Fox Sports Bets Big On Indy 500 Debut With Tech And Celebrities

When the green flag drops May 25 to start the 109th Indianapolis 500, 33 cars and drivers will race toward a spot in history, but Fox Sports may be the day’s biggest winner in a broadcast debut featuring more than 100 cameras, two drone teams, and an all-star crew.

Fox Sports, which this year assumed the IndyCar league’s broadcast mantle from NBC Universal in a $25 million annual deal, is seeking to reinvent how America sees the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. It is offering 60 hours of race coverage featuring drivers’ eye cams, 4K HDR production and celebrity broadcasters from across the network’s sports portfolio.

“There’s nothing more historic than the Brickyard, where you’re literally racing on the bricks of where they raced 100 years ago,” Michael Davies, Fox’s executive vice president of field and technical management and operations, said. “There are not too many opportunities in your career where you get to be a part of a startup on an iconic event like the Indianapolis 500. The whole company is really energized by this.”

Acquiring Indy

Fox Sports acquired the IndyCar broadcast rights in June 2024, giving the network two of the world’s biggest auto races: the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Daytona 500. NBC Universal held the IndyCar rights since 2009, and took over the Indianapolis 500 coverage in 2019 from longtime host ABC.

Under CEO Eric Shanks, Fox Sports has enhanced IndyCar coverage elements, and those changes have helped the series see increased viewership levels not seen since 2011.

The 2025 Indianapolis 500 will be the first broadcasted in 4k using high-level video production that creates a more immersive experience. Six yet-to-be-identified racers will offer viewers a first-person race experience through a tiny helmet camera showing what the driver sees.

The broadcast will also feature a heads-up display offering real-time data from the car cockpit, as seen on Formula One broadcasts.

“You take the cockpit view and mold the graphic on there, so it looks like a virtual dashboard,” Davies said. “You’re looking at it like a video game. You can see the speed and the RPMs, where they are on the track, the push to pass.”

Coverage will be further augmented by a pair of drone teams, including one that can chase the cars at nearly 90 mph and has been popular in NASCAR broadcasts.

“We want to show people how exciting it is to go to a race, how exciting it is to be a driver,” Davies said. “Everything we do serves the purpose of showing just how fast these cars go.

“If you’ve been to a race and you watch that on TV, there’s a big divide between what that looks like and what it feels like. We want to bridge that.”

60 Hours of Content

Among the promises Fox Sports made in its acquisition of IndyCar is to put most coverage on its flagship network, including qualifying, a two-hour pre-race show and post-race winner’s circle festivities. NBC Universal, by contrast, split the coverage between its network affiliates and its subscription streaming service Peacock.

The 60 hours of content may not be enough to contain the star power, with a lineup that includes former drivers Tony Stewart and Danica Patrick, alongside Fox Sports veterans Chris Myers and Erin Andrews. Football legend Tom Brady will do a lap around the track with NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in the “Fastest Seat in Sports” ride, while Michael Strahan will drive the pace car and Rob Gronkowski will serve as grand marshal of the infield Snake Pit.

On the call, the race team includes six former drivers with 50 Indianapolis 500 starts among them, including 2016 pole sitter James Hinchcliffe, who will share the broadcast booth with new play-by-play announcer Will Buxton.

Buxton, who signed a three-year deal this year to be the voice of the IndyCar Series, rose to prominence through his decade of Formula One coverage and as a prominent voice on the Netflix hit “Drive to Survive.” He sees the Fox-IndyCar partnership as a chance to tap into a growing global appetite for open-wheel racing.

Buxton said IndyCar is uniquely positioned as a driver’s competition—where talent matters more than engineering advantages—and racers like surprise pole-sitter Robert Shwartzman, defending Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden and current points leader Alex Palou are not guaranteed a podium.

“Everyone has a chance to win every weekend,” he said.

Those driver storylines will be a key part of Fox Sports’s coverage, thanks to feature storytelling led by award-winning reporter Tom Rinaldi, attending his first Indianapolis 500.

“We are finding the balance between honoring and showcasing the history of this amazing event while getting people as close as we can to the present tense race for the competition and victory that will launch somebody into that history,” Rinaldi said. “If we strike that balance, that is success.”

Fox Sports’ Indianapolis 500 debut coverage begins at 10 a.m. ET, and the green flag drops at 12:45 p.m.