IndyCar and FOX reach a ratings milestone ahead of Iowa

An important milestone was achieved after Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio for the IndyCar Series, its teams and its broadcast partner FOX. The event delivered an average audience of 775,000 viewers on FOX, which pushed the aggregate across 10 of 17 races held so far – combining the average audience figure supplied by Nielsen from all 10 races – to 15.01 million for the season.

Across the full slate of 18 combined broadcasts in 2024, including the non-championship Thermal event, on a rotating menu of NBC, USA, CNBC, and Peacock, the aggregate was 14.85 million.

FOX’s ability to slightly exceed the yearlong output from IndyCar’s former partner by early July – with eight fewer races contributing to the total – has been made possible by placing every race on its main network. Some races like Mid-Ohio have produced average audience sizes that were below what NBC achieved last year, while others, including the Indianapolis 500, have delivered significant gains. But as a whole, the consistent presentation on FOX’s largest television outlet has been the key to reaching a wider average viewership base with eight fewer broadcasts.

Once the last seven races are added to the tally, the final figure should reach beyond 20 million.

“The FOX and IndyCar partnership has already delivered incredibly strong results and it’s just getting started,” Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told RACER. “Viewership is significantly on the rise and defying industry trends while promotion continues to be impressively strong. The impact of this relationship in terms of growing our fan base and generating new opportunities for teams is immense.”

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The strong numbers are helping IndyCar teams like Ed Carpenter Racing, ones with traditional sponsors who are seeking major network exposure, to deliver on expectations while courting new sponsors to join ECR’s two-car program in the future.

“This is a really good perspective to have because I think too often, we compare each individual event from a year before, and maybe it feels like the number could have been higher, but the sum is way better than what it was in the past,” Carpenter said.

“From our perspective, the partnership has been fantastic. FOX are doing a good job, and seemingly have more and bigger plans as we as we head forward. And being on network all the time and not having to think about it or chase different stations is something that's big. I know for us, we're celebrating and selling those increased numbers year over year, as much as we can.

“Whether it's to our current, internal partners, or prospective partners for the future, we're trying to tell that same story as much as possible. As far as our new brands, with Java House and Splenda, especially on the Java House side, they've been very happy with the numbers that they're seeing.”

IndyCar also tells RACER the Nielsen-supplied metrics for viewers in the prized 18-34 age range has doubled on FOX.

“Without a doubt, there's also an impact of just the bigger audience and consistency of where that's coming from,” Carpenter said. “So it’s all really good things. Like all of us, I'm sure IndyCar being on FOX is going to give them a lot to learn a lot in this first year. That is going to equip them to have new and different ideas as the relationship moves forward. It's definitely a huge step in the right direction relative to the past, and that's not knocking NBC. They did a great job in some ways, but this is just a better deal for IndyCar consistently.”

Amplified by the accelerated network audience reach, Carpenter says there’s been an increasing confidence within ECR sponsor Java House, which is part of the food conglomerate owned by new team investor and chairman Ted Gelov, to step up and sign on as the main event sponsor for the July 25-27 event at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the Java House Monterey Grand Prix, which is the first series-level marketing endeavor by the company.

“It's exciting to have your partner be involved as the entitlement sponsor of an event,” he said. “It does show the belief in the direction of the sport and the opportunities that that lie within that strategically, whether it's us as a team or Java House as a brand. We're all definitely being aggressive, trying to capitalize on the moment in our sport and to continue pushing the growth for the future off track and on track.”