Indy second fiddle to NASCAR in terms of viewership in the United States for the most of the time. Now, with FOX Sports taking over the broadcasting rights from NBC, Will Buxton has been brought in to commentate on the series. Buxton wants the sport to surpass its competitors, particularly NASCAR in the United States. An average of 3.31 million people watched the race in COTA last year, according to NASCAR. On the other side, IndyCar endured a small fall in views from its 2023 incarnation and pulled in 816,000 spectators(according to Blackbook Motorsport). Though the flagship events of both series’ brought in over 5 million people, the open-wheel racing circuit suffered a decline in viewers during the typical race weekends. This was the largest in comparison to both NASCAR and F1.
However, Will Buxton was passed over for his F1 presenting position to join the American open-wheel racing series when FOX Sports took over the broadcasting role from NBC. He went on to say that NASCAR has no justification for having a larger audience than IndyCar. While declaring he wants the latter series to dethrone the stock-wheel racing championship from the top rank (via The Race): IndyCar should surpass NASCAR as the most popular motorsport in this area; there is no reason why it shouldn’t be. Will it require some time? Of course. However, that is the reason they have put together the gang that they have. With the inaugural race taking place in the streets of St. Petersburg, the 43-year-old will serve as the voice of the championship across the American continent on March 2.
How Will Buxton’s decision to jump to IndyCar was significantly influenced by Zak Brown Buxton had to seek advice from people in the paddock after years of presenting Formula One. One individual with direct experience working in the American racing industry was Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren Racing. The 53-year-old then advised him to make the move right away when he messaged him (via The Race): “I told Zak, ‘I think IndyCar has the potential to be amazing, but do you think there is room for growth? And are they as serious about it as they seem based on what you’ve heard from Fox? In response, Zak sent a three-word text message that simply read, “F**king do it!” That’s all I did.
The 2025 season will be full of new beginnings. Buxton would be commenting on the Indy 500, while watching the race for the first time in his life, making the experience a challenging and exciting one for the Englishman.
