The 2025 Indianapolis 500, broadcast on Fox for the first time, drew an average of 7.05 million viewers, marking the highest viewership for the race since 2008, when it averaged 7.245 million on ABC.
This represented a 40% increase over the 2024 Indy 500 on NBC, which had 5.024 million viewers on traditional TV plus nearly 300,000 via streaming.
The race peaked at 8.4 million viewers from 4:15-4:30 p.m. ET during Alex Palou’s victory, the most-watched motorsport event on U.S. television in 2025, outpacing the Daytona 500’s 6.76 million viewers on Fox despite a rain delay of less than an hour.
Fox’s success was attributed to aggressive promotion, including a Super Bowl ad campaign, a 2.5-hour pre-race show featuring stars like Tom Brady and Michael Strahan, and the lifting of the Indianapolis market blackout, allowing local affiliate WXIN to air the race live for only the fifth time since 1986.
However, Fox faced criticism for excessive commercial breaks and missing key race moments, like Palou’s finish, due to coverage of a late crash.
The broadcast was part of Fox’s new IndyCar deal, covering all 17 races on network TV, a shift from NBC’s 16-year tenure
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