Broadcaster Will Buxton roasted after declaring IndyCar can be bigger than NASCAR

With IndyCar moving to FOX for 2025, incoming broadcaster Will Buxton believes there is a big opportunity for the series. But is he taking it too far when he says that IndyCar can be bigger than NASCAR in the United States?

Will Buxton is coming to the USA to cover IndyCar. Buxton has for years commentated on Formula One. The chance to come over and work on this newly revamped IndyCar team was too good to pass up.

In a recent interview, Buxton did cause a little bit of controversy.

“There’s no reason why IndyCar shouldn’t be the most popular form of motorsport here, and that means making it bigger than NASCAR. Will that take time? Aboslutely. But that’s why they’ve assembled the group that they have,” Buxton told Jon Noble of The Race.

A few race fans took exception to that.

“IndyCar’s gonna be on FOX while NASCAR will be on FS1 and NASCAR will still beat them in [ratings].. guaranteed.. also IndyCar is trash at promoting their sport,” one fan remarked online.

“I love IndyCar and I don’t mind Will Buxton,” another fan wrote. “But you’re delusional if you think you can overtake NASCAR. I can see it if they were close but they are on par with Xfinity and Trucks 99.9% of the time.”

“Except there are very clear and [glaring] reasons why it won’t happen, of course nothing is impossible, but they need to be realistic,” yet another fan posted. “Aside from the Indy 500 they have no motion [at the moment].”

No one expects Will Buxton to discredit IndyCar. But this fight with NASCAR for the hearts and eyes of the American viewing public has been going on for decades.

Will Buxton: Can IndyCar compete with NASCAR’s popularity?

When it comes to the 50 most-watched motorsports events on TV for 2024, only one of those is an IndyCar race. The Indy 500, of course. Only eight of those top 50 are non-NASCAR events.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series, the secondary series for the sport, posted two events in the top 50 for 2024. Those races at Chicago and Talladega beat out every IndyCar race besides the Indy 500.

When you look at the numbers, it just doesn’t add up. IndyCar could double its viewership across multiple races and NASCAR would still have more races with 2,000,000+ viewers. Right now, there are weekends when NHRA drag racing picks up more viewers than IndyCar.

There are many, many reasons why IndyCar is in the state that it is in. Will Buxton sees the series for what it can be. But the NASCAR vs. IndyCar debate ended with the 1979 Daytona 500. Once stock car racing was put on TV, the country fell in love. That’s harder to overcome than ratings.