Rain-altered IndyCar broadcast sees small viewership drop at WWT Raceway

IndyCar’s Sunday night, rain-delayed Bommarito Automotive Group 500 received 945,000 viewers on Fox as Josef Newgarden won at World Wide Technology Raceway for the sixth time. Viewership was down 7% from 2025, when 1.012 million watched Kyle Kirkwood win on an oval for the first time.

This year’s race had two red flags for the rain, as the race ended after midnight ET. The race’s green flag was moved up 19 minutes to 9:06 in an attempt to avoid the rain, although it still played a factor. The altered start time caused the beginning of the race to air on FS1 rather than Fox, as a UFL semifinal game aired on Fox until 9:10. The race remained on FS1 until 9:17, averaging 217,000 viewers on the cable channel.

Viewership peaked at 1.081 million viewers from 10 to 10:15 p.m., which is when Graham Rahal crashed in Turn 4 to cause a yellow flag that became the first red flag of the night when raindrops began to fall. This is the first race this year where viewership didn’t peak at the race’s end or beginning.

Through nine races this season, IndyCar races are averaging 2.057 million viewers, which is up from an average of 1.882 million viewers through nine races last year. IndyCar is in the second year of its broadcast agreement with Fox, which bought a one-third stake in the series last July. Fox, unlike its predecessor NBC, airs each IndyCar race on its network channel rather than putting some on cable television or a streaming service.

IndyCar is now at the midway point of its 18-race season, and Fox has continued to get similar viewership from last year. With this weekend being the first without a race since the Indianapolis 500, it will be interesting to track how many viewers IndyCar and Fox maintain for the Grand Prix of Road America on June 21.

Zion Brown is IndyStar’s motorsports reporter. Follow him at @z10nbr0wn. Get IndyStar’s motor sports coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Motor Sports newsletter. Subscribe to the YouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes look at IndyCar and expert analysis.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Rain-altered IndyCar broadcast sees small viewership drop at WWT Raceway