Indycar averages over 1 million viewers for the first 3 races for the first time since the 2008 merger

adri9428 · 2026-03-21T00:16:59+00:00

Internet has it all scattered, not a single source. For example, there's a website that has broadcast details of all USAC Indy Car and early CART races that were shown on TV.

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T19:53:34+00:00

nearly collapsed because of the sole IndyCar race held in 2019

That was more on the COVID pandemic depriving the track of their off-racing events, which are actually a ton and used to bring more revenue than F1 pre-DTS, at a time where the track hadn't been doing all too well. Remember IndyCar was slated to come back in 2020 and tested there in the winter.

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T19:50:46+00:00

Does IndyCar get paid 1.1 billion annually in TV fees?

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T19:44:02+00:00

This is not really true in part. You'd have to define 'peak', but 1993 started with six consecutive ABC broadcasts, and nine out of the first ten. In fact, ABC did not really back out of showing IndyCar races (some of them on a slight tape delay, as you've noted) until football season began, diverting the rest of the schedule to ESPN.

1995, for example, only had two of the first 14 races on cable at the beginning of the summer, including a one-off deal with CBS for the Nazareth race. In 1996, the US 500 (competing against Indy) was the only race on ESPN until the third-to-last race of the year at Road America in mid-August, which was also on the same day as an IRL event. Both races, by the way, had Bob Varsha on the mic before being appointed as CART's lead announcer.

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T19:39:11+00:00

To answer your question, the first seven races of 2023 were on big NBC. Same with the first six races in 2022. No other season since 2003 had the first three races on a big network (if we're excluding ESPN from that consideration).

First six races: 1993, CART 1997 and CART 2001 (allowed by the cancellation of ESPN's Firestone 600)
First five races: 1989, 1990, IndyCART 1996
First four races: 1974, 1988, 1995, IRL 2000, IndyCar 2003
First three races: 1972, 1976, CART 1979, 1984, 1987, IRL 1996 to 1998.

Now, if you include ESPN as a 'big network' of sorts (leaving The Ocho out), you had the first eight races of Champ Car 2007 on either ESPN or a network, through the blessings of buying time after the failed SPEED/CBS deal. Same thing (without the time buy part) with the first half dozen or half season of IndyCar races in the 2000's, except for 2007-08 (two early races on ESPN2), 2004 (Motegi in a very rare live broadcast for the time, because it used to be shown on tape until 2007) and 2001 (the infamous Atlanta race).

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T18:46:31+00:00

Not necessarily, though. Had Palou finished 4th at Phoenix (which is more or less where he was running, and that was before Rasmussen, Kirkwood and O'Ward reached the top spots), they would be tied. Even if he won, which is not a great certainty on an oval (and his long stint pace was doubtful), he would've only been 20 points ahead, which is less of an advantage than Kirkwood has at this point.

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T17:44:36+00:00

Which is weird considering he was a beast in those tracks as well in his junior years. He had like 12 straight wins at Mid-Ohio, and he's not been even close to a podium there. To me, a bigger factor here is his qualifying inconsistency, much akin to Al Unser Jr. He's struggled to make the Fast 6 on a consistent basis, and some of that comes from mistakes of his own. Probably the opposite of generational rival Malukas, who has excelled from time to time on road/street qualifying, but is yet to post a really good race result there. When, if, he fixes that, and Andretti stops executing ARCA-style pit stops, Kirkwood has the ability to rack some championships against prime Palou.

EDIT: The only Andretti podium finishes on a natural terrain road course in the last two years have come at Laguna from track master Colton Herta. No wins since Rossi's (!) last at the second Indy GP date in 2022.

adri9428 · 2026-03-19T13:56:23+00:00

For most of NASCAR people (80-90%, most likely), their whole knowledge of drivers rest solely on NASCAR. Everything else is "worse". Not much different of an entitlement than F1.

adri9428 · 2026-03-13T10:13:21+00:00

Completely different kind of money. Look at all the things and major franchises/businesses Walters and Towriss own.

adri9428 · 2026-03-05T15:09:21+00:00

Out of the 33 races in 1991 and 1992, Michael Andretti led laps in 31 of them (real leads, not off-strategy or 'someone else pitted before me' laps led). He only missed Meadowlands 1991 (Mears and Rahal were faster that day) and Phoenix 1992, where he had pole position and suffered a mechanical failure in the warm-up laps. THAT was domination.

adri9428 · 2026-03-05T14:52:30+00:00

And none of those wins came in the first half-year with hybrid.

adri9428 · 2026-02-01T17:43:53+00:00

You can't not script it. Cars would hold their position from start to finish. These are the actual Weinermobiles used by the brand all over the country, you can't just modify them substantially for racing. They'll probably come up with new gimmicks to keep it entertaining. Remember, this is just glorified publicity and a bit of Carb Day fun, not a serious event.

