Five start times have been adjusted for the upcoming rounds at Gateway Motorsports Park, Road America, Mid-Ohio, the second Iowa race and Toronto. Gateway is the most notable one as the race has moved from a 3:00 p.m. ET start on Sunday June 15 to a 8:00 p.m. start that same night, the first Sunday primetime race shown on network television in IndyCar history. Road America has moved from 3:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., Mid-Ohio and Iowa each move from 2:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m., and Toronto has moved from 2:00 p.m. to noon.
According to IndyCar's press released these changes were made to "capitalize on opportunities to further build an audience for North America's premier open-wheel series."
Translation: These races are moving to avoid conflicts with NASCAR races among other things.
Credit must be given to Fox for accommodating these changes. It is not easy to shift around the pieces of the television programming jigsaw puzzle. However, let's acknowledge these changes are desperate changes. No series shifts start times this significantly if things are going well. And before you say they shift start times for NFL games, there is a difference between a week 16 game moving from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. because the two teams are tied for the division lead and this game has national interest for its playoff implications and moving a race a month out when television viewership has been disappointing at best.
These are desperate changes, but good changes nonetheless. IndyCar needed something to be done, and after its television rating struggles over the first quarter of the season, an adjustment had to be made.
It isn't going to flip the script. Ratings are not going to shoot through the roof just on these changes. IndyCar must recognize its struggles to generate consistent viewership are on the series' inability to reach an audience of existing motorsports fans and an inability to convey an intriguing story for the causal viewer to tune in. Shifting these start times helps draw some eyes who are otherwise occupied at the previously scheduled times. It does not solve the greater issues.
It must also be recognized that this all could have been avoided from the start. When IndyCar announced its new television deal with Fox on June 14, 2024, it released the 2025 schedule as well, and it was said the schedule was constructed with Fox to make sure all the races ended up on network television. Many of these conflicts were not surprises. The 2025 NASCAR schedule did not come out until August, but we would have known the start times for many of those races even if they were not immediately released.
NASCAR's first race in Mexico City was going to be a mid-afternoon race. The same is true for the Chicago race and Sonoma. It might not have been written in stone, but anyone in-the-know would be aware that there would be a NASCAR race happening around 3:00 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. on those days, and it would be best to make sure your festivities are wrapped up before then.
IndyCar's released its start times for the 2025 schedule on December 18, 2024. It was still early, but late enough to know what times to avoid.
Most of these adjustments should help the at-track experience as well as the television number. Since returning to the schedule a decade ago, Road America has been around a noon start time local. The original 2:30 p.m. start seemed like a significant jump at a track where the circuits bigwigs have said it knows an earlier start is better for those who are traveling back to the Chicago-area post-race.
An hour adjustment is hardly a change at all. Most people attending a race are there well over an hour before the race begins. Mid-Ohio and Iowa should not see many issues with that adjustment. Toronto should also be fine at noon even if it is two hours earlier.
The concern is Gateway. Primetime races on network have been non-existent for IndyCar, and rightful so as viewership has never warranted the real estate. Outside of the 2013 Texas race on ABC and the 2020 Texas race on NBC, I cannot recall any other primetime network races, and those were both held on Saturday nights. A Sunday night in June is one of the least desirable television time. People are home and watching television as there is work the next day, but many people aren't flocking to the television in the summer time. In some areas, Gateway will be starting well before sunset. People will still be out and about.
It is a good window to have, and it shows Fox believes it is worth giving IndyCar such a valuable spot even though general television viewership is down that time of the year.
Gateway's issue is the track itself. Again, it is one thing to change a football game from an afternoon to primetime start. A motorsports event is a different, and more complicated animal. For starters, most people attending an NFL game are likely from within an hour driving distance of the stadium. Even the people that travelled in for the game are likely staying Sunday night. If you flew to a city for an NFL game, even a 1:00 p.m. game, you are staying in that city on Sunday night. Very few people are going from the game straight to the airport.
Motorsports, and IndyCar in particular, is not like that. Almost every race is a day trip. It is a fanbase that looks to minimize cost. When it comes to IndyCar, a great number of people are driving across the Midwest to attend a race. If it is a three-hour drive one-way to the circuit, they will do it. They will leave at 9:00 a.m., arrive at noon for a 2:00 p.m. race and then leave the track at 5:30 p.m. to be back by 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. It is a full day.
We cannot immediately solve IndyCar's problems of finding a way to attract a healthy local audience in the markets for its races and not rely on the Deadhead-esque commitment from a portion of the fanbase, but at the moment that portion is too great to ignore. Shifting a race from the mid-afternoon to primetime, especially on a Sunday, is a costly move.
If Gateway was scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Sunday from the start, people would have managed. Some would have said no because they cannot get Monday off from work. A good number would adjust and get a hotel for Sunday night. Changing that start time a month prior to the race is at a detriment to the small congregation that IndyCar can attract on a regular basis. That is a significant change to a weekend plan.
Those who had the day trip plan now have to consider getting a hotel or taking off from work on Monday. Those who had hotels on Saturday night might have to add another night. It is not cheaper to get a hotel closer to an event. It isn't just an extra cost but an extra cost at a higher price than if the spectators had four or five months notice on this start time.
It will help with television, but IndyCar and the racetracks that host the series are more dependent on gate revenue than NASCAR. For the optics alone, IndyCar cannot afford to race in front of empty grandstands. This late change does risk making Gateway look worse than it would have been. Hopefully, enough people can make the adjustment and still attending while also attracting a fair number who could not have made an afternoon race but can make a night race.
These adjustments should help television, and it is nice to see IndyCar and Fox could work on eliminating some of the overlap with NASCAR races. However, this cannot be a yearly thing. It is bad enough it had to be done once. There is enough wherewithal in the management offices for both the series and the broadcast partner to know what conflicts should be avoided and how that can be accommodated. Some clashes are inevitable. You cannot schedule every race according to another series, but there are a fair number of conflicts that could have been avoided from the start.
Let's hope that is the lesson learned early for next year.
