Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
Marc Márquez broke his duck at the Red Bull Ring, sweeping the weekend after he had never won at the Austrian circuit prior to this weekend. It was the sixth consecutive weekend sweep for Márquez, and his ninth grand prix victory of the season. Sunday's race was also the 1,000 premier class race. Who knew? The NASCAR Truck playoffs field is set. The Cup had a less controversial finish at Richmond than last year. It rained at Road America, disrupting SRO America competitions. I am not much of a golf fan, but ponying up to LIV Golf seems like the wrong decision. Then again, when has IndyCar ever ponied up to anyone good? Either way, this will be a big weekend for IndyCar especially with the championship wrapped up.
When You Find Out Who Your Friends Are
IndyCar is staring at two dead-rubbers to conclude the 2025 season.
Álex Palou has locked up the championship. What remains are two races which will set the rest of the championship positions, but really there is little difference between second and 22nd in the IndyCar championship. Milwaukee and Nashville will take place. There will be race winners. The record book will update, but from the layman's perspective, there is not much of a reason to tune in for the remaining two races of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season.
This is when IndyCar will find out who its friends are.
It is an interesting scenario for IndyCar. No championship to be decided. Nothing earth-shattering could happen. Two races are scheduled not to run head-to-head with NASCAR. And this is coming at the end of a season where viewership has been... well... it depends on how you read the numbers.
Four of 15 IndyCar races have exceeded one million viewers this season. Eight other races have drawn between 700,000 and 800,000 viewers. Based on averages, and including an Indianapolis 500 that drew over seven million viewers, this season is on par with the 2022 and 2023 seasons, which saw a comparable number of races on network television. The median number of viewers this season is 734,000.
Every time the number has not been favorable for IndyCar, there has been an excuse.
NCAA tournament. The Masters' Tournament. Formula One race. NASCAR race.
Other than the Indianapolis 500, the bright spots this season have been the season opener from St. Petersburg, which led into a NASCAR Cup race, and Gateway, which was moved from the afternoon to primetime on a Sunday night to partially avoid going against the Canadian Grand Prix and the NASCAR Cup race from Mexico City. In terms of the next two weeks, this is the clearest real estate IndyCar has gotten all season.
But with nothing to play for, will people still tune in?
They are races after all, and if you are bored on a Sunday afternoon, you may fancy to see who will come out on top at Milwaukee or who will end the season with a victory in Nashville. With the way this season has played out, the interest will also be about seeing who will end 2025 without a victory.
Is it as simple as just not running against NASCAR will help with viewership? If the viewership goes up and we see some of the better rated races of the season even though the prize has been claimed, then at least IndyCar can end on a high note. People will tune in, but these are the same people who prioritize a NASCAR Cup race over an IndyCar race. It doesn't matter that the final 30 minutes of the IndyCar race will overlap with the first 30 minutes of a three-hour Cup race and they would only miss the nothingness that happens in stage one, they are tuning in for every lap of the NASCAR race. That is enough to shift IndyCar viewership by nearly 300,000 people.
If the lack of stakes means those people decide it is not worth their time, then we know what IndyCar is shooting for. If there is anything we have learned from this season it is about 750,000 people will tune into an IndyCar race no matter what. That is the core audience. It will be there every week. It isn't the biggest crowd. It seems a little smaller than a few years ago, but that is at least where IndyCar knows it stands. It is all about growing from there.
Understandably, IndyCar will want that bump even though the championship is over. It could really use it to end the year. This is foreign territory for IndyCar as no championship has been clinched this early since 2002 in CART with Cristiano da Matta, a very different time to 2025 with one series and a season that is over before the month of September begins. Having the championship decided one race early is one thing. The championship might be over, but there is only one race left. You mind as well tune in before the six-month offseason. Two dead-rubber races, that might be asking a lot. You can fake interest once. It is faking it twice that is exhausting.
The hope is history can draw people in. Palou has the championship, but if he sweeps the final two races he will tie the record for most victories in a season. Only two drivers have won ten races, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser. That's it. That's the list. How about that for company? Not to mention it hasn't happened in 55 years. Even nine victories would be historic. Only one other season has seen a driver win nine races, and that was Mario Andretti.
It is something nobody has seen in contemporary IndyCar racing. It is a season we celebrate these all-time greats for achieving. It is what made them heroes and why their legends are still told today. At some point, IndyCar must embrace the greatest out there now because the series cannot live on the folklore of Foyt, Andretti and Unser forever. If you are 30 years old, you never saw any of those three race. Think about the current nine-year-old. How the hell can he or she feel compelled to something that happened before their mothers and fathers were born?
That is why we must celebrate the drivers of today. We should be in awe of what Palou has accomplished, and even what Scott Dixon, Will Power and Josef Newgarden has accomplished. These should be the stories we tell for years to come and share with our sons and daughters, and then our grandchildren after that.
History is being asked to do a lot of heavy-lifting in the instant gratification generation. People care about now. There is no long-term outlook or care about how special this moment will be in the future, even though nostalgia is used like a recreational drug. Everyone loves to use the record book when it comes to making an argument, but when we are seeing something unprecedented in the last half-century, the appreciation isn't there. Most do not seem to care. They would rather you call them when next season comes around.
I would say people need excitement to be interested, but IndyCar is the same series that bragged about the number of consecutive seasons with the championship coming down to the final race, and had some legitimately stunning title deciders, and that didn't really build a substantial fanbase, now did it? That leads us to the concern for these next two weeks.
If viewership is significantly less than that 750,000-ish core audience IndyCar has been drawing for each race, I guess the viewers have made their voices heard, by taking their eyeballs elsewhere.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Marc Márquez, but did you know...
Diogo Moreira won the Moto2 race from Austria, his second victory of the season. Ángel Piqueras won the Moto3 race, his third victory of the season. Matteo Ferrari swept the MotoE races.
Austin Dillon won the NASCAR Cup race from Richmond. Corey Heim won the Truck race, his seventh victory of the season.
The #91 Regulator Racing Mercedes-AMG of Philip Ellis and Jeff Burton and the #34 JMF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Mikaël Grenier and Michai Stephens split the GT World Challenge America races from Road America. Mike David Ortmann won the only GT4 America in the #4 JMF Motorsports Aston Martin. Saturday's race was cancelled due to rain and will be made up at the next round at Barber Motorsports Park. Memo Gidley and Ross Chouest split the GT America races.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar has its penultimate round of the season from Milwaukee.
NASCAR closes out its regular season in Daytona.
MotoGP has its first visit to Balaton Park in Hungary.
IMSA will have a GT-only race at Virginia International Raceway.
The European Le Mans Series ventures to Spa-Francorchamps.
The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will be at the Sachsenring.
Super GT has a race at Suzuka.