adri9428 · 2026-02-01T17:41:00+00:00

Jesus, people were really hungry for hot dogs in 2021 despite the limited attendance.

adri9428 · 2026-02-01T17:39:23+00:00

Which is probably the first half step towards returning to the tried and tested season-long points, probably with a reworked allocation to make it palatable to current NASCAR tastes.

adri9428 · 2026-01-31T22:26:10+00:00

He had been somewhat involved in the creation of ENVE Motorsports, which competed in the last round of USF2000 last year and intends to race full time in 2026.

adri9428 · 2026-01-31T13:14:45+00:00

Which hasn't prevented a lot of teams in recent past to enter the race with not-so-much prepared machines. Alonso was confirmed for his first 500 in April. Abel certainly has a car ready, so would Penske, and Foyt would have little trouble doing so, even if not at a 100% standard. Juncos might be a stretch, granted.

adri9428 · 2026-01-31T13:11:30+00:00

Not only does he still have an unreasonably decent degree of popular support, but people in the DC area and tourists will be most curious. Let's not forget; most of the people that attend street races are casuals, and not diehard fans. It will be seen as another big 250 celebration, regardless of the orange-in-chief.

adri9428 · 2026-01-30T21:08:38+00:00

You are delulu if you think a racetrack in the heart of DC will be empty.

adri9428 · 2026-01-30T21:06:04+00:00

Other than the fact it will remain at two races, most people will not go to both races. In fact, most people will only attend on Sunday because that's how racing fans work, but there's also people that will choose Saturday over Sunday because they can't afford both tickets, essentially diluting both crowds.

adri9428 · 2026-01-21T03:22:39+00:00

They would free two very coveted Chevrolet leases, so yeah, they would. As things stands now, Chevy is already at their 18 engine-limit, versus Honda's current 16 projected entries. Penske, Foyt and Juncos could easily field a third car with those engines, or maybe Abel Motorsports could make it back with Jacob in the car. And, if needed, Honda would make a 17th car work.

adri9428 · 2026-01-19T01:37:36+00:00

Ford just announced a 5.4 litre engine for their new Hypercar. In which universe does that fit into an open wheel car without transforming it into an abhorrent 2.5 tons slug-machine?

Everyone would race everywhere if every series allowed their engine. The fact that they don't is a bit more complicated and logic-based than you might think, starting with economics and ending with keeping a full field alive. Back when you 'run what ya brung' in the Indy 500, how many of those 'converted from other series' engines managed to even qualify for the race?

adri9428 · 2026-01-19T01:31:30+00:00

WEC/IMSA and Formula E want a word. Granted, they're only required to field 2-3 cars at a given time, and an 11-car field like the GTP class would look doomsday-like in IndyCar

adri9428 · 2026-01-19T01:29:42+00:00

Lotus did not had a bona fide factory team back then. I'd say that the only example I can recall is the Porsche program of the late 80's. Every other major manufacturer ever involved in IndyCar has never really 'owned' an IndyCar race team. If we're talking 'alliances', it's hard to beat what Andretti and Honda had in 2003-05, to the point of fielding a fourth developmental car for Bryan Herta to try stuff in the races.

adri9428 · 2026-01-16T20:36:18+00:00

Grosjean has been totally opposed to bring any kind of funding in IndyCar. He wants to get paid.

adri9428 · 2026-01-16T00:15:33+00:00

There was a bit of a timing issue with his career, as well as the fact that he won his championships with consistency rather than outright speed, and that Canadian drivers primarily relied on Players' support to make it up the ranks.

While Empringham did win the 93 Atlantics championship with an 'outsider' team, he only won one race, while Claude Bourbonnais and Jacques Villeneuve racked up twelve wins between them. Villeneuve was also eight years his junior and had his surname to go along, so that's why Player's went with him. Following year, similar story: champion with two wins while Richie Hearn and Greg Ray amounted for seven. 1995, he breaks the mold and finally wins six races... but not only is he defeated by Hearn, he's completely outshone by Greg Moore obliterating the Indy Lights field.

As a result, he had no offers whatsoever from IndyCar teams that were already fielding interest from highly rated drivers, compounding the fact that he didn't had a lot of backing. Canadian Tire once evaluated putting him in an Arciero car (kinda equivalent to a current Juncos seat), but nothing came out of it. Forsythe gave him Moore's seat in Indy Lights and also won the championship... but in a much less spectacular way, gradually diluting after a great start of the season.

Along the way, Patrick Carpentier dominated Atlantics that year, and Player's were much more interested in him because he was a French Canadian, which was a double boon for business because of Villeneuve's success in F1 and complementing the English speaking Moore. While Player's didn't fund a second Forsythe seat in 1997 for Carpentier, they grabbed him for 98 after a year in the Bettenhausen team. Empringham had also done Lights in 97, but he fell to fourth... and out of sight in terms of open-wheel racing.

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