There is no shortage of racing being broadcast for any fan to watch live. You just have to look for it. This past weekends Indycar race from the streets of St. Petersburg drew just under a million viewers in the TV ratings. It finished third for racing behind the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series from Phoenix. It did finish ahead of the Formula One race which was held on Saturday which many consider a win.
I saw many social media posts that suggested that Indyar or racing fans didn’t even know the race was on, or that they stumbled upon the race about halfway through. My question though is why? Many fans will state that Indycar racing does not promote its racing and you never see commercials for it. That may be true. Like many people I either don’t watch much TV, I’m watching a streaming service, or there isn’t much advertising for it.
Does NASCAR really promote their races that much that it reaches three million more people? I call shenanigans. NASCAR fans follow their sport closely, so they always seem to know when it will be on television. The Indycar race was broadcast live on NBC and it’s app Peacock, so one cannot say that it wasn’t on a prime network.
I am a racing fan. I will watch pretty much any kind of racing. In fact, I am watching the North American Porsche Carrerra Cup race live from Sebring which is broadcast on the IMSA website and its app. A precursor to the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring. This leads me to believe that racing fans aren’t really looking that hard to watch motor racing. Dirt car fans subscribe to FloRacing so they are able to find their favorite racing events. In this day of information and the world wide web at our fingertips and race fans are saying can’t find the broadcast? C’mon, I just don’t buy it.
Just this past racing weekend in St. Petersburg there were four different racing series that were supporting the Indycar race. Honestly, some of these races were better than the main event. In fact, I don’t understand why race fans don’t show up at the track early to watch these races. They had the USF2000 & USFPro2000 Series which is a feeder system for the Indycars. Both series raced twice over the weekend. They are usually broadcast on the USFPro Championship channel on YouTube. In fact, Indycar should do a better job because the cameras for these races are static, and don’t follow the action very well. Indy Nxt broadcasts of all of their races live on the Peacock app if fans want to see the up and coming stars before they make their debut in Indycar should they get the chance.
Also on the schedule was the IMSA VP Sportscar Challenge. They too raced twice over the weekend with two divisions consisting of LMP3 Prototypes and the GSX Series. The latter consists of Mustangs, Aston Martins, etc. If racing fans weren’t at the track they could have seen Jagger Jones, the grandson of Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones sweep the weekend as those races were broadcast on Peacock as well.
I knew when, where, and what time every race was being broadcast due to social media. Is this writer led to believe that Indycar fans aren’t on social media? I saw plenty of interaction across the board that included Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter). Fan pages dedicated to Indycars can be found on Facebook, and there are many journalists who promote, and share times and where fans can watch races. Do Indycar fans not follow their favorite driver on social media as well?
If you are missing the races I don’t think you can blame it solely on the racing series. Yes, there is an obvious lack of promotion for Indycar outside of the Indianapolis 500, but that is nothing new. This writer is old. Your writer came from a generation where an Indycar race could be broadcast on ABC, NBC, CBS or ESPN. Sometimes they were live and sometimes they were tape delayed. I remember Long Beach being tape delayed a whole week. By the time I was an adult I purchased a satellite dish so I could watch the races on the live feed with no commercials. That was chore finding which satellite it was on, and what band is was being broadcast over. But I was a super fan so I put in the effort.
People are busier, interests are different, and people have more of a variety to choose from on weekends. People aren’t watching and I don’t get why. The attendance at St. Pete was one of the biggest ever in its 20 year history. So what is it race fans? Is it the lack of promotion, more selection for people on television, or is it the 12 year old spec chassis/engine combination? I don’t have the answer. So I’ll leave it up to the discussion boards as I am watching the Laborghini Super Trofeo race live from Sebring that I am casting onto my TV from my laptop on the IMSA website.