Fox Sports is 'All In' on IndyCar Storytelling

The morning of the final full day of practice for the 2026 Indianapolis 500, I was standing on a golf course watching the production crew from Shadow Lion brave the unseasonal May chill to capture shots of Mick Schumacher, Scott McLaughlin, and Graham Rahal attempting to make a putt surrounded by about 100 golf carts and the most famous race track in America.

Yes, Shadow Lion, Tom Brady's production company, found itself with multiple camera operators, production assistants, and directors calling filming angles on a golf course inside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway – all in service of IndyCar drivers attempting to play a different sport.

It's one of those moments that you want to text your friends, "you'll never believe what I'm doing right now," and it makes you think... This is what it looks like when a sport decides that it's done with backseat driving its own growth.

It's the energy behind Fox Sports' second year with IndyCar – and the birth of 'All In: IndyCar'.

The IndyCar Show You Didn't Know You Needed

It's worth noting what came before. indyCar has attempted this kind of storytelling in the past with the 100 Days to Indy docuseries. It had the right idea, but limited reach and production resources to back it up.

If you watched it? Great. Most racing fans didn't know it existed. This is not a knock to the series, but the reality of finding truly invested partners, platforms, and budget to tell their story properly.

IndyCar St Petersburg — Mar 1, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin (3) leads the pack during the NTT Indycar Series at the Firestone Grand Prix on the Streets of St. Petersburg. Mandatory Credit: Russell Lansford-Imagn Images | Russell Lansford-Imagn Images

All In: IndyCar launched on March 19, 2026, dropping its first episode just days after the season-opener in St. Petersburg. Each episode sits at a digestible bite of 15 to 20 minutes and is free on YouTube, with a blistering 1-2 week turnaround.

It follows a single driver – their story, their background, a relevant storyline to the weekend – and does something that IndyCar desperately needs right now: Makes the drivers accessible in the most literal sense of the word.

The series is a joint production between Fox Sports and Shadow Lion, the creative studio co-founded by Tom Brady, directed by Matthew Maxson, and Ryan Lohuis. Executive producers include Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks and Brad Zager, alongside IndyCar's Alex Damron and Mackenzie Williams, and Shadow Lion's Gilad Haas, Jeff Fine, and Philip Byron.

Fox Booth at the Indianapolis 500 — May 23, 2025; Indianapolis, IN, USA; General view of an IndyCar on Fox logo with fans in the main grandstands during final practice on Carb Day for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The long and the short of it? Fox is taking IndyCar seriously. The network acquired a one-third stake in IndyCar for $125 million and subsequently invested in Shadow Lion as well. These investments mean that All In isn't just a marketing play, but a literal infrastructure for the series and the network.

Storytelling in IndyCar is Urgent

To understand why this show exists, you have to zoom in ton viewership stats since IndyCar moved to Fox Sports in 2025.

Let's look at some of the fast facts:

27% increase in viewership from 2024 to 2025 (1.362 million avg. viewers)
Young demographics surged with an 81% increase in ages 18-34 and a 72% increase in the female demographic, as well
Among sports averaging at least 1 million viewers, IndyCar had the largest year-over-year growth

... and this was just in 2025. The 2026 season continued this trajectory. The first 3 races of the season, Fox averaged 1.328 million viewers – hitting over 1 million, consistently, for the first time since 2008. This is a 48% increase over 2025.

IndyCar Grand Prix of Arlington Rendering | Courtesy of Visit Arlington

By every metric, this is the best start to an IndyCar season in decades. That momentum kept growing as the races ticked on. All of which makes All In both timely and intentional. You build momentum with great racing and use human storytelling to connect to between the race weekends.

Buxton Emphasized that 'We Need to Tell Their Stories'

I sat down with some of the Fox Crew in advance of the 500 weekend and spent time with the Shadow Lion team. Namely, Will Buxton – Fox Sports' play-by-play voice for IndyCar and the motorsports storyteller of this current generation of motorsports.

What makes Buxton's perspective interesting is that during a race week, he is in his element by simply talking. It's literally his job to speak, and in speaking, craft a story to make you feel things, visualize yourself on that track in 'real time'.

Will Buxton Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe Fox Sports IndyCar Broadcast | Penske Entertainment by: Chris Owens

On All In, Buxton is one of the familiar faces who appears in episodes, explaining the sport to a viewer who may be encountering IndyCar for the first time. He knows this territory well. He's been doing it on Drive to Survive for years.

"We need to tell the stories of our drivers more. We need to get people to care about them. We have 25 drivers week in, week out. We have 33 here for the Indianapolis 500. Every one of them has a unique story. Every one of them has a unique goal because not every one of these drivers is aiming for a race win or a title. Some of them want to finish. Some of them need to secure funding for next year. Every one of them has a different story."
Will Buxton, Fox Sports

That's the core premise of All In in a sentence. People. Drivers. Stakes that feel human, even if the setting involves cars going 230 miles an hour.

All In Shadow Lion Studio at IMS Pagoda with Felix Rosenqvist | Grand Prix on SI

When I sat in on interviews with Shadow Lion – in a jerry-rigged studio at the top of the IMS Pagoda – listening to Maxson craft stories as he interviewed Barry Wanser, Felix Rosenqvist, AJ Foyt, and more, this human element Buxton references felt tangible.

