Indycar in 2025: The new Fox tv deal and where to next?

Speed, tradition and close racing, this is what is typically thought of in IndyCar.  However, in 2025 the sport is at a crossroads. Lewis Bassindale investigates

The current chassis is over 10 years old, one of its main engine suppliers is considering leaving the sport and its new broadcaster Fox seems to be stopping at nothing to grow the sport, mix this with a need for international expansion and the series is clearly on the hunt for solutions to its problems.  

To do this we spoke to two of the sport’s premier voices. Divebombs Archie o Reilly and Sky Sports F1 IndyCar commentator Tom Gaymor.  

 We started by asking O Reilly what he thought on what Fox had done in its first two races of its new coverage deal and whether it is delivering on what it promised to do.  

 His focus was on how Fox has promoted the sport in the run up to its first year of the deal, “to have commercials played throughout the day and the coverage of the Super Bowl was unbelievable.” Said O Rielly in that by using the commercials to promote the series’ personalities it “is a wonderful way of getting people into the sport, it is really allowing them to relate to their personalities” which in his mind “is great.” 

We then moved onto talking about how the current chassis (the DW12) which was introduced by the series in 2012 and what direction the series will take in the years running up to the introduction of a new car in 2027.  

He was seemingly critical of the short lead time as in his words “you don’t want a half-baked job in 27, I’d rather a full baked job in 28.”  

However the issue is the longer the series seems to wait “you are losing the appeal to the likes of new engine manufacturers, for instance, you are no longer appealing, it’s lacking the modern cutting edge technology that really appeals to investors, to partners, to you know, OEMs and all of that”  

For example, last year, the series introduced its much-maligned Hybrid unit in order to keep OEM Honda on board. This has not been good for the series as it has pushed up costs for already struggling teams such as Dale Coyne Racing as well as making the cars heavier and less nimble.  

Plus, according to O Reilly “the hybrid is unfortunately now does not add enough power to the extent that it outweighs the amount of weight that’s been added to the car”  

With all of this therefore there is increased pressure to get the new rules right, however recent decisions have pointed to this not being the case so far. Currently heading up the new car process is Penske Automotive COO Rich Shearing who does not have Motorsport experience, while he does have automotive sector experience which will garner favour with current OEM’s Honda and Chevrolet. This points to the new car not having the racing first mindest it should have.  

 

For example, O Reilly discussed the fact they should have a sniff around the F1 paddock and sign someone such as the famous designer and current Cadillac F1 advisor Pat Simmonds who led the 2022 F1 rule changes which brought about the biggest concept change for a generation.  

 

O Reilly also spoke of his concerns that the series is not doing enough to bring in a younger audience as “you could almost argue IndyCar’s audience is still pre-split.” One idea to counter act this could be a video game. While the series did have one being created by Motorsport games, this was cancelled due to financial problems. This means the series has not had one since 2005 and is still badly in need of something to grow its younger audience.

 IndyCar should also consider how best to go ahead with an international expansion, and this was one of the main talking points I had with Tom Gaymor, who is head commentator at Sky Sports F1 for IndyCar.  

“The big question mark lies around sustainability and affordability.” said Gaymor as “with the way the current economy is they’ve I think been very disciplined because the real challenge is to run before you can walk and then you sail into to really big problems and essentially sink the championship.” 

However, when it comes to a possible international expansion, Gaymor thinks Mexico is a good option as “you can piggyback off the back of Pato awards success and get into Mexico and try and build into that. The Mexican fans are wonderful whether it’s Formula One, whether it’s formula E.”  

The UK could be also a good option with tracks such as Brands Hatch and Donington park as he thinks “the first sector at Donington is arguably that the best sector of sequence of corners anywhere in the UK.”  

 So Indycar is at a crossroads and there are some solutions that have been found to its problems. It is now up to Penske and IndyCar to make the fixes work.  

Watch the full Tom Gaymor Interview below,