IndyCar’s At Nashville Releases Attendance And TV Data For 2025 Finale

The American Flag arrives in front of the grandstands at Nashville Superspeedway before the August 31 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix IndyCar Series race.

INDYCAR Photo

According to data released by IndyCar and Penske Entertainment, the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season finale at Nashville Superspeedway posted “impressive attendance, viewership and engagement totals.”

The television ratings were certainly a dramatic improvement over 2024, but it appeared the on-site attendance in the grandstands was slightly less than last year.

It is important to point out that Nashville Superspeedway is a 45-minute drive from the heart of downtown Nashville, where the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix packed them into the grandstands for a street race from 2021 to 2023.

By contrast, Nashville Superspeedway is located in the rural community of Lebanon, Tennessee.

But it was the third-most viewed telecast of an IndyCar Series races in 2025.

According to Nielsen ratings, the FOX broadcast of the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot delivered an average audience of 1.14 million viewers, trailing only the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge and the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in viewership this season.

The viewership totals represented a 137 percent increase over last year’s event and made it the most-watched IndyCar race in Nashville since the inaugural Music City Grand Prix in 2021.

In the key demographic of 18-34 year olds, viewership was up 134 percent over the 2024 race. The results from the season finale contributed to IndyCar on FOX producing a 27 percent increase in average race viewership for the season, the highest per race average since 2008.

Locally, the race broadcast on FOX 17 in Nashville drew a 1.42 rating, which ranked second across all metered broadcast markets in the U.S., trailing only Indianapolis – the home of IndyCar.

Increased Social Media Engagement

In addition to the strong broadcast numbers, digital engagement for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot was also up across the IndyCar platforms.

There were more than 3,000 new downloads of the IndyCar app over race weekend, with 80,000 fans utilizing the app on race day. IndyCar social media accounts gained over 3,000 new followers with 3.82 million video views and over 564,000 engagements during race weekend.

The fan engagement wasn’t limited to the NTT IndyCar Series, as the season finale for INDY NXT by Firestone drew 128,000 viewers on FS1. The viewership lifted the season average for INDY NXT by Firestone to 110,000 viewers per race, growing more than five times over the 2024 season.

Social media channels for INDY NXT by Firestone accumulated over 613,000 video views and eclipsed 55,000 engagements for the season finale in Nashville, capping a 65 percent increase in engagements year-over-year for the series.

“It was an amazing weekend for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot at Nashville Superspeedway,” said Anne Fischgrund, President of the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot. “We want to thank all of the fans, along with our partners and all the competitors for making the 2025 IndyCar Championship Weekend so special.

“We look forward to building on all the positive momentum at the 2026 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix presented by WillScot.”

Perfect weather helped contribute to the weekend at the 1.33-mile concrete short oval.

IndyCar, Penske Entertainment And Scott Borchetta Important To The Event

IndyCar and Penske Entertainment – the promoters of the Music City Grand Prix – indicated approximately 40,000 people were in attendance over the course of the two-day, Labor Day weekend event.

In previous years, Scott Borchetta, the founder and CEO of Big Machine, was the race promoter of the IndyCar race at Nashville, first on the streets from 2021 to 2023 and at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tennessee in 2024.

This year, however, Penske Entertainment and IndyCar took over the promotion of the race and Borchetta became the race sponsor through the Borchetta Bourbon brand of Big Machine.

Borchetta liked what he saw on the track but wants to see more fans in the stands at Nashville Superspeedway.

“Last year was definitely better than this year,” Borchetta told me after the event concluded. “There are things we’ve got to invest.

“As promoters, they’ve got to pick up and throw down. There’s no shortcut to this. You’ve got to attack all media, and that will be our intent for next year.”

Having Borchetta on IndyCar’s side is vitally important for the potential future success of the Nashville race because he is well connected in the Nashville market.

“We know the way home,” Borchetta said.

Borchetta Happy With The On-Track Action

The sponsor of the race was very happy with the storylines from the weekend and the action on the track.

“It was a great race,” Borchetta said. “You look at all the on-track passes again today and super competitive. Some great passes on the outside. I saw Josef Newgarden all weekend and we all know how badly he wanted to win this race and keep his streak alive (of winning an IndyCar race each season for the past 10 years). He drove really a perfect race.

“I think that’s what’s great about IndyCar. There are a lot of these guys could win on any given weekend. You see Christian Rasmussen winning at Milwaukee, a total dark horse pick, and then a favorite wins today at Nashville. There are so many guys who are great in this series that can win on any given weekend, and I think that’s a mega strength for IndyCar.”

Championship Celebration Weekend

Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was officially crowned as the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series champion – his third consecutive series title and fourth in five years – following the race and rookie Dennis Hauger of Andretti Global was honored as the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone series champion after the final INDY NXT race of the season.

Though both series championships were clinched entering the race weekend, there was still plenty of drama and excitement on track throughout the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix. Nashville’s own Josef Newgarden captured his first win of the season for Team Penske in the season finale that produced 20 lead changes among 12 different drivers.

The race featured 284 passes for position, including 130 in the top 10 and 74 in the top five – all series records for Nashville Superspeedway.

The INDY NXT by Firestone race saw Myles Rowe of ABEL Motorsports with Force Indy earn his second victory of the season, working his way up from ninth place – the deepest starting position for a winner in an INDYCAR development series since 2017.