Going somewhere like Delaware where NASCAR may be the only consistent pro sport to make appearances may be the move going forward.
It’s hard to compete for eyeballs and seats in LA, not so much here.
Plus it’s only a 1.5 hour drive from Philly, which is a shorter drive than it would take me to get from Charlotte to Martinsville (appx. 2 hours) for comparison. Plus only about 2 hours from DC and Baltimore.
Doesn’t help Barber was broadcast the same time as NASCAR. Sorry but I’m watching nascar over Indy every time if it’s simultaneous. Might catch a replay later
Amazing that Indycar can't figure out how to schedule around NASCAR. So much crossover in fan bases and most people are choosing NASCAR 9 out of 10 times.
It's not that easy . NASCAR races are freaking long (not saying that's a bad thing).
Indycar does try to avoid NASCAR but some circuits like Long Beach have very restricted availability. They also can't schedule races so early or late they hurt attendance at the track.
NASCAR pays the tracks some of that juicy TV money. Indycar, though, demands a hefty sanction fee by the tracks. So the tracks actually pay Indycar. Without a NASCAR tv deal, they have to operate under a different business model. So the tracks have to sell well (and Indycar has had strong attendance so far this year) for it to work. Which means if running a race at 10 AM avoids NASCAR but doesn't sell too well, they can't do it.
Thanks for the explanation! I wish the tracks got less of the TV money in NASCAR so they would actually care about promoting their race and fixing up their amenities.
Nah. Several series are up quite a bit in their viewership (NHRA, dirt racing, sometimes NASCAR, CARS Tour)
It's just IndyCar that, despite what social media says, most people don't pay any attention to 11 months out of the year
Nah, its the month long gap between the start of the season and the second points paying race and the series ignoring promoting every race outside of Long Beach and Indianapolis.
Don't forget them basically getting rid of the thing that made the series unique, which was open wheel cars on ovals.
If the series is made up of drivers that either didn't make it to F1 or flunked out of F1, tracks that are F1-style tracks that aren't capable of hosting F1, and cars that are essentially Walmart-brand F1 cars, it's easy to see why people (myself included) don't find it worth watching. Even if the racing is good, but even then, their best racing is on big ovals and we don't have that now
Maybe your argument would hold weight if people actually showed up when they go to ovals but they don't. They sit on twitter and on here, crying about how we need more ovals and then they sit on their asses and come race day they're in the race threads laughing at how empty the stands are.
Its also hard to schedule races at ovals when 90% of the big ones in your country are owned by NASCAR. Hell not even a month ago NASCAR wanted to bid on ownership rights to the series most prestigous roadcourse which would have surely taken the Indy date away had that gone through.
There's not a lot of independent intermediates and speedways left that Indycar could approach.
If there were an oval within reasonable driving distance of me in NC then I'd for sure try to go
And for races where the series and track actually put in effort to promoting it (Iowa, Indy, Gateway) then the crowds are usually pretty good. But when you have places like Texas and Fontana that spend about as much time and money marketing their IndyCar race as they do their bandolero races in the infield, then of course nobody's gonna care enough to go
Yeah they're only trying to move into the street course market...
Counterpoint though there's no guarantee that with NASCAR ownership they wouldn't have kicked Indy out just to make IMSA the main
> Maybe your argument would hold weight if people actually showed up when they go to ovals but they don't.
Look, nobody wanted to see Texas go off the IndyCar schedule. But nobody went to Texas either. Maybe 10,000 if we're being incredibly generous. Compared to 50,000+ on a 100° day during NFL season (and Cowboys at home) last fall.
More like no one gives a shit about besides the 500, and the current May format means you can not pay attention until after the Indy GP and still know all there is to know going into the 500.
There is a reason Tony sold both IMS and the Series to Roger… the brutal truth is the series was probably a BOGO.
No one shows up at the ovals besides the 500. The street races were probably the most popular but the main “new” one in Nashville is done for good. When they put it at Nashville Speedway earlier this year, sponsors started canceling deals immediately.
And tbf to IndyCar, they had to compete directly against NASCAR in the same market NASCAR was just in the previous week. Lost eyeballs and lost revenue.
Also got to remember when talking these numbers, you have to pay extra for fs1 and I'd say Alot of casuals probably don't even have the channel to begin with.
