Will Buxton told The Race that’s what he hopes. However, expanding IndyCar is a difficult undertaking; if it hopes to surpass NASCAR, it will need to make significant progress in a number of areas. We’re examining today what IndyCar must do to compete with NASCAR, and perhaps surpass it.
Make the IndyCar broadcast better
Thankfully, this seems set to change.
FOX, which is renowned for pushing the boundaries of broadcasting, will replace NBC as IndyCar’s broadcast partner in 2025. The pre-game show, the big-production feel of games, a scorebox, amazing audio, and much more were all introduced by FOX over the nearly three decades that the NFL was covered by the network. These innovations revolutionized how every sport thought about its broadcasts. And FOX has already introduced a fun advertising campaign centering on highlighting the cool factor of IndyCar’s drivers — which is a great step in the right direction.
However, watching NBC during the last few years has been difficult. IndyCar appears to be an afterthought because of the graphics packages’ apparent lag behind other race series. The arrival of hybrid engines in the middle of 2024 only made matters worse; the broadcast appeared completely unprepared to describe how battery power may be deployed and utilized throughout an event. How could a new fan be expected to become involved if the lack of focus on broadcast quality turned off die-hard IndyCar fans? Though it may take some time for the advantages of the FOX shift to translate into higher viewing, it looks like a positive step.
Honor the Indianapolis 500 as well as the remainder of the championship. Unfortunately, the Indianapolis 500 is the only event on the IndyCar schedule that has cultural significance. Buxton is one of several individuals who have praised the caliber of IndyCar racing, which can be very thrilling because of the sport’s limited technological advancements. However, most people only see the 500, so they will never know that. The Indy 500, initially performed in 1911, has been the organizational concept around which various series have centered (to the extent that it was even introduced to the Formula 1 calendar between 1950 and 1960). There truly is no other race in the world with the layers of tradition and meaning provided by the 500 — but IndyCar does itself a disservice by only focusing on that single race.
Take IndyCar’s attempt to imitate Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive, for instance. 100 Days to Indy, which only focuses on the five races that precede the Indianapolis 500, was conceived by IndyCar and The CW as an alternative to a season-long program. That’s it. You could get away with not knowing that there are 11 races that count toward a championship after the 500 if you only watched 100 Days to Indianapolis. IndyCar must give the entire season top priority if it is to compete with a series like NASCAR in terms of popularity. It just cannot depend on one race to sustain its popularity throughout the season, even if it is one of the most renowned races in the world.
Examine the calendar carefully, then enlarge it. The guiding premise of IndyCar’s schedule is that it cannot compete with football. It would be absurd to dispute that, but it has also led to a very limited perception of what the Indianapolis Motor Club schedule would be and how it may start to compete with other sports for television time. Examine and contrast the 2024 and 2025 season calendars: Nothing has changed. Only a few things have changed in the last six years, such as the elimination of Texas Motor Speedway and Pocono, the resuscitation of tracks like Milwaukee and Nashville Superspeedway, the elimination of Circuit of the Americas, and the addition of an exhibition race at Thermal Club that has received a lot of negative feedback. Not one of these tracks break the mold. None are unexpected. As a result, none are exciting. IndyCar instead had decided to appeal to its own echo chamber of existing fans, which inherently limits the number of people it can appeal to.
Latin American fans, who are still mostly disregarded by IndyCar, have increased since the introduction of well-known drivers like Pato O’Ward. To leverage on the existing fan bases in nations like Mexico or Argentina and to entice new fans to watch the sport for the first time, the series might host one or two races there. Instead, IndyCar has often indicated that it would prefer adhere to its tried-and-true season schedule – one that hasn’t done anything to build the fanbase year after year. Contrast that with NASCAR, which has both gone back to historic racetracks and experimented with brand-new events, such as the Chicago Street Race, the series’ inaugural street race, and the relocation to Mexico (the first points-paying NASCAR race held outside of America in decades). NASCAR is attempting to engage both its new and its old audiences. IndyCar has stuck with the old.
Think about changing the management. It seemed like a huge move when Roger Penske bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar in 2020. It appeared to portend a better future for the sport and freed the series from the Hulman Family’s control. Unfortunately, that hasn’t exactly worked out. This attitude hasn’t permeated the entire series, even if IMS has seen some quite spectacular updates to bring the track up to date. A championship that seems like an afterthought to its own management is the end result. It’s time to look about changing the management in order to bring in a group of creative advisers and marketers that see that every facet of the sport need development and that every angle should be considered.
Instead of copying, innovate. Examine IndyCar’s expansion plan in the last several years. When it was evident that Netflix’s Drive to Survive had a significant impact on Formula 1 viewing, IndyCar set out to recreate that formula with its own docuseries on The CW – one that didn’t make the same splash as DTS. Or consider the sport’s efforts to expand its schedule. In a similar vein to the Cup Series, IndyCar planned a return to the Milwaukee Mile to revive nostalgia, much like NASCAR has done by bringing back tracks like North Wilkesboro and Bowman Gray. Additionally, before NASCAR declared its desire to race in Mexico City, IndyCar adamantly opposed the notion; as the stock car series received ample praise for its expansion, IndyCar had to walk back its previous statements about its Mexican driver being unable to secure an audience and begin trying to schedule a race itself.
And the new charters for IndyCar? The launch of a “$1 million” race? NASCAR is the original source of both ideas. IndyCar has been attempting to imitate popular moves from other series without comprehending why they worked or why it might not be feasible to translate such changes straight onto IndyCar, instead of embracing the elements that make the series special. The resulting sentiment is that IndyCar is on the back foot, reacting instead than just acting. It must demonstrate that it has original, creative ideas that aren’t taken directly from NASCAR’s playbook if it hopes to surpass the racing league. Recognize the animosity that still exists among IndyCar. American open-wheel racing’s past is filled with intrigue, internal strife, and a ton of of bad blood. Since the late 1970s, different championships have fractured off from that was once a unified front, and the only reason those rival factions joined back together in 2008 was to prevent bankruptcy on both sides.
This indicates that American open-wheel racing caused more harm than good for thirty years, and those tensions still exist now for many people. For instance, they became agitated in 2024 about a number of issues, including the adoption of a charter system, the switch to hybrid powertrains, the absence of foreign races, and much more. Even as the 2025 season draws near, the drivers, teams, management, and fans are all at odds. NASCAR has maintained a cohesive series that has continuously expanded over time, despite the current charter litigation demonstrating that things aren’t always better on the other side. Overall, there is faith in the stock car body’s capacity to continuously deliver a racing product that IndyCar has yet to offer.
