IndyCar on FOX 2025 Thread

I swear I had
something for this

posted

If I read things right, this is the last of the original driver's ads that were shot. If they do more in the season, I'd expect Power, Dixon, and Herta to get highlighted. We've got less than a month to go.

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

St. Petersburg is this weekend which also starts off a pretty good day on broadcast FOX with the IndyCar race at 11:00 Central and NASCAR running the short course at COTA at 3:00 PM Central.

FOX has also announced their pit crew lineup, and it's all winners. No complaints at all snapping up the best from NBC and adding Jack Harvey for a driver's view on pitlane. It sucks he can't get a ride, but this is still a damn good spot for him.

https://racer.com/2025/02/27/l...ar-pit-lane-for-fox/

quote:
Lee, Harvey, Henneberry covering IndyCar pit lane for FOX

Marshall Pruett. February 27, 2025 9:11 AM ET

IndyCar on FOX has completed its broadcast roster with veteran pit reporters Kevin Lee and Georgia Henneberry alongside newcomer Jack Harvey complementing Will Buxton, James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell in the booth.

Lee’s long tenure in IndyCar radio and television with the series’ former partners at NBC brings yet another layer of familiarity to IndyCar’s existing fan base, and with the signing of Henneberry, who joined Lee on pit lane when he wasn’t leading the broadcasts in the booth, it’s another continuation of high-caliber talent transferring to FOX.

In Harvey, FOX Sports gets an active IndyCar driver who expressed his desire to add IndyCar commentary to his range of services, and while he’s signed to compete for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Briton is expected to be available at the other 16 events. FOX Sports racing veteran Jamie Little is also set to be involved this weekend at St. Petersburg.

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

Turn 3 giving everyone fits right now.

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

220-9er

Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should

posted

Still haven't found a way to watch with the services I have and reasonable costs.
I have very good internet but no dish/cable for TV. No Youtube, Fubu or Fox Sports due to the excessive costs from my perspective. I'm not paying $50 a month to watch one show each month. I have zero interest in their other programing that I can't get elsewhere.
For example I get F1TV that has no commercials and excellent coverage including the support series races if I wish, for $85 a year.
Last year I had Peacock for the season at around the same cost as F1TV.
halfway through today's race I found that I could watch the full coverage on Fox for an hour, so I did that.
Anything out there I'm missing? I'm stubborn but not paying $600-$1,200 for the year for just Indycars.

___________________________
Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible.

Posts: 10184 | Location: NE GA | Registered: August 22, 2002

Ignored post by 220-9er posted

.38supersig

My other Sig
is a Steyr.
Picture of .38supersig

posted

quote:
Originally posted by Ripley:
Nice and portends an excellent effort by Fox to promote IndyCar. Sclerotic NASCAR, be afraid.

Yeah, NASCAR is racing at (most of) COTA today. Kinda like having an olympic swim meet in the kiddie pool or arguing on who has the fastest turtle.

The racing at St. Petersburg was good today.

Posts: 9717 | Location: Somewhere looking for ammo that nobody has at a place I haven't been to for a pistol I couldn't live without... | Registered: December 02, 2014

Ignored post by .38supersig posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

quote:
Originally posted by 220-9er:
Still haven't found a way to watch with the services I have and reasonable costs.
I have very good internet but no dish/cable for TV. No Youtube, Fubu or Fox Sports due to the excessive costs from my perspective. I'm not paying $50 a month to watch one show each month. I have zero interest in their other programing that I can't get elsewhere.
For example I get F1TV that has no commercials and excellent coverage including the support series races if I wish, for $85 a year.
Last year I had Peacock for the season at around the same cost as F1TV.
halfway through today's race I found that I could watch the full coverage on Fox for an hour, so I did that.
Anything out there I'm missing? I'm stubborn but not paying $600-$1,200 for the year for just Indycars.

You can get an antenna for $20, and there's the IndyCar Live app that I think can be watched live. I know Fox is working on a sports app from the people that were working on the Venu team before that agreement broke up. I also know that NASCAR usually posts their full races on YouTube later in the week, and IndyCar might be able to do that, but it's TBA.

The highlights are up, and Will Power shows off why he's only a 2-Time Champ instead of a 6-Time Champ like Scott Dixon. The mid part of the race was pretty dull, but the end was an exciting chase.