What 'Real Time' Means for the Fans

Buxton pointed to Formula 1 as proof of concept, naturally. Drive to Survive created an 'accessible' driver universe where fans feel so deeply connected to the personality of drivers alongside their racecraft. When that's done properly? Buxton says 'fanaticism around drivers' will go through the roof.

"Drivers are our most marketable assets. We need to get them out there so that people can root for them and can find the personalities that they love. They might not necessarily be the drivers who are winning the races every weekend."
Will Buxton, Fox Sports

James Hinchcliffe – former IndyCar driver, current Fox Sports analyst alongside Buxton – put it more simply than Buxton.

"This kind of format and the approach [of All In] being a little bit shorter, a little bit punchier, and just easily accessible – is hopefully what's going to get IndyCar and our guys in front of more eyeballs."
James Hinchcliffe, Fox Sports

James Hinchcliffe 2013 IndyCar | Bryon Houlgrave/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Hinchcliffe is exactly right. Drawing back to IndyCar's former 100 Days to Indy show, one of the biggest issues wasn't the storytelling; it was the lack of access. Hinch knows the audience he's talking about intimately... after all, he spent years of his life marketing himself in this very sport.

As a driver, he sat across the table from corporate sponsors who had no idea their company was even in racing, educating rooms full of people who knew nothing about IndyCar but were about to spend a cool $50,000 on him. That's not so different from what All In is trying to do at scale.

That scale from the production side was indeed quite impressive. The questions I had going into my day with Shadow Lion – and that Buxton also admitted to having when he first heard about the show – were logistical.

A show like Drive to Survive takes months. They film the entire season and utilize it as a tool to advertise the next season. What are Fox Sports and Shadow Lion doing? Planning, filming, storytelling, editing, and releasing in a matter of days — a completely different operational equation.

What I saw was a team that arrives at every event knowing who they're following and roughly what story they're trying to tell. The Scott McLaughlin All In episode is the best example of this, according to Maxson.

The team came to Barber planning to follow McLaughlin as a driver, potentially stepping into a leadership role on his team. Then he had a massive accident. Suddenly, the episode wasn't about ambition and momentum, but family, danger, and what it means to have a job that could take everything from you.

The team pivoted, in Buxton's words, "on a dime", and what came out the other side was arguably one of the most human pieces of motorsport content I've seen.

"That's rare," Buxton added, but a show of this production value with this tight turnaround is just as rare.

What is even more rare, of course, is the story that they told at the Indianapolis 500.

Felix Rosenqvist Indianapolis 500 Win with Borg Warner Trophy | Penske Entertainment, Titus Slaughter

I sat in on Felix Rosenqvist's interview days prior to his historic Indianapolis 500 win. After hearing the questions and witnessing his win, all I could think about was how wonderful this All In episode is going to be. After all, Felix's story is one that will make fans love him even more.

The Driver is the Story

As one of the All In showrunners, Matthew Maxson was clear about the philosophy of the show. Results are adjacent and not results-driven. Following a driver isn't just about who is winning - otherwise Alex Palou would be nearly every episode. It's about who has something happening in their life, who has a storyline with real interest.

A new dad - Felix Rosenqvist or Scott McLaughlin. A driver with a major team change – Will Power. A new name in the sport – Mick Schumacher. Performance is a piece of the story, but it is not the full story, and not as important as the human being in the car.

"It's a single POV lens on a given weekend. I think that's what makes this show cool and why people respond to it."
Matthew Maxson, All In Showrunner

Barry Wanser Chip Ganassi Racing at Indianapolis 500 — Barry Wanser looks out from Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou’s (10) pit box Saturday, May 9, 2026, during qualifying for the Sonsio Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. | Kristin Enzor/For IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The driving ethos was clear in the conversations Maxson and team had with Rosenqvist and Palou's strategist, Barry Wanser. Did they ask about results? Yes, but more importantly, they dug into feelings, emotions, and thought processes behind decisions.

Not coincidentally, this is what Drive to Survive figured out and why all sports storytelling will continue to reference their formula that made F1 a cultural phenomenon. Make it understandable. Make it relatable. Make it feel like something worth caring about when the green flag drops.

The major difference is that All In doubles down on what Drive to Survive only occasionally does – centering the driver as a human being entirely. Who they are. Why they do this. What they're risking every single weekend.

"Ultimately, racing drivers for me have always been gods. But when it comes down to it, they're flesh and bone. To see how they tick, what they go through, meet their families – it personalizes these incredible heroes who can sometimes feel a step removed."
Will Buxton, Fox Sports

Indianapolis 500 Grid | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The show is free. It's on YouTube. It's under an hour. There is genuinely no barrier to entry. That's the whole point.

As Buxton put it, these drivers are superhuman, but they're still human. The team making All In understands that the fan who needs to be won over doesn't necessarily need strategy breakdowns or lap times – they need a reason to care about the person in the car.

That's the job. From what I saw at the Indianapolis 500 , they're very good at it.

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