IndyCar CEO celebrates 2 "important milestones" as game-changing 2025 season ends

IndyCar CEO Mark Miles highlighted the two important milestones or pillars that aided the racing series' unprecedented growth in 2025. The premier American open-wheel racing series saw two major organizational changes before the 2025 season began.

The first one was FOX coming on board as the new broadcast partner, replacing NBC. FOX promised it would increase the series' viewership by 30% in one year. Though it fell slightly short with a final YoY increase of 27%, FOX recorded many milestones in its rookie season, including significant growth in the younger demographic and among women.

The second big change came a month out from the season-opening race. Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles was made president of IndyCar, and managed this dual role to the best of his ability. The 59-year-old also went through sleepless nights, especially after the 109th Indy 500 qualifying, where his boss and series owner Roger Penske's team was caught in a controversy after two Team Penske cars didn't pass technical inspections.

Lauren Kanaan with Doug Boles at the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500 - Source: Getty

Mark Miles gave a special shoutout to FOX and Doug Boles for their generational impact on IndyCar this year at the recent awards ceremony.

"I think I could probably without having asked him, to speak for Roger Penske and myself about two really important milestones that frankly aren't usually what we talk about. It's about two big organizational changes we've made. The first is Doug Boles. So Doug moving into the leadership of both ... (audience applauds)... IMS and IndyCar has been a blessing for all of us who care about the sport. Can't thank you enough Doug, for your great leadership and hard work," Miles said. [55:54 onwards]

He then spoke about IndyCar's new broadcast partner, FOX, adding:

"The second is FOX. The deal with FOX exceeded our expectations. They told us they were going to overperform, and they have in every way. The numbers are incredible. Everybody probably has heard by now, up 27% year over year for an average audience. That's the biggest annual increase of any sport, any sport that has a million average audience or more. So in rare air, we really excelled, and that's in no small part because of FOX," Miles added.

Mark Miles reveals FOX's contribution to 2026 IndyCar schedule

IndyCar recently released its schedule for the 2026 season, with a few surprises and some major changes. The series added a race in Phoenix on the same weekend as the NASCAR race there to add some spice to the racing calendar.

Iowa exited the calendar after an underwhelming audience turnout during the 2025 double-header. Instead, Milwaukee got a bigger role with a double-header in 2026. Another big change was Nashville being moved up from serving as the season finale to a new slot on July 19, the same day as the FIFA World Cup finale, which FOX would broadcast. The series expects a generous lead-in from the soccer game.

During the awards ceremony, Mark Miles also highlighted FOX's contribution to the 2026 calendar, saying:

"We worked very hard with them for the new schedule that came out. You'll see fewer conflicts, great windows. I love the idea that we're going to have under the lights an oval in Nashville immediately following the world cup broadcast with 20 million people watching it, so great tune-in opportunity. It's attention to detail and creativity and real commitment to IndyCar."

In July, FOX bought a 33% stake in Roger Penske's company, Penske Entertainment, which owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, to display its commitment to growing the racing series hereon.