As far as FOX goes, I love Will, Townsend, and James in the booth, however either the FOX end of the telemetry or the IndyCar side was messed up as the scoring pylon malfunctioned during quali and with some parts of the race. Something that didn't happen was getting overloaded with commercials as all of them had full side-by-side and also showed the entire leaderboard. If they can get the gremlins worked out, it's going to be great. Ssdly, they have quite a bit of time to do that as the next race is Thermal Club on 3/22...

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

220-9er

Just because you can,
doesn't mean you should

posted

I looked at Fox site about half way through and they allow an hour as a teaser, so I saw that part.
They still have some work to do sorting out the technical part, surprising for a major broadcaster. Not having an app or other options prepared also seems pretty amateur, as even NBC had things pretty well worked out during their time.
There just seem to be so many people in the world that have switched off the major networks and now access their news and watch using different sources than even a year or two ago.
The NBC/Peacock thing was sort of like subscribing to a podcast and $10 a month or less to watch just one thing is reasonable.
I suspect that their numbers will suffer enough that sponsors and other corporate interests will light a fire under them. Indycar's been struggling for viewers since the split and just recently seemed to be making progress.
Roger won't like what he's seen so far and he's not a guy to sit around if somethings bothering him.

___________________________
Avoid buying ChiCom/CCP products whenever possible.

Posts: 10184 | Location: NE GA | Registered: August 22, 2002

Ignored post by 220-9er posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

Something not mentioned that was found by accident is the IndyCar on FOX Youtube channel had a live stream that was the first 10 laps and the remainder from Pato O'Ward's in car.

The biggest hit was the Venue Sports teamup between Fox, ESPN, and someone else getting torpedoed by regulators as being too close to a Monopoly. It still wasn't going to be as cheap as The Cock, but it would have been 1 app with practically every sport in the US.

Fox is keeping the Venue Sports group around and making their own app, but nothing's expected until later in the year.

quote:
Originally posted by .38supersig:
Yeah, NASCAR is racing at (most of) COTA today. Kinda like having an olympic swim meet in the kiddie pool or arguing on who has the fastest turtle.

Honestly, with as slow as NASCAR is and how they'll throw a yellow for any reason real or made up, running the short versions of COTA and Watkins Glen actually works out. The XFinity race was pretty fun despite Connor Zilitch blitzing the entire field twice. I also remember several NASCAR races ruined at Road America because of their Green/White/Checker bullshit and refusal to have a local yellow system on a road course 4 miles long. That was excruciating.

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

Georgeair

thin skin can't win
Picture of Georgeair

posted

Watching this on replay and only 29 laps in.
So far, Buxton in pre race preview has described the Dallara chassis as having an 18.5 L tank, and just now described the management challenges of that 28.5 gallon fuel tank.

He must be overexcited…….

To his credit he is the least “shouty” announcer from UK in a while.

_{You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02}

Posts: 12966 | Location: Madison, MS | Registered: December 10, 2007

Ignored post by Georgeair posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

I don't remember seeing it, but this made it on to Youtube...

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

P250UA5

Member

posted

quote:
Originally posted by .38supersig:
quote:
Originally posted by Ripley:
Nice and portends an excellent effort by Fox to promote IndyCar. Sclerotic NASCAR, be afraid.

Yeah, NASCAR is racing at (most of) COTA today. Kinda like having an olympic swim meet in the kiddie pool or arguing on who has the fastest turtle.

The racing at St. Petersburg was good today.

I watched nascar at COTA when Button & Raikkonen ran it. I'm not big on ovals, but found nascar at COTA to be hilarious. Very mild track limits enforcement [esses only, IIRC].
Get to turn 1 & turn left in Bastrop

The Enemy's gate is down.

Posts: 16680 | Location: Spring, TX | Registered: July 11, 2011

Ignored post by P250UA5 posted

Georgeair

thin skin can't win
Picture of Georgeair

posted

quote:
I don't remember seeing it, but this made it on to Youtube...

Dingdong is basically unrestrained in the back with the belt under his arm sitting in the middle. For a photo opp, being driven around by an actual racer. Hell no.

Maybe having actual drivers on the call is what made this race broadcast more pleasant. They just didn't get all worked out and screaming like has become de rigueur.

_{You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02}

Posts: 12966 | Location: Madison, MS | Registered: December 10, 2007

Ignored post by Georgeair posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

quote:
Originally posted by Georgeair:
quote:
I don't remember seeing it, but this made it on to Youtube...

