Here is a rundown of what got me thinking...
NASCAR proved there are race fans in Iowa. Formula One has started its summer break. The championship gap is nine points. Somebody owes Liam Lawson an apology. Jak Crawford could be chatting with Cadillac. The Formula Three championship has been claimed with a round to spare. Super GT experimented with a new sprint race format. World Superbike released its 2026 schedule, and it practically identical to 2025 with a few races shifting around. There was some news in Speedway, Indiana, and there have been some changes.
Meet the New Boss
The unexpected news of the week came on Thursday when it was announced Fox Corporation acquired one-third of Penske Entertainment for around $130 million. The broadcast outlet has a stake in the company that owns the NTT IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and it has already been announced that Fox has extended its broadcasting partnership with the series beyond its initial three-year contract.
Within IndyCar circles, this news was met with praise, and there are reasons to be encouraged with this announcement, but we should remember where we were nearly six years ago.
I was going to write after the season that IndyCar must realize when it comes to growth, much of it requires the series doing more. Switching television broadcasters and having every race on network television isn't enough to increase interest in the series. The races are available, but people still do not know what IndyCar is or have a reason to watch. It is there, but why should a person care enough to tune in? If the series wants the viewers, it needs to do the work. It needs to lead its own charge. A television broadcaster will only do so much, basically up to the bare minimum of a contract. The work must be done when races are not taking place on weekday afternoons with videos posted online and docuseries that make the series streamable when there are no races going on.
With Fox purchasing part of IndyCar, there is now a broadcast partner involved in that process, and whatever was lacking at IndyCar, whether that be resources or the creative mind to lead the company charge in internal promotion, should be addressed.
The same way Formula One has Liberty Media leading the promotional side of the series, IndyCar will have Fox as its outlet to spread the word. There are limitations to this deal.
In the press release, there were three initiatives targeted with this investment:
Innovation and industry-leading racing and entertainment events.
A hyper-engaged digital strategy and immersive content focus.
Enhanced promotion and star-building and opportunities for NTT IndyCar Series drivers.
I see this as a deal Fox making for the property of IndyCar. It sees IndyCar as one of its shows, a part of its portfolio. It is something that can fill the spring and summer between its baseball and soccer coverage and before football begins in autumn. Fox sees it can get more out of this property with its increased involvement. We will find out what that means with increased digital promotion and auxiliary programming over the next few months, but let's pump the brakes on this meaning we are shooting straight up to the moon. Fox also owns part of the United Football League, and how many of those players can you name and how many of those games did you bother to watch?
Remember when Roger Penske bought the IndyCar Series nearly six years ago? Most people believed that was IndyCar's launchpad to something greater. And here we are with the series looking not much different than it did at the end of 2019.
Fox will likely not be involved in the technical side of the sport, the same way Liberty Media isn't involved with the technical side of Formula One, leaving that as the FIA's domain. Fox's involvement alone isn't going attract additional engine manufacturers. It isn't going to drive the change for regulations. Fox will likely leave that to the existing IndyCar body. It is only purchasing a third of the company. There will still be much that remains out of its control. If Fox can increase viewership of the series and make IndyCar an enticing place for a manufacturer to start competing, then it will have accomplished part of its job, but any new make on the grid will come down to the regulations the series set and the sales pitch the series makes.
I also don't know how much Fox will get involved in promoting events within a market. I don't know if Fox changes anything about what we saw at Iowa last month and in the months leading up to the event. Digital promotion will be one thing, but will that be connecting with local markets and bringing out people when IndyCar comes to town?
IndyCar does promote more of its own schedule than at any point previously in series history. The events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway take care of themselves. Long Beach is now under IndyCar's control, and that has a great foundation. Then there are Detroit, Iowa, Milwaukee and Nashville. There are seven race weekends on the calendar that IndyCar is on the hook for when it comes to promotion. Detroit has done well for over a decade on Belle Isle and downtown. Milwaukee was a surprise last year, but it must maintain that level and even take a step forward. Nashville was ok last year after the late change from a downtown street course to the 1.333-mile Nashville Superspeedway about 45 minutes outside the city, but there will be much learn from this year's race. Then there was Iowa, which was deflating.
Fox has the know-how for promoting an event on television, the internet and so on, but is it going to get involved with local promotions, billboards, radio advertisements, etc.? That is another area that could fall under the existing IndyCar body, and we have already seen the series have its struggle getting the word out.
We already know television plays a key role in the schedule as IndyCar takes what network television slots are available. Can this new partnership adjust the schedule to eliminate the lengthy gap at the start of the season? There is a limit on what Fox can do. IndyCar already has enough issues expanding its schedule. Maybe it can allow for another race weekend to materialize, but I don't think it will be as easy as a snap of the fingers.
The running joke in the last few years is IndyCar is 18 months away. IndyCar has been 18 months away from that next big thing for the last seven or eight years. With this Fox transaction, IndyCar is about 18 months away. I don't know how much can change for 2026. If IndyCar was already looking at a three or four-week gap early in next year's schedule, I am not sure it can jam an event now that Fox has an equity stake in the series. Next year will probably look similar to how the last few seasons have looked, but what we will notice are the slight changes in presentation and promotion with hopes of 2027 being an evolution.
If we have learned anything from the last transaction involving IndyCar ownership, it is to temper expectations. Whatever your wild fantasy is for the series, that will not happen. In three years, IndyCar will not see Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai and Maserati all on the grid as engine manufacturers with every race averaging around 125,000 spectators on race day with every race outside the Indianapolis 500 drawing about two million viewers on television. That isn't happening.
We are going to see baby steps at best. It will not be seismic changes. Keeping a level head will prevent future disappointment.
Champion From the Weekend
Rafael Câmara clinched the Formula Three championship with finishes of eighth and first at the Hungaroring. Tasanapol Inthraprhuvasak won the sprint race.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about the Formula Three results, but did you know...
Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix, his fifth victory of the season.
Pepe Martí (sprint) and Leonardo Fornaroli (feature) split the Formula Two races from Budapest.
William Byron won the NASCAR Cup race from Iowa, his second victory of the season. Sam Mayer won the Grand National Series race.
The #24 BMW Team RLL BMW of Philipp Eng and Dries Vanthoor won the IMSA race from Road America. The #99 AO Racing Oreca of Dane Cameron and P.J. Hyett won in LMP2. The #1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Madison Snow and Neil Verhagen won in GTD Pro. The #021 Triarsi Racing Ferrari of Kenton Koch and Onforio Triarsi won in GTD.
Kalle Rovanperä won Rally Finland, his second victory of the season.
Sho Tsuboi and Nirei Fukuzumi split the Super GT races from Fuji. Charlie Fagg and Tomonobu Fujii split the GT300 races.
The #63 GRT - Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini of Luca Engstler and Jordan Pepper and the #59 Garage 59 McLaren of Benjamin Goethe and Marvin Kirchhöfer split the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint races from Magny-Cours.
Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar could be handing out the Astor Cup in Portland.
NASCAR is at Watkins Glen for its antepenultimate regular season race.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters will be at the Nürburgring.
Supercars has a round at Queensland Raceway.
Super Formula will be at Sportsland SUGO.
The 64th Knoxville Nationals.
