Indy 500 Pulls in Monster TV Ratings to Begin Fox Tenure

The network's aggressive marketing push was an overwhelming success.

Alex Palou poses for photos after his Indy 500 victory. / Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Even for the Age of Marketing, Fox's advertising push leading up to the Indianapolis 500 Sunday was aggressive. One could only spend so much time in the online sports sphere without being bombarded by Tom Brady-centric cross-promotion or actors dousing themselves with milk at sporting events.

The network's investment, however, seems to have paid off.

IndyCar's flagship race drew 7.05 million viewers—a huge figure that constituted the race's largest television audience since 2008. Spain's Alex Palou took the checkered flag, becoming his country's first winner of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

Per Fox's public relations arm, the race's viewership was up 40% year-over-year from American Josef Newgarden's rain-soaked 2024 win.

Whoa…Indy 500 just got some colossal ratings. 🤯 Via Fox Sports: pic.twitter.com/kU2T0BKwNl

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) May 26, 2025

Fox, long associated with NASCAR, wrested the rights to IndyCar away from NBC in the summer of '24. Before passing to NBC, the Indy 500 had a six-decade association with ABC—one of the longest-running deals in American sports television.

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