FOX explains decision to air NASCAR, IndyCar at same time

Last Sunday, IndyCar and NASCAR went up against each other on FOX and FS1, respectively. The results were dismal for IndyCar. FOX had a fraction of the viewers for the Thermal Grand Prix that NASCAR had for Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Only 704,000 viewers tuned into the IndyCar race at Thermal. A rather bland atmosphere and track overall for the series. It had a bad enough reputation after last year’s million-dollar exhibition race.

It was clearly not a good move to air the IndyCar race at the same time as the NASCAR race. Not to mention, FOX aired NASCAR on its main channel as IndyCar had technical difficulties.

Nick DeGroot of Motorsport.com reached out to FOX Sports about the situation. They say the conflicting schedule will be avoided as much as possible, but it couldn’t be in this instance.

“When IndyCar is on the West Coast, going head-to-head with NASCAR is unavoidable because we can’t start the IndyCar race at 9 a.m. PT /12 p.m. ET [too early out there] before NASCAR [at 3 p.m. ET],” FOX Sports told DeGroot. “We cannot air IndyCar on Sunday nights in the spring because of FOX entertainment programs airing in primetime.”

Later this season there will be further crossover. When IndyCar races at Long Beach, the race will start 90 minutes into the NASCAR race at Bristol. All IndyCar races are on FOX this season as part of the new TV package.

NASCAR Truck Series beats out IndyCar on FOX

FOX has a NASCAR and IndyCar problem. Every IndyCar race is on FOX. However, many of the Cup Series races this year are being pushed to FS1. Putting the more popular series over on the secondary channel is going to look silly.

However, there is hope for FOX because they don’t carry the entire NASCAR season. They have six more Cup races this year and in that time, there will only be three IndyCar races. After that, NASCAR moves onto other media partners like Prime Video, TNT and NBC.

You can’t ignore the fact that the Truck Series on FS1 Friday night at 8:00 PM was a bigger ratings draw than IndyCar on FOX at 3:00 PM on Sunday. By a factor of 200,000 viewers. That is a harsh reality for not just FOX but IndyCar.

Perhaps when NASCAR leaves FOX, IndyCar will start to shine on its own. With only one more overlapping race this season, maybe IndyCar will avoid anymore disasters like Sunday.