Alex Palou wasn’t the only winner Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.
FOX Sports announced March 4 the network attracted an average audience of 1.4 million viewers across FOX and FOX streaming services for its broadcast of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season opener from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, its first race in a new television partnership with INDYCAR.
That’s a 45 percent increase in viewership over last year’s season opener at St. Petersburg and is the most-watched NTT INDYCAR SERIES race other than the Indianapolis 500 since 2011.
“The INDYCAR on FOX era got off to a tremendous start, featuring a significant year-over-year increase in audience,” said Mark Miles, president and CEO of Penske Entertainment, which owns the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “This is further evidence of our sport’s momentum is accelerating rapidly and that the growth strategies we have in place are working.
“FOX offers an unrivaled platform featuring massive exposure and promotion, and we’re looking forward to the season ahead.”
Debuting last weekend was the INDYCAR on FOX broadcast team of Will Buxton on play-by-play and Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe as analysts, with Jamie Little, Kevin Lee and Jack Harvey serving as pit reporters. Georgia Henneberry will join the pit reporting team after her maternity leave.
Among the innovations on the FOX broadcast was a new graphic on drivers’ aeroscreen frames showing gear choice, speed, braking pressure, engine RPM and the distance to the upcoming corner. FOX also continued its aggressive promotion when legendary baseball slugger and current FOX Sports Major League Baseball studio analyst Alex Rodriguez visited the event on race day and took a ride in the Fastest Seat in Sports two-seater race car to lead the field to the green flag.
The NTT INDYCAR SERIES is the only premier motorsport series in North America with all its events on network television. The next race is The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix at Thermal, California, with live coverage on FOX and the FOX Sports app starting at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, March 23.
OFF. AND. RACING! 🏁
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) March 4, 2025
FOX Sports opens the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES in a big way with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg scoring a 14-year high and peaking at more than 1.8 million viewers! pic.twitter.com/bXIQqDRenn