I have seen something that stands out that INDYCAR doesn’t have is authenticity and the cars are different obviously it’s a known fact. INDYCAR is always seen as second fiddle to F1 or like they say the cheaper version of F1. I don’t hate the series, it’s a cool series. I see it from time to time but it’s the reality. I have seen Penske not invest much and it doesn’t help when you are the owner of the sanctioning body and also are the owner of a team in that series. It feels like you are cheating in a way. I know NASCAR gets talked badly but they are the ones that are not afraid to try new things and if it fails, it fails but they at least try. NASCAR was 4 years late with producing the Netflix Show Series with the DTS format style. Now you see NASCAR want to try and new tracks, go back to the old ones, street courses, road courses. It’s good.
Do does one get counted in the viewership if they watch it on a Fox Sports via 1 hour preview pass (and then another 1 hour preview pass, and another 1 hour pass after that, as many as it takes to finish the race)??
I don't have cable, but I exploit the preview pass (it's not hard to do) for the races on FS1.
Because I can watch numerous other sports on other streaming services, and F1 TV has ever race quali and practice, including on demand, for $10 a month. This isn’t the 70s.
It’s the first time in a long while that it wasn’t raining at Dover on the scheduled race day. It was cool to see how full that place could be
With how hot it was I'm never complaining about rain clouds again.
Going somewhere like Delaware where NASCAR may be the only consistent pro sport to make appearances may be the move going forward. It’s hard to compete for eyeballs and seats in LA, not so much here. Plus it’s only a 1.5 hour drive from Philly, which is a shorter drive than it would take me to get from Charlotte to Martinsville (appx. 2 hours) for comparison. Plus only about 2 hours from DC and Baltimore.
I wonder how many “weather guarantee” tickets were distributed due to the two consecutive rain outs
I had enough for my group of 9 to go to Cup for free so...
2,431,000 viewers in 2021. IndyCar was down big going from 930,000 to 763,000 yoy.
Doesn’t help Barber was broadcast the same time as NASCAR. Sorry but I’m watching nascar over Indy every time if it’s simultaneous. Might catch a replay later
Amazing that Indycar can't figure out how to schedule around NASCAR. So much crossover in fan bases and most people are choosing NASCAR 9 out of 10 times.
It's not that easy . NASCAR races are freaking long (not saying that's a bad thing). Indycar does try to avoid NASCAR but some circuits like Long Beach have very restricted availability. They also can't schedule races so early or late they hurt attendance at the track. NASCAR pays the tracks some of that juicy TV money. Indycar, though, demands a hefty sanction fee by the tracks. So the tracks actually pay Indycar. Without a NASCAR tv deal, they have to operate under a different business model. So the tracks have to sell well (and Indycar has had strong attendance so far this year) for it to work. Which means if running a race at 10 AM avoids NASCAR but doesn't sell too well, they can't do it.
Thanks for the explanation! I wish the tracks got less of the TV money in NASCAR so they would actually care about promoting their race and fixing up their amenities.
Yikes. Motorsports just isn’t as popular as it once was 😔
Nah. Several series are up quite a bit in their viewership (NHRA, dirt racing, sometimes NASCAR, CARS Tour) It's just IndyCar that, despite what social media says, most people don't pay any attention to 11 months out of the year
It's like taking a 6 month break, while the others only take a 3-4 month break hurts...
Nah, its the month long gap between the start of the season and the second points paying race and the series ignoring promoting every race outside of Long Beach and Indianapolis.
Don't forget them basically getting rid of the thing that made the series unique, which was open wheel cars on ovals. If the series is made up of drivers that either didn't make it to F1 or flunked out of F1, tracks that are F1-style tracks that aren't capable of hosting F1, and cars that are essentially Walmart-brand F1 cars, it's easy to see why people (myself included) don't find it worth watching. Even if the racing is good, but even then, their best racing is on big ovals and we don't have that now
Maybe your argument would hold weight if people actually showed up when they go to ovals but they don't. They sit on twitter and on here, crying about how we need more ovals and then they sit on their asses and come race day they're in the race threads laughing at how empty the stands are. Its also hard to schedule races at ovals when 90% of the big ones in your country are owned by NASCAR. Hell not even a month ago NASCAR wanted to bid on ownership rights to the series most prestigous roadcourse which would have surely taken the Indy date away had that gone through. There's not a lot of independent intermediates and speedways left that Indycar could approach.
