IndyCar viewership at WWTR soars 88% as FOX continues record run

FOX has shared the viewership data for IndyCar's 2025 Automotive Group 500. The prime-time race at the World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday night (June 15) became the third race this season to cross the 1 million viewership mark.

Per FOX, the race averaged 1.012 million viewers, which is a mammoth 88% year-on-year increase. The 2024 Bommarito Automotive Group 500 had 537,000 viewers, which took place on a Saturday in mid-August.

The viewership for the 2025 edition, won by Kyle Kirkwood, peaked at 1.066 million between 8:30 and 8:45 pm ET. This development comes as continued success for IndyCar after the Detroit GP averaged 1.061 million viewers.

Despite the positive viewership upsurge, the numbers paint an odd paradox. The WWTR event was IndyCar's first Sunday night prime-time race on FOX, yet it failed to reach the high that the afternoon race at Detroit managed two weeks back, peaking at 1.201 million.

One explanation for this could be that the Detroit GP benefited from being scheduled on the very next weekend after the Indy 500. The 109th running of the Indy 500 had an average viewership of 7.05 million and peaked at 8.4 million.

After eight races this season, FOX has facilitated a viewership increase of 27% compared to the same time last year, when NBC was IndyCar's broadcasting partner - 2.007 million (2025) versus 1.577 million (2024)

What race winner Kyle Kirkwood expected from IndyCar's prime-time race at WWTR

Kyle Kirkwood gives an interview after winning the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 - Source: Getty

Kyle Kirkwood won the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 to take his first oval win in IndyCar. It also marked his third victory of the season, which helped him close the championship points gap to leader Alex Palou from 102 to 75.

The race at the 1.25-mile WWT Raceway was chaotic and unpredictable. There were 20 lead changes among 14 drivers, with 607 total passes, and 263 of those for position. Moreover, Team Penske, the favorite to win, saw all three of its drivers DNF after separate incidents.

In the post-race press conference, Kirkwood, who fended off Pato O'Ward to emerge victorious, was asked about his thoughts on IndyCar's prime-time showing on FOX with a race where the winner wasn't decided until the end.

"I mean, hopefully it paid off, right?" he replied (via ASAP Sports). "It was great to race on primetime, not only because we're getting a huge viewership and we're opening up to a new audience of some people, but when you race at night... every oval race should be at night, apart from the 500.

"The racing is so much better. Everything gets so much faster. The ambient temperature is down. The track surface temperature is down. When things get hot with these cars, they just don't race as well. That's why you see races like this. Things get fast, and next thing you know, people are flat-out passing each other, and it makes for a very exciting show," the Andretti Global driver added.

IndyCar next heads to Wisconsin this upcoming weekend for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America from June 20 to 22. The 2024 edition of the race averaged 863,000 viewers on NBC.