IndyCar president shares Zak Brown and Andretti boss' ideas for major change in the series

The 2025 IndyCar season has done well in terms of fan turnout and TV viewership after the first seven rounds. Ahead of next week's race in Madison, Illinois, the sport's President, Doug Boles, has come up with a statement following an interaction with McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Andretti Global's Dan Towriss.

Doug Boles recently sat for an interview with BlackBook Motorsport, revealing the plans that IndyCar could work toward to make it quite strong on the commercial front.

In line with this, Boles stressed that Zak Brown and Dan Towriss want to see the sport push toward involving brands that are not traditional partners, so that interest from outside can also be brought in.

"One thing that can help us from a commercial standpoint – obviously the TV piece is really important – is having events on the schedule that are events, not just races. And then something I know [McLaren Racing chief executive] Zak Brown and Dan Towriss at Andretti Global [are interested in] is how we can find partners that aren’t just automotive partners or traditional racing partners. We need those brands that are activating outside of our space to get people interested," Boles said.

He further added:

"Towriss brought Chili’s along earlier this year, that’s a retail brand, that’s a customer brand. We need to find a way to add more brands like that in the sport."

The 2025 IndyCar season has 10 Grand Prix events remaining on the race calendar. Chip Ganassi Racing's Alex Palou is leading the championship and has an almost-unassailable lead of 90 points over second-placed Pato O'Ward.

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Dan Boles makes bold statement regarding viewership for the 2025 IndyCar season

Given its significance as one-third of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, IndyCar's Indianapolis 500 consistently attracts strong numbers in terms of viewership and on-track attendance. In 2025, this momentum saw a further increase as FOX's initial broadcast of the Indy 500 drew 7.05 million viewers on Sunday, May 25.

In line with this, Doug Boles was asked by BLACKBOOK Motorsport to comment on the sport struggling to garner viewership (lower in 2025 in comparison to 2022 and 2023, if one takes out the Indy 500) for races other than the Indianapolis Motor Speedway event.

As a response, Boles made a strong claim and asserted that the TV numbers will be up over the last several years at the end of the 2025 season.

"I think you’ll find at the end of the year that our TV numbers [will be] up over the last several years for sure. I feel really confident in that sense because Fox has done such a good job. I can’t wait for our Gateway race in St Louis in two weeks on Sunday night, primetime on network television [which has] never been done in the IndyCar Series," Boles said.

With the ongoing season being seven rounds down, there are only 10 Grand Prix events remaining this year. Round 8 is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 that will take place around the World Wide Technology Raceway.

The first seven races have produced some exhilarating on-track action, and if the trend continues until the end of the last race this year, then who knows, the sport might just be able to garner some unprecedented viewership numbers.

As much as the sport's popularity relies on the efforts of the broadcasters FOX Sports, it also depends on the kind of on-track action the drivers produce going forward.