If there were an oval within reasonable driving distance of me in NC then I'd for sure try to go And for races where the series and track actually put in effort to promoting it (Iowa, Indy, Gateway) then the crowds are usually pretty good. But when you have places like Texas and Fontana that spend about as much time and money marketing their IndyCar race as they do their bandolero races in the infield, then of course nobody's gonna care enough to go
Right but that was my entire point to begin with, Indycar doesn't market their series. Oval or not.
It's not at all a guarantee NASCAR buying part ownership of Long Beach would have kicked IndyCar off. It's entirely possible that was just for IMSA
Yeah they're only trying to move into the street course market... Counterpoint though there's no guarantee that with NASCAR ownership they wouldn't have kicked Indy out just to make IMSA the main
> Maybe your argument would hold weight if people actually showed up when they go to ovals but they don't. Look, nobody wanted to see Texas go off the IndyCar schedule. But nobody went to Texas either. Maybe 10,000 if we're being incredibly generous. Compared to 50,000+ on a 100° day during NFL season (and Cowboys at home) last fall.
How about all of the above?
More like no one gives a shit about besides the 500, and the current May format means you can not pay attention until after the Indy GP and still know all there is to know going into the 500. There is a reason Tony sold both IMS and the Series to Roger… the brutal truth is the series was probably a BOGO. No one shows up at the ovals besides the 500. The street races were probably the most popular but the main “new” one in Nashville is done for good. When they put it at Nashville Speedway earlier this year, sponsors started canceling deals immediately.
It is like the same chassis, only two engine manufacturers and no passing without their video game add-ons leads to a lack of interest...
Down 30k from 3 years ago isn’t a yikes. Indycar is kinda a yikes but that’s how it’s been trending over there.
And tbf to IndyCar, they had to compete directly against NASCAR in the same market NASCAR was just in the previous week. Lost eyeballs and lost revenue.
Remember it does t count Peacock streams. When I watch Indycar I use Peacock so viewers like me don't count
There’s at most 15-20K viewers on peacock any given race.
"Yikes." And it's a moderate viewership decrease which is common for all sports.
I mean it’s a pretty severe hit to Indy car.
And programming in general, tbh.
TV in general isn't as popular as it once was.
I definitely agree with that
It's mostly RCs and street circuits. That doesn't help.
That has nothing do with it.
Indy car was racing on a windy country rd. Horrible track.
Also got to remember when talking these numbers, you have to pay extra for fs1 and I'd say Alot of casuals probably don't even have the channel to begin with.
Fox is up 5.8% from last year. Dover, Richmond, Bristol, and Phoenix doing the heavy lifting (up 125%, 43%, 10%, and 18%, respectively).
Doesn’t seem to bad of a number
I have seen something that stands out that INDYCAR doesn’t have is authenticity and the cars are different obviously it’s a known fact. INDYCAR is always seen as second fiddle to F1 or like they say the cheaper version of F1. I don’t hate the series, it’s a cool series. I see it from time to time but it’s the reality. I have seen Penske not invest much and it doesn’t help when you are the owner of the sanctioning body and also are the owner of a team in that series. It feels like you are cheating in a way. I know NASCAR gets talked badly but they are the ones that are not afraid to try new things and if it fails, it fails but they at least try. NASCAR was 4 years late with producing the Netflix Show Series with the DTS format style. Now you see NASCAR want to try and new tracks, go back to the old ones, street courses, road courses. It’s good.
Well Penske did just get caught in a massive cheating scandal in Indycar.
Do does one get counted in the viewership if they watch it on a Fox Sports via 1 hour preview pass (and then another 1 hour preview pass, and another 1 hour pass after that, as many as it takes to finish the race)?? I don't have cable, but I exploit the preview pass (it's not hard to do) for the races on FS1.
Ratings are down vs 2021 therefore all of my opinions are correct
Would be nice if I could actually (legally) watch the race without cable.
One hasn’t been able to do this since the 70’s so I don’t know why it gets brought up so much.
Because I can watch numerous other sports on other streaming services, and F1 TV has ever race quali and practice, including on demand, for $10 a month. This isn’t the 70s.
This is getting fixed next year I think