For many years, the US viewership landscape has been a battleground. NASCAR, Formula One, and IndyCar are the three main racing organizations that compete in this arena in motorsports. Despite the fact that its ratings in the US have risen by 106% during 2018, Formula One is primarily based elsewhere. Most likely because of Netflix’s Drive to Survive. In the meanwhile, IndyCar and NASCAR are the primary rivals. Roger Penske, though, is determined to give one side the advantage. The owner of Team Penske has already made a name for himself. Despite overwhelming odds against him, Penske won the Cup Series for the third time in a row in 2024 thanks to Joey Logano. According to a recent revelation by a new F1 recruit, Penske also owns IndyCar, and his dominance will not end.
Roger Penske is determined to win. It seems that there are others that want to end NASCAR’s monopoly, besides Michael Jordan and company. Roger Penske, who pioneered multiple milestones, acquired the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series from Hulman and Co. in 2019. A 2022 report claims that Penske upgraded the “World’s Greatest Race Course” for more than $30 million. In order to prevent the car sector from regressing, he also thought that IndyCar should stay up to date with the most recent hybrid technology. William Buxton, a veteran Formula 1 broadcaster and the voice of “Drive to Survive,” has now joined IndyCar. Having followed Formula One all across the world for 20 years, Buxton started a new chapter for the 2025 season.
He will now begin his new position covering IndyCar for Fox. Additionally, he is giving tantalizing clues about Roger Penske’s series, which aims to unseat NASCAR. Fox is taking action to change the fact that IndyCar has always been inferior to its stock car racing neighbor. Buxton stated that there is no reason why IndyCar shouldn’t surpass NASCAR as the most popular motorsport in this area. Will it require some time? Of course. However, that is the reason they have put together the group they do. This positive trend for IndyCar is also supported by the evidence. Fox has promoted Roger Penske’s series throughout the off-season by using NFL games or college football programming. A commercial with NFL superstars Tom brady Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden was a spicy novelty.
Many drivers, like Mexican speedster Pato O’Ward, expressed their appreciation for Fox’s work for IndyCar as a result. “What Fox and IndyCar are doing is really amazing, in my opinion. I think the Josef commercial that was just released was really good. It’s enjoyable. It’s edgy. The line where people actually get engaged and you think, “Hey, this is different,” is being flirted with. It’s ironic that William Buxton was greatly inspired by someone who was active in both NASCAR and IndyCar. Pushing for the dismantling of boundaries Leigh Diffey has, in fact, experimented with a number of different approaches. He started providing play-by-play commentary for almost all of the major motorsport series, such as MotoGP, NASCAR, Formula One, IMSA, and Supercross. For over ten years, he served as the primary INDYCAR analyst for NBC Sports including all six of NBC Sports’ Indianapolis 500 broadcasts.
He made headlines for predicting Harrison Burton’s victory at the August 2024 NASCAR Cup Series race in Daytona. But his finger dropped on IndyCar when he counseled his F1 colleague William Buxton over his career decision. William Buxton acknowledged that Diffey was crucial in convincing him to work with Roger Penske. “Someone that I’ve worked with for many years through the NBC days,” he remarked of Diffey. We have an extremely close friendship. I simply asked him, “a) should I do it? And b) do you believe I can perform well? “Leigh was really upbeat and has always been a big supporter of mine,” he added. To me, he’s like a big brother, and he’s an amazing mentor and guide for me.
His faith that I could do it, and that he was also a happy for me to do it, was a huge factor in me accepting it.” Evidently, Roger Penske has set his sights on soaring goals for IndyCar. As we swing into the 2025 season, let us see how the open-wheel racing series kicks off.
