Explained: Viral online feud between IndyCar and college football team Oregon Ducks as series president reacts

The IndyCar world got into a virtual scuffle with the college football team, the Oregon Ducks, on Saturday. It began before the Ducks' home game at Autzen Stadium against the Indiana Hoosiers.

During the pre-game show, the Oregon Ducks mascot appeared in the background of the analysts and in front of the crowd of fans. It held up a poster with a dig at IndyCar's premier race, the Indy 500, because Indiana, against which the Ducks would play later in the night, is known for its deep-rooted motorsport culture and is also the hub of the premier American open-wheel racing series.

The poster drew an unflattering Indy 500 vs F1 comparison, and it read:

"Indy 500 is just a Walmart F1."

This caused a stir among IndyCar fans on social media, and while the respective fanbases battled it out, the poster also drew reactions from series president Doug Boles. He hit back at the Ducks mascot in the same format as its 'Walmart' insult. In an X post, he wrote:

"If I didn’t love all race fans, no matter what type of racing they preferred or where they were from, I would say something like "Oregon Football is just like a Walmart @bigten football team."

J. Douglas Boles

@jdouglas4

If I didn’t love all race fans, no matter what type of racing they preferred or where they were from, I would say something like “Oregon Football is just like a Walmart @bigten football team.”

Unfortunately for the Oregon Ducks, the Indiana Hoosiers had the last laugh with a 30-20 win that took them to the top of the Big Ten conference. It was Oregon's first loss of the 2025 season.

After the result, Juncos Hollinger Racing driver Conor Daly reacted to @Motorsport's post on X about the Ducks mascot's poster.

"Hey @oregonfootball how did this work out for you? 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡" Daly wrote.

Daly also got into a back-and-forth with an Oregon Ducks fan who took a dig at him for not winning a race or a championship in IndyCar.

"Technically we had the same amount of wins on this day today zero," Daly wrote, referencing the Ducks never having won a championship.

Conor Daly

@ConorDaly22

@LTSWPN Technically we had the same amount of wins on this day today 🤷‍♂️ zero.

This isn't the first time this year that IndyCar and the American football worlds have collided in 2025.

Indiana's IndyCar fans drowned Tom Brady's appearance at the 2025 Indy 500 with boos

Jimmie Johnson with Tom Brady at the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

IndyCar kicked off 2025 with ambitious crossovers with the NFL. The racing series' new broadcast partner, FOX, created ingenious promos focused on three drivers, namely Josef Newgarden, Alex Palou, and Pato O'Ward.

Each promo was shown during a particular NFL playoff game, and all three were broadcast again during the Super Bowl in February as part of FOX's marketing ploy. NFL legend Tom Brady had a cameo in Newgarden's promo, and in May, he attended the 109th Indy 500.

However, during the pre-race introductions, when Brady was called on stage, the crowd at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway booed him because the former New England Patriots quarterback dominated the Indianapolis Colts during his career, boasting a 16-4 record.

Brady was a special guest at the Indy 500. He got to grace the 'Fastest Seat in Sports', aka, be a ride-along in a special two-seater Indy car, which was driven by NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson. The seven-time Super Bowl winner took the crowd's boos in his stride and hilariously said that "a lot of the Indianapolis Colts fans would want to see me crash at some point here today."