Dingdong is basically unrestrained in the back with the belt under his arm. For a photo opp, being driven around by an actual racer. Hell no.

He's got the left and right seatbelts secured around him.

As for watching the races, it appears IndyCar will be putting them on YouTube the day after around 3:00 PM Eastern.

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

Ripley

Member

posted

^^^^
What a great idea!

Otherwise, they all need to chill a bit. The production was kinda forced and overwrought. The pieces are all there, chill dudes.

Set the controls for the heart of the Sun.

Posts: 8730 | Location: Flown-over country | Registered: December 25, 2008

Ignored post by Ripley posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

https://x.com/FOXSportsPR/status/1896942006364213689

Can't get Twit Bedder to work properly, but here the jist of it:

https://racer.com/2025/03/04/f...ncrease-for-st-pete/

quote:
First FOX broadcast delivers ratings increase for St. Pete

Marshall Pruett March 4, 2025 10:28 AM ET

The numbers are in for FOX’s first IndyCar Series broadcast and the audience who watched Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden battle for victory was measured at 1.4 million viewers, a steep increase from last year’s race.

Using the previous St. Petersburg race as a guide, the live 2024 broadcast on NBC generated an audience of 974,700 combined viewers using the TAD (Total Audience Delivery) metric that includes live streaming. FOX does not use TAD.

In the move to FOX, IndyCar received an audience increase of 425,300 viewers, and according to the broadcaster, ranks as the most-watched IndyCar race on network television (outside the Indy 500) in 14 years.

Minus streaming info, FOX Sports also reported Friday’s airing of opening practice on its FOX Sports 1 cable channel had 95,000 viewers.

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted

urbanwarrior238

Save an Elephant
Kill a Poacher
Picture of urbanwarrior238

posted

I definitely liked the new FOX programming. The on dash/TV screen monitoring had more data to look at. I wish they would add gas gauge but that might be a secret to keep from other teams..but would be interesting to see who's on fumes. Seemed there was a little less side by side in the commercials.

I am glad we are with one channel for the season. No more bouncing around trying to find what channel race is on.

'I am the danger'...Hiesenberg
NRA Certified Pistol Instructor
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
NRA Life Member

Posts: 1505 | Location: Escaped from Kalifornia to Arizona February 2022! | Registered: March 02, 2006

Ignored post by urbanwarrior238 posted

I swear I had
something for this

posted

Thermal Club was this weekend and far, far better than the joke of the race last year. McLaren almost had a 1-2 to go along with their race in China. I'll post the full race tomorrow, but there was a 10 min gap where Fox had a power outage, and they had to cut into NASCAR at Homestead. It's making me wonder if these technical problems are more IndyCar than Fox.

I also found this on Racer.com

https://racer.com/2025/03/23/i...ace-for-2026-return/

quote:
IndyCar, Thermal weighing options post-race for 2026 return

Senior executives from Penske Entertainment and The Thermal Club met on Saturday to determine how they’ll approach the possibility of having IndyCar return in 2026, and both parties agreed the best path forward was to reconvene after Sunday’s 65-lap The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix.

“Getting through the first race is what we decided to do,” Penske Corporation president Bud Denker told RACER. “But talks have been very good with everyone here.”

Thermal GM Nicholas Rhoades agreed, and said that if an extension comes to pass, the next IndyCar race at the private road course will likely have a different look.

“Waiting to get a direction on the future is what makes the most sense; we want to be able to look back at the entire event and how everything worked, and then start talking about what’s next, which could have a change,” Rhoades said.

Using the current 3.067-mile, 17-turn layout, Thermal had limited options for where to place grandstands to accommodate the 5000 spectators who turned up for the track’s first professional motor race.

To welcome more fans, and treat them—along with the drivers—to a more dynamic event, Rhoades wants to delete some of the less compelling sections on the first half of the lap and make use of a different configuration that would introduce faster turns which would push the track out to 4.2 miles.

“There’s a whole extra part of the track we don’t use for the IndyCar layout that we would want to go to because there’s a lot more room to put grandstands, and there’s a lot of new houses being built out in that section,” he said.

“And the speeds would increase; they could see 180mph if we brought in some of the other configurations that are possible. I think people would love it.”

Posts: 4768 | Location: Kansas City, MO | Registered: May 28, 2004

Ignored post by DanH posted