andretti Autosport all season, including at this weekend’s series open test at ISM Raceway.

“After having to sit on the sidelines for a couple of years, making the journey back to Indy Lights, it’s a weight off your shoulders but a whole new one added on,” Veach said. “Every day, it gets a little more real. You show up here (for three days of testing) with 23 other INDYCAR drivers, it’s starting to feel real now.”

Towriss was initially impressed not just by Veach’s racing resume, but how the young driver wanted to expand his reach to impact the community. Towriss has made that a priority with Group One Thousand One. After taking an inside look at racing, he was even more hooked.

“When you see the drivers and the teams and what they’re doing to shave tenths of seconds off (on track), I would like to bottle that up and bring that to business, right?” Towriss said. “If we had that level of diligence and focus on detail, where we knew where every tenth of a second was in our business, we would be better than where we are today.”

Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti, another symposium speaker, has backed a successful Veach at all levels of the Mazda Road to Indy development ladder. Andretti thanked Towriss for his involvement.

“It’s so cool to finally close the chapter with (Veach) making it here and thanks to you, Dan, for making it happen,” Andretti said. “You invested into a great kid who has a great future.”

ISM Raceway, formerly known as Phoenix Raceway, is undergoing an extensive $178 million renovation, which made for a fitting backdrop to a symposium that underscored the importance of investing in sports as a growth opportunity. Track president Bryan Sperber outlined some of the many improvements in the works, including making the facility completely wifi-enabled, grandstand and midway improvements, new entryways, more elevators and escalators, new seats, a new pedestrian tunnel and new infield garage area and fan experience.

Other symposium speakers included Arizona Coyotes CEO Steve Patterson, Fiesta Bowl chairman Steve Leach, nine-time Indy 500 qualifier Lyn St. James and Mark Miles, president and CEO of Human & Company, the parent company of INDYCAR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“Zach’s story about how he and Dan connected is just amazing,” said Miles, shown at right with Sperber. “It was meant to be. It was about their mutual respect, which is terrific.”

Miles reiterated what he’s been saying in recent months, that INDYCAR is in a “good place,” based on TV viewership and race attendance.

“All of our fan metrics have been up meaningfully, about a 40 percent increase in television audience, viewership and ratings over the last four years,” Miles said. “We feel pretty good about the trajectory. We still want to work from a bigger base, so that ongoing growth is important to us.”

Ballard, the 48th mayor of Indianapolis who served through 2015, was a strong advocate during his two terms of choosing sports as a strategy to move the city forward. He learned at an early age how one event can have such a profound impact on a city and region – the precise message of the symposium.

“We were lucky to have the Indianapolis 500 in our city for now well over 100 years,” Ballard said. “I was a Marine for 23 years. I watched the race (while stationed) in Panama, I watched the race in Germany, I’ve watched the race in Japan. When I was doing a trip to India one year, a gentleman came up to me and said, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘Indianapolis.’ The first thing he said was, ‘500.’

“People know the race and they know Indianapolis because of it. We’ve been able to build on that in the last 40 to 45 years. That’s where it’s let us propel the city to be so economically vital right now: a great place to live, very high quality of life, great arts and culture, great sports. The whole package is there now.”