Phoenix delivers another ratings boost for IndyCar, FOX

FOX delivered another big audience for the IndyCar Series last weekend with an average of 1,247,000 viewers for Saturday’s Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway, won by Josef Newgarden.

The Phoenix audience follows the previous week’s 1,396,000 who tuned in for the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg won by Alex Palou, and with a third straight week of racing to follow this weekend with the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, the series has the potential to score three consecutive events with more than 1 million viewers.

Together with St. Petersburg, IndyCar is averaging 1,318,500 viewers for the first two races, a 24 percent improvement over the 1,060,500 average over the same two-race span last year.

The Saturday event at Phoenix Raceway had a peak of 1,468,000 watching from 5-5:14pm ET as Newgarden, Kyle Kirkwood and other stars battled for victory. Compared to the second race of 2025 at The Thermal Club, which suffered from an onsite power failure that interrupted the broadcast, Phoenix was up 95 percent over the 704,000 average.

Nielsen Media Research also reports that the Phoenix 2026 audience was up 391 percent from the 254,000 who watched IndyCar’s last race at the track in 2018 on the former NBCSN.